A recommended way for getting off to sleep promptly is to employ a relaxation technique. A particular technique which golfers may find comes easily to them is guided imagery or guided imagery meditation.
Guided imagery can both make it easier to fall asleep but also to experience deeper, more restful sleep.
Those who find obtaining a good night’s sleep challenging, or dropping off a lengthy process, are advised to wind down before retiring to bed. This should help you go to bed in a relaxed state.
Different things work for different folk in terms of this, and some may not be practical for all lifestyles. But suggestions include warm baths, listening to music, reading a book or doing gentle physical exercise such as yoga.
Others advise sorting out what you will do the next day – laying out the clothes you will wear, compile a ‘to do’ list and so on – so that you don’t go to bed with these worries or thoughts rattling around your head.
Breathing exercises are said to be beneficial to a good night’s sleep. There are various different ones, but the general principle running across most of them is to breathe in through the nose and to exhale from the mouth after letting the breath flow as deep as feels comfortable down toward the belly and diaphragm.
This will boost the amount of oxygen in the blood, thereby lowering blood pressure and heart rate, and reducing muscle tension.
Another way to reduce muscle tension is to tense your different muscle groups and hold for five seconds, and then fully relax them, then pause for 10 to 20 seconds before tensing another muscle group.
Golf and guided imagery
Guided imagery is a visualisation exercise that is designed to promote a peaceful state. Typically people are advised to imagine a favourite relaxing destination, such as a happily remembered holiday spot. Or to imagine a scenario whereby you are floating in water, or even on a cloud.
It just has to be a peaceful, relaxing scene. Gardens and forests are often recommended as vistas with lots of greenery.
Scenes with lots of greenery in them can be found at golf courses. So that is what I focused on, not having a favourite forest scene to call to mind.
I started off picturing one of the most alluring views I know of in golf – the view from the 1st tee at Trevose Golf and Country Club.
But this was not totally successful.
I wondered if the association was wrong. After all, the first tee is a time of nervousness, excitement, anticipation. It perhaps was more a beautiful, exciting scene for a golfer than one of relaxation.
I tuned into a different mental image: the green on the 4th hole at the same club, with its rollercoaster putting surface alongside the sea. I turned the volume of the sea up high, waves crashing into the rocks of Booby’s Bay below.
My imagination had putts rolling across this steeply undulating green at an incredibly slow pace and with great accuracy. I did indeed find this image soothing.
Another bonus was that when I next played that tricky green, I did so with positive images in my mind as I stood over my putt. A win-win.
If you're struggling to sleep, summon your favourite golf image in your mind and it could help you drift off.
