Comments on: How to Get Rid of Fear and Scary Thoughts After Watching a Scary Movie

By: James Riddett

James Riddett — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:03:35 +0000

:-) Yes, sounds good, there are probably very few people who don’t need to be up at a certain time.

So, electronic device in room, turned round with time not showing, without something covering it.

Alarm goes off in morning with no explosion incurred… Sounds ideal, if slightly dull :-)

By: Mike Kinnaird

Mike Kinnaird — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:58:20 +0000

yes, but then one could be late for one’s engagements. Shall we settle on turn it around so as not to be late OR cause serious explosions :-)

By: James Riddett

James Riddett — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:55:29 +0000

Hahaha – thank you Mike! Yes, best just turn it round then, or ideally, don’t have any time pieces in the room at all.

By: Mike Kinnaird

Mike Kinnaird — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:39:40 +0000

All good. I would like to add, in my official capacity as health and safety advisor that according to directive 24507457 parts a and f, it is not advisable to cover electrical items connected to a mains outlet as this may cause it to 1) overheat or 2) blow up and destroy everything.

Covering the “old style” mechanical devices is acceptable. Electrical ones can be turned the other way or similar methods employed so as to remind the “wakee” to not care what bloomin’ time it is.

End-of-message.

Thank you.

By: James Riddett

James Riddett — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:53:45 +0000

Hi Abigail,

First of all, scary stuff doesn’t happen at 3am or at any time, because it’s just a movie. Remember, the movie is designed to scare you — that’s what it’s supposed to do. So well done to the people who made the movie. Big check for them! Job done :-)

Secondly, you’re not waking up at 3am for no reason. The chances are, you’re waking up at 3am because you’ve told your brain to ‘look out’ for 3am. You’ve done this without meaning to, as a result of watching the movie.

Have you ever experienced that odd thing where you set your alarm for a time (eg 8am) and you wake up at like 1 minute to 8? I’ve experienced this several times (and so have many other people), even when the time I’ve set the alarm for isn’t the USUAL time I get up.

This shows that our brains and physiologies are extremely time-sensitive. What you’ve probably done is told your brain that 3am is important, and so it’s waking you up at that time as a result.

What you need to do is drop the issue completely. When you stop thinking about it entirely, you’ll go back to sleeping normally again.

So remove all clocks and watches from your bedroom. This way time becomes a non-issue. If you wake up during the night, just turn over and go back to sleep. If you become too awake to sleep, put your attention into your body and relax all your muscles.

If you need to keep an alarm clock in the room to wake you up in the morning, throw something over it so you can’t see what the time is during the night.

This is a good tip anyway, as a lot of people who wake up during the night look at the clock and then stress about the fact that they’ve only got (say) 2 hours before they have to get up for work or school. Which of course makes it a lot harder to go back to sleep :-)

So… drop the problem by not caring if you wake up during the night. If you do wake up, don’t care what time it is.

This will re-train your brain that it’s ok to let you sleep right through the night again.