Hi, I am a light sleeper. Light sleepers like me often tend to take a long time 30-60 m to sleep, also we tend to be really alert while sleeping and and even small noises can wake us up. Light sleepers also tend to struggle with direct methods to enter LD such as WILD as well as some indirect methods like VILD which make us really awake due to our tendency to stay alert when sleeping thus struggle with LDs. My LDs work only with DILD method for now and really trying hard with other methods but it’s just not that easy for a light sleeper. Anyone else struggle like me and found a solution? A method that worked for light sleepers? Maybe an advice?.
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I can have trouble falling asleep and really my solution is that I almost exclusively use DILD methods.
I’ve managed to do WILDs, but most my WILD attempts end up with me laying in bed for hours until the sun rises.
When I do have success with WILD, I find that success is usually quick, and if I know I’ve been trying for more than say, 20 minutes, I just need to abandon the technique so I can get some sleep.
If WILD methods don’t work for you, don’t force it!
MILD + WBTB is my favorite method. But, for light sleepers WBTB might not sound viable. My “trick” is that I don’t stay up the 30 minutes- hour you’re supposed to do if you’re following the traditional WBTB methods. 10 minutes, tops. probably closer to 5 minutes.
I often wake up in the middle of the night anyway, and when I do, I get up and use the bathroom, drink some water, and then lay back down. I focus on a very simple MILD mantra for a few minutes, and then let myself fall back asleep. I know several other forum members do this too.
If you’re awoken by something due to your light sleeping nature, I would say capitalize on it and utilize some MILD mantras for a minute or two before trying to go back to sleep.
I do find that my MILD+WBTB methods are more successful if my sleep is interrupted (like with an alarm or something) opposed to just when I naturally wake up in the middle of the night, but doing the method when I naturally wake up allows me to get better sleep.
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