Thanks all. I really appreaciate your responses, I’m going to revisit all your posts, to extract all the wisdom there!

Just to clarify: I do sleep; I just won’t sleep *well* if I have these ‘superstitious’ thoughts…I don’t feel like ‘mind chatter’ has been a problem regarding falling asleep, but I do have these times where I ‘superstitiously’ believe that if something isnt’ right (i.e cat not on bed) I won’t sleep well. I don’t really miss the cat; I’ve just somehow convinced myself (out of fear?) that i won’t sleep. But if I go upstairs, get the cat and put him on the bed, I’ve then convinced myself I will sleep, and I do. But I don’t want to rely on said cat, of course!! 😉

(And no amount of lavendar, exercise, tea, etc. will overcome the powerful thoughts that tell me I won’t sleep well! )

I guess if I believe all my thoughts the rest of the day (and I do get very emotional about stuff, get stuck in my head), it won’t be as easy to dismiss those thoughts at night. So, I need to practice non-attachment–all the time! I thought if I could tell myself, ‘you’ve slept fine without cat before’, I could win. But there is no winning with one’s thoughts, generally!

But if I *don’t* typically practice mindfulness throughout the day, will I be successful with it at night? Or–again–do I really need to start practicing it fulltime? That’s why I thought, maybe I can do positive thinking instead, since most of my life is based around ‘thoughts’. But…I think I know the answer….to be generally happier, in addition to sleeping better, I need to practice mindfulness and non-attachment.

Right?