If you are a light sleeper and tend to wake up a lot in the night, or if you are experiencing insomnia, there are ways to mitigate the experience so that you can feel better and get more restful sleep. If you do wake in the night, try the following to help you get back to sleep so that it doesn’t become an issue.
Don’t Look at your Phone or Electronics
If you’ve closed your eyes, repositioned, and tried another 20 minutes to fall asleep and you can’t, remember to avoid looking at your phone or electronics anyway. Even though you’re awake, it’s best to avoid that so that your mind doesn’t get used to being entertained in the middle of the night.
Get Up Out of the Bed
If you have tried for more than 20 minutes to fall back to sleep but you are wide awake, go ahead and get up. However, don’t get up to be super-physical or do anything that will stimulate your mind. Instead, get up and go curl up in a comfortable chair with dim lighting and a book of poetry or something that makes you feel calm. If it’s within an hour or two of your standard wake time, stay up and start your day.
Don’t Look at the Clock
Avoid looking at the clock while you’re lying in bed and experiencing insomnia. Just turn it around if you need to so that you can avoid checking it over and over, which can add to your anxiety and make it impossible to fall back to sleep.
Try Deep Breathing Exercises
If you need to get up, you can try some breathing exercises to help you relax and get back to sleep. You can do this in bed before getting up to find out if it’ll help you get right back to sleep or not, or you can get up and do this too. Try triangular breathing. The way it works is that you breathe in through your nose for a count of four, holding the air in your lungs for a count of four, then blowing out of your mouth for a count of four. Do this until you get tired or fall asleep.
Write in Your Journal
If you are waking due to stress and you’ve tried to use deep breathing to get back to sleep, and it’s not working, get out your journal and write three things you’re grateful for so that you can turn your thoughts around to thinking of good things instead of stressful situations.
If you are regularly waking no matter what you do, you may need to figure out a better bedtime routine. Double check that you’re not eating anything, drinking anything, or thinking about anything that is anti-sleep inducing. If, after a couple of days, you’re not getting better, here are some tips on dealing with insomnia.
Conclusion
Getting a better night’s sleep means that you will need to devote the same consideration to sleep as you do other types of productivity in your life. Sleeping soundly and getting rest is as essential to your good health as eating right is.
When you sleep at least seven to nine hours each night, you’ll improve your health mentally and physically. Your body will be able to fight off illness better, and you’ll be far more productive each day at your job and at life in general because you won’t be fighting sleep.
When you sleep enough, not only will your mental clarity be top-notch, but you’ll also experience less illness overall because sleep is when your body repairs and regenerates. We all need to be at our best at everything we do, from work to spending time with family and friends. Getting a good night’s sleep will make it all so much better.