BABY DOESN’T SLEEP

This article is part of the series “Love Yourself.”

Recently, there have been two occasions when I was deeply asleep, but around 1:00 – 1:30 AM, I had to wake up because of a very uncomfortable feeling in the middle of my chest, as if there was an invisible weight pressing down on me. No matter what position I tried, the heaviness remained, and my chest couldn’t relax enough to sleep comfortably. Even though my mind was still in the middle of sleep and I was extremely tired, I just wanted to continue sleeping, yet feeling irritated as if my peaceful sleep was being disturbed.

Anyone who has gone through tough psychological periods will understand that, normally, during the day, you are busy with many things, and the busyness temporarily makes you forget how your body and emotions are feeling. But when you lie down on your bed, in the quiet surroundings, these blocked feelings suddenly surface, making it very hard to sleep. Often, you end up browsing the web or something else until you’re too tired to keep your eyes open and finally fall asleep. Some people can sleep, but then they experience nightmares, especially the kind where they have to run away, are being chased, or feel helpless… when the climax hits, they wake up with their eyes wide open and can’t fall back asleep until morning. ^^ This condition, if prolonged, can severely affect your mental and physical health… men will feel frustrated, and women might lose their beauty… even a lot of money won’t help much in such cases. ^^

From my perspective, the quietness of the night is the perfect moment for what is inside us to speak up because, during the day, these feelings have been screaming for attention, but we’ve been too busy to listen. A good night’s sleep is a basic need we all long for, so these feelings must change their approach: “Please listen to me if you want a good night’s sleep.”

There are many ways to handle this, but the key is to understand where they come from. Feel free to try various methods because if you do things right, these issues won’t come back again.

Here’s how I do it:

• Unconditionally surrender. No resistance, no defiance. Because this is a part of you. The more you want to fight it or destroy it, the more you will suffer.

• Listen. This is like having a conversation with yourself — an inner dialogue, and you can even speak it out loud if you want. Be bold and ask questions, then receive the answers that naturally arise in your mind or from your mouth, without judgment. “Alright, tell me what’s going on? I’m worried… What are you worried about? I feel anxious about this… because I’m afraid… but I don’t know what I need to do…” Just keep talking like this. Sometimes the conversation will be very short because the wisdom of the universe residing within you will quickly know how to calm this “insomniac child” by identifying the issue and how to resolve it.

Sometimes, the solution happens quietly — by comforting and loving the emotions inside you without needing to do anything in the outside world with anyone involved. Some may do Reiki, Hooponopono, etc., depending on their personal choices.

At other times, solving the problem requires interaction in real life, and you’ll feel the urge to do those things.

But sometimes, I’m so sleepy and don’t want to continue the conversation, so I say, “Okay, I understand, but right now, I don’t know what to do, so let’s think about it at…”. And next time, don’t disturb me while I’m sleeping. Please let me know in the following way…” Generally, this “child” is very honest, very obedient if listened to… But if I break my promise next time, the tantrum will be ten times worse. ^^

Eventually, I felt lighter and closed my eyes to sleep again. =)))

P.S.: If we realize that inside, we are all fragile children, no matter how many giant masks we wear, we will live very differently — both with ourselves and with others.

See other articles on the same topic here