Sometimes not sleeping is just not sleeping. (Yes, this is about Freud's cigar)). Previously, it seemed that this was terrible, that something urgently needed to be done about it. “I can’t sleep! Help!” What happened next? Panic: “there’s something wrong with me!”, “I’m somehow not like that (bad, punished with insomnia “for my grave sins”), “I knew/knew that something would happen to me.” .. And many other assumptions - especially if all this panic happens right in the night, in a bed that does not save, betrays and turns out to be not a cozy bed, but an uncomfortable Procrustean bed. All these panic assumptions frighten even more and drive us into a dead end called ". there is no way out." And there is only one option left - to quickly take something for insomnia, because “you can’t live like this” and “I can’t handle it alone, because...” So, for the time being, for the time being, that’s what I had, until suddenly I wanted to listen to myself. It was as if someone inside had finally attracted my attention. Previously, this someone was screaming, panicking, but in response he received a pill and fell silent for a while. He was simply in the way, and was inconvenient. , and he had to be calmed down. But what exactly he was shouting did not matter to me. And suddenly his cry made me listen and the question hung in the air: “What’s so terrible about not sleeping? Maybe I just don't want to sleep? Nothing hurts me. No one keeps me in bed by force. Why such panic? "Of course, you need to understand that we are not talking about pathology now. I am not talking about those cases when a person does not sleep constantly - neither day nor night - for days, months. Here, the help of a specialist is needed. I am talking about those who gets hit from time to time - anything can happen and the reasons can be different, and these reasons need to be worked on. But now we’re not talking about the causes of insomnia, but about sleep itself, about the panic that aggravates insomnia. So, the question for everyone is: “What is it. what's scary is that you woke up in the middle of the night and some thoughts don't let you sleep?" Thoughts? But having thoughts in your head is not bad in itself? Especially if these are interesting thoughts. Perhaps you've already had enough sleep, quenched your the need for sleep, the body is rested and wants to “be creative”? Well, here some people immediately object to me (and now they will object like this: “then I’ll be boiled all day, because a person needs to sleep at least 8 hours.” Are you sure that with Are you exactly the same as with that person who needs to sleep 8 hours? And one more thing: Are you sure that you will be boiled/cooked because you will wake up earlier, and not because you will fight insomnia all this time and you will most likely lose the fight and even exhaust yourself? Isn’t it better to get up and do something pleasant - desirable, necessary, important (you can choose anything)? It would also be good to understand what (and who) is behind the phrases “you will be boiled/boiled.” This seems to be about productivity. But it can be different, even if you got enough sleep? A person is not a robot, anything can happen. So maybe you can also accept your temporary “cookedness”? Isn't it easier than constantly suffering from your imperfections? And the last question: are you sure that you will be unproductive? Maybe check? My experience is that the difference is minimal, and sometimes there is simply no difference. What does your experience say? Maybe it's worth checking? We often set traps for ourselves and make life difficult. Most often, this happens due to the attitudes with which we grew up, which we received from society as adults and accepted as family (because they also, albeit remotely, resembled what we were used to in childhood). These attitudes, like blinders, do not allow us to see ourselves. We are accustomed to listening to other people’s voices, and we are completely unable to listen to ourselves. Someone has long outgrown children's shorts, a lot has changed, but he continues to reach out to the children's highchair and take the same shorts from it. And he suffers in them (the Procrustean bed again?). That voice inside that never leaves you alone and makes you nervous is what will help us all change, we just have to stop ignoring it and.