In my post of March 19, 2012 (“Trouble Sleeping?”), I talked about how I deal with the issue of trying to fall back to sleep in the middle of the night.  The one big thing for me (apart from “ABC” – see 2/6/14) is the “clenched hands” issue.  When I open and relax my hands, the rest of me starts to relax.  

But recently I’ve noticed another phenomenon that also keeps me awake.  When I am laying there – thinking of work, handyman projects (like us non-handymen do), cooking, writing this blog, etc. I come to the conclusion that my eyes – while closed – are squinting.   It’s almost like my face is screwed up when one is in deep contemplation.  So, I’ve been relaxing my shoulders and letting my jaw drop a bit to relax my face.  I think of it as adopting a “lazy face.”  And you know what?   It seems to work.  In combination with the 337 other things I do to relax while wide-awake at night, I’ve now added the “lazy face.”  And then of course there’s the “bent ear” phenomenon when I find myself laying on my pillow with my ear doubled over. . . . . .