PMR Sleep issues can occur any day, any time of the year, and at everyone‘s bed. Maybe you fell asleep beautifully, but now after a nightmare, you cannot find calm moments to fall back to sleep. Maybe you experienced a tough day and still think about the day in bed, being unable to cut off thoughts and to simply unwind. Here it is important to know that this is life, it‘s normal, it can happen, but even more important is to know how to deal with insomnia. There are many practices that can help us finding back to sleep, just like PMR— Progressive muscle relaxation. It is here to help control stress and anxiety and with this relieving insomnia and sleepless nights. This practice will focus on tensing or tightening muscle groups to be followed by a relaxation phase where the tensed areas are released again. When the body is feeling relaxed, mental calmness will follow up which leads to falling asleep. Let‘s get to this practice. We will move from muscle group to muscle group, ideally starting at your head, moving down to your feet. 1. Inhale, contract the first muscle group—it is always great to start with raising the eyebrows, followed up by loosing tension in your cheeks and jaw through simply smiling—for 5 to 10 seconds, then exhale and release the tension in this area 2. Give yourself 10 to 20 seconds to relax. 3. Move on to the next muscle group, contract it for 5 to 10 seconds with a big inhale, and exhale, releasing the tension. 4. Give yourself another 10 to 20 seconds to relax again. 5. As already mentioned, work yourself through your body, creating tension in different areas—from your eyebrows to your cheeks, shoulders to triceps, stomach to hips, until you have reached your feet. 6. Always switch from creating tension, to let go and relax. As soon as you feel sleepy, you are allowed to stop the practice and let your body finally rest. Tensioning so many areas, you might be already relaxed enough when reaching your shoulders or such, so don‘t pressure yourself to go through your whole body. 7. Also it is a great tip to start always with your head, because many sleepless nights come from tension in your jaw, head, or neck—so once this area is worked through, your body might already feel much better! Feel better and happy sleeping!
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