Perhaps you’ve heard this song: “nighttime, sharpens, heightens each sensation…”
Watching the clock tick another minute by I was reminded I was very much awake. And yet overwhelmed with thought I laid there unable to switch my brain off. At times this has sent me into a state of panic, perhaps it has to you too. Some have felt it, others not so much. My dad used to tell me “just put it in the parking lot”, well, news flash, there did not seem to be a parking lot in my brain. The causes for insomnia are varied and many, and whilst I do not claim to be an expert in the field of sleep, I can share with you what has worked for me and what I have seem to find in others too.
Call it the monsters, the nightmares, that show we saw on television, sometimes it is as simple as that. But in other cases, the “monster” is merely a way our children describe something deeper.
Nighttime, sharpens, heightens each sensation.
At night, the feelings we are able to distract and numb ourselves from in the day come bubbling back to the surface. Why? Well, there’s finally a break~nothing to do. This overwhelming feeling that arises from having been pushed away all day comes back strong and sends our body into a stress response. And the brain, dutifully doing its’ job to rationalise everything, attributes this feeling to the “monsters”.
So… how do we help our kids (and also ourselves) when they just can’t seem to get to sleep. It is my personal finding, that getting to the root of the issue is where the magic lies. Through art we can discover what feeling is not being felt in the day, and we can work through it so it doesn’t have to heighten at night.