Restless Nights…

I wake up two or three times a night.  I haven’t slept through an entire night for years.  I don’t have a problem falling asleep; I just can’t stay asleep for more than a four hour time period.  These restless nights cause painfully tired mornings…

Does anyone have any advice on how I can stay asleep?

-Aussie Wombat,

-p.s. I refuse to take medication!

Meditation is an excellent way to fall asleep whether it be in the middle of the night or right at the onset a night's sleep.  I think for me that if I meditate before I go to sleep, I have a tendency to have less occurences of waking during the night.  Meditation at bedtime gives the body and mind time to wind down after a long day.  If you are unfamiliar with meditation you can start by doing simple exercises with your breathing.  For example, on you in-breath breathe in whatever it is that you are trying to achieve for your highest good whether it be love, peace, joy, relaxation or whatever.  On your out-breath, you can start by breathing out whatever you are trying to rid your body and psyche of, stress, illness, axiety, etc.  A nice way to end this is once you feel that you have taken in enough breathes to rid yourself of the unwanteds, on your next few breaths, breathe in what you want and then breath out the same thing for all others to enjoy.  For example, breath in "love," breath out "love."  I hope this helps.  Meditation has helped me after having suffered through multiple years of sleep dysfunction.  I have other meditation ideas if you wish.  Just let me know if I can help you anymore.  This was just something simple to get you started!! Hope it works.

Try setting aside 30 minutes a day to excercise.