When you are under stress, your brain is on a Formula One racetrack.  Being in chronic pain is one of the most miserable experiences of the human existence. There is hardly any strategy that will slow down your racing thoughts during the day, and it becomes much worse at night without any distractions. Aside from a diagnosable sleep disorder, insomnia is usually caused by anxiety-producing, racing thoughts.

As you more effectively process stress, your sleep will improve. As a lack of sleep is itself is a major stress, getting the ball rolling is a little tricky.  Getting to sleep with meds is the starting point. As a next step, I would suggest that you do the writing exercises outlined throughout this website at bedtime. Many sleep specialists are encouraging these types of cognitive behavioral exercises at bedtime as a sleep strategy. It’s remarkable how quickly writing can slow down these whirlpools of obsessive negative thoughts.

Additionally, it is very helpful to keep a notepad by the side of your bed.  When you wake up at night, it is often effective to engage in the writing exercises at that time.  You may initially be doing this three or four times per night.  The alternative of just laying there and hoping you will fall back asleep seldom works.  You are accomplishing two tasks here–sleeping and working on calming down your nervous system with a reprogramming tool.

BF