Mind Your Safety

Sleep Better for The Sake of Safety

In every class I conduct, I have tired students struggling to stay awake. When I’ve built up a degree of trust with the class, I ask “Who slept poorly last night?”, and 10-20% will say they did. I then ask, “Who’s gone to work sleepy and tired?”. Now it’s a 100% affirmative response—from every class. Good sleep is not a minor thing. Sleepy students spend the day fighting to stay awake, usually displaying sub-par performance. I shouldn’t have to describe the negative effects sleep deprivation has on safety.

Getting a good night’s sleep has been a challenge for me all my life. The moment my head hits the pillow, my mind switches into high gear. I cannot begin to count the number of nights of falling asleep exhausted at 3 a.m. only to be up again at 6 a.m., fighting to be on my best game.

Over the years I have tried a variety of methods (meditating, silent rooms, absolute darkness, not being touched, being touched to exhaustion, ear plugs, one pillow, no pillow, all pillows, music, no music, counting sheep, vapourizing sheep, etc.) to no avail. But I have finally found a method that usually puts me to sleep quickly and perhaps it will work for you.

I discovered this method after years of researching brain science for application in our training programs. The brain stem (a.k.a. our ancient, oldest or ‘reptilian’ brain) controls our heart beat, breathing, body heat regulation, blinking and other autonomous functions. Wrapped around our brain stem is our emotional or mid-brain and, surrounding that, is our cognitive or thinking brain. Meditation training directs you to clear your brain of all thought while counting or repeating a phrase. This has never worked for me because, once I cleared one thought, another promptly invaded!

Six months ago, it occurred to me that if the brain stem is the source of our autonomous body control then, perhaps, I should forget about clearing the mind. Instead, I began experimenting with lying quietly and focusing very intently on the lower central part of my brain where I assumed the brain stem resided. Interestingly, my breathing slowed when I did this.

Since then, I have found this an amazing method by which to fall asleep. No matter how my mind races, when I intentionally start to focus on what I assume to be blood flow on the area slightly below my ears and in the centre of my brain, the next thing I know, I am waking up.

I was in the Fort McMurray Airport last Thursday in a very noisy departure lounge. As a test, I leaned back and, 15 minutes later, I awoke. Even though I had just had a refreshing little nap, I tried it again on the plane; the next thing I knew, we were descending into Edmonton. I was particularly wired at bedtime last night; in the past, this would have been a 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. night—guaranteed. However, I laid back and started concentrating and, the next thing I knew, it was morning.

Previously, waking for whatever reason in the middle of the night guaranteed a million thoughts and the end of my sleep. This is no longer the case; I start to focus, and then it is morning. This has been highly successful and very effective.

If you experience poor sleep as I have, give this a try and, hopefully, it will work for you. Don’t increase the physical risk in your life with poor sleep; the better your sleep, the better your daily game and the better you are prepared to come home with all of your body parts intact.

Until next time, be ready, be careful and be safe.

Canada Training Group has been providing consulting services to industry since 1980; Dave Smith, the president, can be reached at davesmith@canada-training-group.ca