Imagine this:
It’s 2:00 in the morning. Your mind is racing and you can’t get it to stop. You have to be up in 4 hours. You do everything you can think of to turn off the noise in your head, without success.
No matter what you do, your mind won’t stop and your body won’t sleep.
Tomorrow is going to suck.
Bob and Max and the Electric Tingly Buzz
I imagine that my body and my mind are two departments of the same company. The manager of the Body Department is a guy named Bob. The Mind Department is headed by a guy named Max.
Bob and Max always work the same shift. Sometimes they work on the same project, sometimes they work on different projects. Bob refuses to clock out till Max is ready to leave. Max won’t clock out till Bob is done for the day.
They always clock out at the same time and they always go out for drinks together afterwards.
That’s normal sleep.
Sometimes though, Bob has more work to do than Max. Max won’t leave work without Bob. So, he stays at his desk and plays solitaire.
When that happens, you find yourself binge watching Tiny British Baking Detectives of Oxford till dawn. That’s Max winning his 7000th consecutive Freecell match.
Other times, Max has more work than Bob. So Bob hangs out in the breakroom, smoking cigarettes and munching Twinkies. He checks his wristwatch every 10 minutes, wondering when Max is gonna be done for the day.
When that happens, you toss and turn all night long. Crazy thoughts swoop around your mind like dogs chasing a mechanical rabbit. That’s Bob, puffing on his mental Marlboros and watching the clock.
So how do we get Bob and Max to clock out together?
One night, I noticed something strange as I drifted off to sleep: I felt my body tingle all over. It was a sort of electric tingly buzz.
Let me explain.
You know how it feels when your arm falls asleep? It’s like the limb is dead. No sensation whatsover. Then, as feeling returns, excruciating pain, like it’s on fire.
Well, between those two extremes is that electric tingly buzz I noticed. It’s electric tingles, but without any pain. And it’s numbness but with a little feeling.
An electric tingly buzz.
Anyway, a few night later, when my mind was racing and sleep wouldn’t come, I vividly imagined my body filled with that electric tingly buzz.
Sure enough, I soon drifted off to sleep. I tried it again another night, and again it worked.
More often than not when sleep eluded me, this little mental exercise did the trick.
So, the next time sleep won’t come, try this:
Imagine that your entire body is numb, like the whole thing has lost sensation. Remember that firey pain on the opposite side of the numbness. Then imagine the electric tingly buzz that’s between those two extreme.
Feel that buzz radiate throughout your body. From your solar plexus to your extremities. From your toes to your knees to your trunk to your fingers to the top of your head.
Feel that electric tingly buzz in every cell.
Max, the Manager of Mind Department, will probably want to go back to his Solitaire game. Don’t let him. Focus on the sensation instead.
See if it doesn’t put you to sleep. Let me know how it works for you.