These 3 items help this neurologist get things off his mind before bed

Sometimes, calming down a racing mind is taking all the racing thoughts and putting them on paper—and then, putting them away for the day. “We have so many things stuck in our head the entire day. And when it's stuck, you're not really processing any of it,” Dr. Mian shares. “You're going to keep yourself busy—maybe you have family, kids or friends, or some other obligation. The only time you actually even get to even think about it is when you're going to sleep, and then you can't shut off your mind.” 

“Something I was introduced to awhile ago is called the Five Minute Journal,” Dr. Mian shares. The premise of this journal is two-part: practicing mindful meditation and gratuity. “This journal allows you to put highlights of your day,” says Dr. Mian. “Obviously, we're trying to focus on the positive highlights of your day, not all the negative things. We also talk about gratitude as well, which is kind of more of like a Tony Robbins thing, what we're all grateful for. It gives us an opportunity to do a little meditation with it as well.”

Even with a journal to help guide you, meditation in any form will take some practice. But as they say: with practice, comes perfection. “A lot of times I feel that it's very difficult for people in general, because our minds go a million miles a minute. It's kind of something where you're trying to train your brain into that,” says Dr. Mian. “This journal in and of itself helps with that. It's not like you have to sit there for half an hour, an hour doing this, right? Cause ideally you want to be doing this stuff just a couple of minutes out of your day to get it out there. And then once you do, it's kind of very cathartic. You actually feel significantly better when you do it.”

To that end, all the time you need for this daily ritual is right in the journal’s name too: five minutes. Dr. Mian equates it to a page a day. “We're not here trying to write a novel or anything like that. We're really just trying to get ideas, and make ourselves feel a bit better about the day.” 

According to Dr. Mian, this type of mindful meditation is something that would be greatly beneficial for everyone. “I think that's often what's lost in general. Even when I see patients for various different things, because we're always looking at how things are going to be in the future or we perseverate on the past. But I think it's very difficult for people to actually focus on the present. I think that's what this journal does.”

Dr. Mian admits that for this app, he was subtly influenced by celebrity and athlete endorsements. But upon checking it out for himself, he found it to be the real deal, intersection meditation, relaxation soundscape programming, music, and more.

“As soon as I open it up, you can actually start changing the screens of how things look to soothing things,” says Dr. Mian. He describes some of his go-to visuals, like lake views with mountains in the distance, or a gentle stream with the sun shining in the background—all of which he finds truly soothing. “One of the first things that I do when I get up in the morning is instead of looking at my text messages, or looking at all the other obligations I have to do, I'll have to just look at that. It actually is calming.”

Dr. Mian notes that it works just as well for relaxation at bedtime, with the caveat that looking at screens before going to sleep isn’t the best idea. “I have to make a point: you want to look at these things earlier, before your bedtime, not later. That light [from screens is] stimulating your eyes, and is actually going to stimulate your brain—then it's harder to sleep.”

“For most people in general, for the average person, I would say stay off any electronics at least an hour or so before bedtime,” Dr. Mian states. “I always tell people that you don't want to be using any devices in bed. For instance, a lot of people watch TV, make phone calls, or answer messages in their bed. What happens then, it actually becomes harder to fall asleep because your brain is no longer associating your bed with sleep at that point, it's really associating with everything else.”

It goes back to mindfulness and intentionality on when to partake in screen usage for this app. Throughout the day, it’s been a tool at Dr. Mian’s disposal whenever he needs to take five. “On top of that, [the Calm app] actually has additional features of where there are certain meditations and stories that you can do and certain stories that you can do if you are subscribed.” 

“Combining all of that together, the soothing stories and mediation along with the imagery really revs you down. At the end of the day, especially if you had a tough one, you need everything you can to rev you down at that point.”

Even though these Loop Quiet 2 ear plugs are small, they may be one of the mightiest tools Dr. Mian calls upon. Even with the brain quieting down to fall asleep, outside sounds still cause distractions, and thus, stimulants for the brain to stay awake. The Loop ear plugs drown out the noise, but don’t cut you off completely—which is good, in case of emergency and maintaining some awareness.

“When I had my children, obviously things were kind of loud and made it hard to fall asleep. I just wanted quiet. When I did my training, I was in New York City, I was close to the Queen's Midtown Tunnel. My answer to that was really just using loud fans or loud noise devices to block out the sound,” Dr. Mian recalls.

Dr. Mian’s been a longtime user of ear plugs, but finds Loop’s to be the most comfortable by far. “I've kind of gone through several different ones. [Some ear buds or plugs] actually would pump music. I would find that if I slept, especially if I slept on my side, that the inner part of my ear would hurt. With these, I haven't found that. They're quite comfortable and they block out the sound.”

Dr. Mian doesn’t just call upon these silicon ear plugs for home usage, but on the go as well. “I'm in a much quieter neighborhood now. I'm not in New York City anymore, so I find it more comfortable. But I particularly find it more comfortable whenever I'm traveling; going to conferences and whatnot; when there's noise in the hotel.”