Faulty Damper I need your help!

[rachmaninoff_forever]

You're the psychologist right?

Why the heck do I keep tossing and turning when I'm going to bed?!  It used to never be this way!  Until college started...

Am I going crazy or something?

Is it because I renounced my love for Valentina Lisitsa?

I think it's the latter...

[faulty_damper]

Anxiety.

[faulty_damper]

I'm also not a therapist, btw.  I'm the scientist.  I HATE how i have to always clarify that.   

[faulty_damper]

But low levels of anxiety, aka "stress", can cause disruptions in sleeping patterns.  So considering all the threads you've had about college, these experiences are causing the anxiety.  You may also be classified as an HSP, a "highly sensitive person", which means neurologically you are wired to be more sensitive to your environment than most people.  However, most new college students experience some form of anxiety.  Most will eventually learn to cope with it.  But I'm not so certain you will because music isn't an easy major.  It actually gets more difficult the better you become at it because you learn to be even more aware of the minutae of being a musician.

[faulty_damper]

Oh, and I totally forgot to mention what you can do to lower your level of anxiety. Find a girlfriend and have lots of sex.  What's actually important is the positive relationship between you and her, not the sex itself. (I just thought you might need to get laid which is the reason for having sex.)  You have to feel secure with her.  Because you clearly aren't feeling secure right now, hence the anxiety.  What this strongly suggests is that the environment you're in isn't very supportive, or at least you don't feel very supported.

[faulty_damper]

U know, reading what I wrote, it does sound like I'm a therapist, but I guarantee that everything I've stated is supported by the scientific literature, unlike therapists who go off pandering themselves as "psychologists" giving unscientific and unproven advice.

[senanserat]

(I just thought you might need to get laid which is the reason for having sex.) 

This.

[starlady]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the first year of college is hard.

It is also a truth universally acknowledged that true love is wondeful.

But in the short term, Rach4, notice how you are breathing while trying to fall asleep. If your mind is racing you are very likely holding your breath.  A few breaths with the exhale longer than the inhale  should calm you right down (and send you off to dreamland).   Works on me, and I had sleep problems for decades. --s.

[chopin2015]

i recently had a stressful week, where i got so tense i honestly did not sleep 2 complete nights. it was awful. the 3 rd night, i didn't sleep most of the night, but eventually did. i noticed, i was tensing, clenching my fists and my jaw. do you do that? if so, do you wear a mouth guard? go to the massage parlor and get one! or, find the right party and get a couple of girls studying to be massage therapists to do that!

really, massage or even ice your hands sometimes. stop singing ravel in your head while you're trying to go to sleep. lol
i sometimes do that with my music, and it doesn't work. i either pass out when i'm trying to sing the whole thing, or it keeps me alert for hours on.

[outin]

Oh, and I totally forgot to mention what you can do to lower your level of anxiety. Find a girlfriend and have lots of sex.

It is true that this will lower the anxiety, but it also has it's downside...No anxiety may lead into less focus on work and more focus on enjoying life on the short term. One might actually end up losing motivation for the studies when one realizes that one can enjoy life so much without whatever one was trying to achieve

The other problem is that it's not so easy to find a girlfriend who will settle for being an anxiety reliever only. There will be demands and after a while the relationship may become a source of anxiety. This can of course be avoided by making sure you end it is good time, but this is not always easy if one is not a very strong charachter.

If anxiety is caused by your mind trying to assess the things you were exposed to during the day and those things where the things you were supposed to work with, anxiety is often an inevitable part of the study process. If you want to avoid it you either have to give up aiming so high or learn to cope with the anxiety you get from the demands you are exposed to (often created by yourself). If you want to survive such an uncertain career as a musician, you just need to learn to cope with anxiety.

You can lower the anxiety by physical labour. If that is too difficult to arrange, it can be replaced by proper exercise (and I don't mean piano exercises here). Maybe you could even try an outing with your board in the evenings, have you done enough of that lately?

Young people also have general anxiety caused by the big changes in their lives and the insecurity of the future. Some more and some less. If one is completely anxiety free at that age, one may not be quite normal

EDIT:
One more thing: Do not use a lot of energy drinks or caffeine. Not even during the day. It may affect your sleep and your ability to relax your mind much more and much longer than you would imagine. After I gave up coffee, I have been able to get to sleep anytime I want to. And I am less tired in the mornings, so no need for the coffee.

[theholygideons]

I often become restless in sleep when my mind can't stop contemplating about the hypothetical or future. Perhaps you need to slow down and take things one step at a time?
I mean, first year college can be quite hectic, but enjoyable socially at the same time if you learn how to mantain a balance.

OR perhaps rach4 has been jacking off too much...

[outin]

OR perhaps rach4 has been jacking off too much...

Despite some old beliefs, that is actually a quite healthy exercise and can be a good stress reliever. And may help falling asleep too.

But maybe best to keep it a private matter, not something to be discussed on this forum.