Saying thank you for a good night’s sleep
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According to researchers in a 2009 study conducted at the School of Psychology in Manchester, England, daytime personality traits such as neuroticism, anxiety, anger, and stress, negatively impact one’s quality of sleep. Conversely, positive personality traits, like expression of gratitude, can improve the quality of sleep.
People who fall asleep focusing on gratitude, the study says, sleep better and longer, and have a more positive outlook in the morning.
What do you have to lose? Go to sleep thankful.
Ten Wonderful Things
In my book Mindful Moments for Stressful Days I suggest a simple gratitude practice that I call “Ten Wonderful Things.” I invite you to try this, or any other gratitude practice each night:
- As you fall asleep think of Ten Wonderful Things about the day that just passed.
- Be sure to look for small wonderful details, in addition to the big ticket items. In other words, you can feel just as grateful for the sight of a hummingbird hovering above the bird feeder outside your window as you can about getting a promotion at work.
- As you think of each Wonderful Thing, re-experience it in your imagination, calling to mind all of the sensory details of the experience (taste, smell, sounds, texture, visual details, etc.)
- Hold each experience in your mind for a minute or more, as you focus on gentle, relaxed breathing.
- Feel your heart fill with gratitude as you recall each of these wonderful moments.
- Note in your Dream Journal how you feel in the morning after going to sleep grateful.
From now on, rather than counting sheep, use this practice to count your blessings as you drift into sleep.
© 2012 Tzivia Gover
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Citation:
Gratitude influences sleep through the mechanism of pre-sleep cognitions. Wood AM, Joseph S, Lloyd J, Atkins S. School of Psychology, University of Manchester, Manchester, England, UK. 2009. alex.wood@manchester.ac.uk; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19073292
Related articles
- How Gratitude Helps You Sleep at Night (psychologytoday.com)
- Trouble Sleeping? Try Gratitude! (crossroadscoachingonline.com)
