I'm always on the lookout for simple and practical methods to help people get a night of deep, restful sleep. When an easy technique accomplishes that much and also encourages vivid and interesting dreaming at the same time, it's definitely worth sharing.
These two tricks take very little time, can be done while lying in bed before falling asleep, and will work for just about everyone.
If you are already able to remember most of your dreams, or are at least able on most mornings to remember the last dream you had before waking up, you'll probably notice an almost immediate benefit in the form of more interesting and meaningful dreams. If you aren't yet able to remember your dreams, it might take longer for you to notice a difference in your dreams but in the meantime you'll probably notice a slight improvement in your dream recall. Regardless of whether or not you remember your dreams, the quality of your sleep will improve.
Technique #1 -- The Daily Rewind
I very briefly touched on the concept of a Daily Rewind in a previous article titled How to Analyze Your Dreams More Effectively, but I'll go into it in more detail here and will provide some tips and suggestions to help you make the most of this technique.
A Daily Rewind is a swift and painless way to clear all the clutter out of your mind in preparation for sleep and dreaming. All that is involved in the technique is a quick mental replay of the events of your day. You can do this in one of three ways:
1. Start at the beginning of your day and mentally replay the events of the day until you reach the end.
2. Start at the end of your day and mentally replay the events backward until you reach the beginning of your day. You don't have to imagine everything moving backwards as if you're rewinding a video. Just start with the last event before bedtime and review it, then proceed to the event prior to that one and review it, and so forth.
3. Write about the events of the day in a journal.
As you mentally replay the day's events, you don't need to recall every little detail or replay every action or every conversation in a minute-by-minute recount of the day. Replay each event calmly and objectively and then move on to the next event. The entire process should take only a few minutes.
Also keep in mind the point is not to get caught up in regret about how the day went but instead to simply acknowledge each event that occurred throughout the day and release it. Don't get stuck replaying a situation over and over in your mind and thinking of all the things you could have done differently. As you replay your day, let go of any mental attachment, anxiety, or concern about the events. The goal is to perform a quick review of your day so you don't spend the night tossing and turning, dwelling on the "should haves" and "could haves". If you clear out the mental debris now, you'll sleep deeply and peacefully and your dreaming mind will be free to explore other things rather than rehashing trivial everyday events in symbolic form.
Use this time to relax your body as well. As you mentally replay the day, check your body for any tension associated with the memory of the events. Consciously release the tension and relax.
Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2 of this article, which will describe the second technique for improving your sleep and your dreams.
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This is amazing, as I have been writing the very similar method in a booklet, but it is called Teshuva.