Try this antidote to insomnia.

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It’s 4:13 AM. I’m always up this early. It’s when I write. However, this morning, I’m also, as they say, stewing in my juices.

My partner Rebecca and I watched last night’s debate between the two candidates for the American presidency. We’re Biden supporters, so perhaps you know what I mean.

When we turned in, Rebecca said she would begin her insomnia routine. She knew she would need help falling asleep. I tossed and turned for another hour or so, helpless.

I’ve been up since 3, an hour earlier than usual. I have no antidote for insomnia.

This story is about hers.

You can adapt it to your circumstances.

I’ll start with a bit of background.

The Context

That’s Rebecca, in the photo, at rest.

She is 72, soon to be 73.

And a biking fiend.

Later this morning, she’ll do another 23 miles in preparation for next month’s Register’s Annual Bike Ride Across Iowa. 2024 will be the 51st RAGBRAI.

Rebecca will join 20,000 riders for seven days across southern Iowa, from the Missouri River to the Mississippi. They will bike 434 miles including 18, 375 feet of climbing.

Iowa isn’t Kansas. And it isn’t flat.

This will be her sixth consecutive RAGBRAI. Accompanying her are three friends. Meet the intrepid members of The Wheel Thing at a rest stop in 2023.

Each year, Rebecca cycles 800 miles to prepare. She’s now at 585. Fortunately, our community is surrounded by a beautiful circular 11-mile trail. Unfortunately, for those of us not preparing to trek across our state, Trout Run includes many steep switchbacks.

Rebecca was pulling away from me yesterday on one of the steep hills at the beginning of the trail.

We start together, but quickly, she hits her flow state and leaves me behind. She takes a five-minute break for water and a small energy snack when she finishes the first go-around.

By then, I’d landed and contentedly ridden back home. Rebecca reversed the route, going up where she went down and vice versa.

The Insomnia Cure

Rebecca calls herself a head person. If you know the Enneagram personality system, she’s a number Five. She meets the world through her mind and thinks everything through.

And through.

Sometimes, she finds it hard to slow her thinking down.

After 90 minutes of Biden and Trump last night, she said, “I knew I would need help falling asleep.”

So, what did you do? I ask.

I started with my shoe clip in the driveway.

And then I asked myself which way we went at the trailhead, right or left?

I get 3/4 mile along the river and ask, WHO ELSE IS THERE BUT JOE?

I gently tell myself, You’re not supposed to be thinking.

I see the squirrel.

And Dug Road looks so beautiful. So green. The lighting was fantastic.

And WHAT WILL THE NEW YORK TIMES SAYS?

Again, I tell myself you can’t think about this.

I return to the ride.

Seven miles in, I fell asleep at the top of the steepest switchback.

Rebecca told me that if she doesn’t fall asleep right away on a typical night, she retraces that day’s bike ride precisely as she remembers it and is asleep by mile two. Last night, it took to mile seven.

Hours later, but still too early, she woke up.

When that happens, I go back to where I stopped, in this case, to the top of that switchback, and continue the ride. Almost immediately, I fell back asleep.

Why does this strategy work for Rebecca?

“When I bike, I leave the world behind.”

That’s Rebecca’s answer to why biking has become a passion.

Now, she’s turned this dedication into a strategy against sleeplessness.

She has trained her mind to return to her latest ride. That’s important. It’s the particulars of the ride, the squirrel, for example, that she focuses on. And if she reawakens, she returns to the exact ride spot where she fell asleep and continues.

Isn’t this a form of meditation? Cued not by a word or mantra but by images of a recent experience.

And not just any experience. But one that has been imprinted in the synopses of her brain through hours and hours of enjoyment.

Ready to be called upon when needed.

When I need to cut off the circle of thoughts, I return to the imagined comfort of my bicycle memories.

Do you have a passion that removes you from the world of trouble?

For me, it’s walking.

The second Presidential debate is scheduled for Tuesday, September 9th.

Rebecca’s ready.

I’m working on it.