It can be very frustrating when you wake in the middle of the night, but there are techniques that you can use to help you fall back to sleep with ease. Importantly, there are also things that you absolutely should not do!
In this blog post, Dr Lindsay Browning shares everything you need to do about falling back to sleep, after waking.
Ways to fall back to sleep
Two “do not do” warnings
Don’t reach for your phone
If you wake and find that you can’t get back to sleep immediately after waking in the night, don’t grab your mobile phone and start scrolling.
The bright light will potentially suppress melatonin production, making it hard to fall back to sleep. Also, doing something like scrolling through social media can be so addictive that you forget to go back to sleep and you may stay awake longer than you intended.
In addition, depending on what you are looking at, reading or scrolling, this can also ‘activate’ the mind making it harder to have calm, clear and sleepy thoughts.
Don’t clock watch
Although it’s tempting to check the time when you wake up in the middle of the night, please try to avoid doing so.
By checking the time, all that you are doing is making your brain start doing calculations! This may include:
- working out how long you’ve been asleep for
- how long it is until morning
- how much sleep you can possibly get if you fall asleep right now…or now…or now!
These thoughts will not only make you even more awake, but also will fuel the anxiety and frustration about being awake. This will make it even harder to go back to sleep.
Make sure that you have an alarm clock set for the morning. Then, if you wake up in the middle of the night, you don’t need to know what time it is, only that it’s still nighttime because your alarm hasn’t gone off yet.
Read Dr Lindsay’s Browning contribution to the Tom’s Guide article: Why do I keep waking up in the middle of the night? An insomnia expert answers:
Two “give it a try” recommendations
Get up if you can’t sleep
Many people worry about getting up if they can’t easily fall back to sleep again. They think they will be “waking themselves up”. However, sometimes if you’ve been lying awake for what feels like around 20 minutes, it’s a good idea to get up out of bed and go and do something else for a little while to help your brain and body reset.
Try reading a book or doing some colouring or even (quietly) unloading the dishwasher, before returning to bed when you feel sleepy again.
By having a break from trying to force yourself to sleep, you should find it easier to sleep when you get back into bed again. You have broken up the time lying in bed and have stopped any feelings of frustration and anxiety.
Try “Cognitive Shuffling”
If you wake up in the middle of the night with a busy mind, you could try a technique called “Cognitive Shuffling”.
Cognitive Shuffling is technique that help to calm your anxious thoughts. It works by thinking of any word (such as the word ‘cake’), and then trying to name as many words as possible that start with the first letter. In the “cake” example, this would mean thinking of as many words as possible that start with the letter “C”. When you have exhausted that list, move on to the next letter, “A”. Once you have run out of words that begin with “A”, move to the letter “K”. Finally, move on to the letter “E”.
This technique can help you fall asleep more easily because it distracts your mind from anxious worries by giving you something else to think about. Importantly, you are thinking about things that are ‘neutral’, which is calming.
In this clip from BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast, Dr Lindsay Browning explains how this “meaningless” word game strategically occupies your brain to block out intrusive 3 am worries.
Struggling to fall back to sleep regularly?
If you are waking in the middle of the night and struggling to fall back to sleep on a regular occasion, this may be a sign that there is an underlying problem or concern. Do be encouraged to speak to your GP about sleep issues. They can help to diagnose a medical issue, if there is one. Plus, they can sign post you to treatments that will be best suited to your situations.
I hope these 4 recommendation above help you to fall back asleep more easily next time it happens that you awaken in the night. However, if you would like to learn more about ‘waking in the middle of the night’ do read this post too: