Can’t sleep?

I learned this trick from my first “grown-up job” boss and she said she read it in a psychology textbook. It doesn’t work for everybody, but when it does work for people I usually get a phone call a couple days later along the lines of “OH MY GOD that is the best trick for falling asleep EVER!” because this trick is so awesome.

This trick works when your body is tired but your mind is racing and you can’t turn it off. It also works when you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep.

Here’s what you do:

• First, get comfortable and close your eyes
• In your mind, slowly draw a square
• In that square, slowly draw a circle
• In that circle, slowly draw the number 50
• Erase the whole drawing and start again: draw a square, draw a circle, and then draw 49
• Continue counting down (erasing the image, drawing again and counting down) until you fall asleep!

MOST people (including me) never get passed 40 – well, I did once but I just started over at 50 and I didn’t get far after that! I understand that it works because the drawing and the counting focus both halfs of the brain. But I’m not really sure why it works, I just know that it does.

I think it’s important to actually draw the shapes… very slowly draw the square, then the circle and then 5-0.

I’ll try my best to answer any questions you might have. Please let me know if it works for you!