Dear LPG, 

I am one of those people who, in my opinion spends far too much time trying to get to sleep each night.  When I was one of the world’s workers, I never needed to worry about going to sleep, my head would make contact with the pillow and I would be off for the night, but now that there is no urgency because, most days, there is no appointment I have to get up for, it seems that I have more and more trouble actually going off to sleep.

 I think that many of us older people gradually swap hard work and overtiredness for having more time on our hands than we need during our days, and pain usually becomes another variable that affects our ability to get a good night’s sleep as we get a bit older.

It was a gradual thing and I can’t exactly remember when getting to sleep became so much of a problem, but I am sure that I am not the only pensioner to try the many sleep inducing products on the market.  I have tried what the pharmacist has to offer and I have also been prescribed various medications by the GPs but nothing is really working that well.  

I have always thought meditation a bit pretentious I suppose but, while I don’t spend my days feeling that tired or nodding off all the time, I am not a fan of doing things in the dark and not even the relatively uninteresting inspiration that early morning TV or reading holds for me, help when it comes to boring myself back to sleep. 

I recently came across the notion that meditating yourself to sleep might be a way forward.  I have found a meditation designed to help you ease your aches and pains which might make a difference and there is also a train of thought that suggests that one can use meditation as a way to get to sleep.

I have not tried either yet but I suspect that there are other LPG readers who might not have thought of this as a way forwards, so I am leaving the links that I have found in case anyone is interested although nothing works for everyone. 

WD, Southwark

WD offers what she has found…

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… and a few beginner introductions to meditation… 

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