HSP and Insomnia

I can't even begin to count the number of hours I've spent laying awake over the years due to my high degree of sensitivity. This is because I either can't turn off the buzz from an overstimulating day or I can't stop worrying about and picking apart all the conversations I had with people and trying to figure out if I might have said something hurtful to them.

The buzz has been easier to manage now that I understand about the HSP trait. Generally meditating for about 15-20 minutes takes it way down. In the winter, a bath with Epsom Salts and lavender oil makes a big difference. Better yet, meditating before an overstimulating event as well as having an escape plan helps a lot. I also try not to have large groups at my house when I don't have to. Too many people all at once is just too much and doesn't allow me to be fully present with each guest anyway.

Curtailing evening events before 10 pm makes a big difference as that allows me time to recover before trying to go to sleep. I also try to limit the number of late night events I attend. Concerts are generally not a good idea so I don't attend more than 2 per year. That's a tricky one as my husband LOVES concerts!

Picking apart the conversations has been much trickier for me. I care so much about how I leave others feeling AND I know how it feels to have someone say thoughtless or even downright unkind things to me. I'm much better at cutting others slack as I know how easy it is to accidentally say the wrong thing not meaning to be hurtful.

I do my best to apologize if I know I've said something thoughtless. In spite of this, I can find myself ruminating about it even years later! One thing that can help is just saying to myself, "Oh well, I'm human!" Another thing I've done is to approach the person and make a general statement such as, "I may have said something upsetting the last time you saw me and so wanted to apologize." Usually the person looks at me with a confused expression and I see that my sleepless hours were for nothing.

In the middle of the night when I'm ruminating some things that help are:

1) decide on a plan for how to handle it the next day

2) visualize putting the concern into a helium balloon and release it

3) pray and ask for help holding it until the morning when I can do something about it

What I've learned from the technique of following up and apologizing is that people as a whole are far less sensitized and hypercritical of what I say than I am. I remind myself of this on those challenging nights and cut myself some slack.

Blessings!

Caprice

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#hsp #overstimulating #hspsleep #hspinsomnia