Thread: Cannot fall asleep while trying methods

Hi,

It might be just that it keeps you awake.
You could maybe try to lower brain usage that your mantra takes.

By doing something like shortening mantra (Yet while still knowing what this mantra means to you?), repeating it with bigger delays.
Or try relaxation techniques before attempt to enclosen your body to sleep, so there will be lower chance for inability to fall asleep.
Maybe if your doing WBTB with mantra then shortren it

I could try that! But ya thats the hard part is understanding the meaning instead of mindlessly saying it, but then that involves thinking and keeps me awake :/ ill try it thought, Thank you!

I can see how struggling to repeat your mantra perfectly until you fall asleep might keep you awake; perhaps consistent recital of it isn't as important as getting to sleep might be. Along the same lines with what MisakaMikoto already advised above, you might consider making your mantra more a backdrop to falling asleep, rather than your primary focus.

This might sound counter-intuitive, but it won't be if you remember that going to sleep is the primary goal for lucid dreaming, because if you are not sleeping, you are not dreaming. So you might just relax, even go about going to sleep as you normally would (as long as "normally" does not include distractions like phones, TV, or computers), and let your mantra sort of repeat itself softly behind you as you let yourself fall comfortably asleep.

Your mantra, if it is a meaningful one, will tend to take care of itself as you move closer to sleep. And, especially with MILD, if you have set your intentions well enough, it really is okay to slip up and skip a few repetitions.

I hope that helped, or even made sense...

you may be just putting too much awareness or emotion in the mantra. as said above try to detach your self a little and try saying them without understanding what it means, may be your sub conscious will take care of the rest by it self.

what point in your sleep cycle are you doing this? i think it's far less effective if you are not doing it after already having had several hours sleep first.

Have you tried SSILD?

Yes, please, share more.

What time this is done?
What exactly prevents you falling asleep?
Are you in a comfortable position?
Hours of sleep (if any) before attempting this?

I normally try to do it every time I am trying to drift off. What prevents me is how my mind just stays focused on a scene in my head or I stop repeating my mantra because i'm about to fall asleep so I start saying it again, thus preventing me from falling asleep.