Keep waking up at 3AM? Can’t get back to sleep? Here’s what to do when you wake up in the middle of the night to fall asleep once again.
We’ve all been there. Lying in bed at 3AM. Wide awake and staring at the ceiling. Everyone else in the house is fast asleep, while we’re there, eyes open, pondering the meaning of life.
We’re tired and we want to sleep, but we can’t. Our minds have decided to activate and go on a little adventure. It’s annoying, it’s stressful and we feel rubbish the next day.
But waking up in the middle of the night is natural and quite common. It’s not something to worry about if we’re able to get back to sleep again. We can still wake up fully rested and refreshed in the morning.
With a few simple steps, we can trigger the relaxation response and sleep once more.
Let’s explore…
What to do when you wake up
When you wake up in the middle of the night there are a few simple steps you can take to fall back asleep with the least amount of disruption. These are:
1) Stay calm. It’s important to stay calm when you wake up during the night, and to avoid becoming fully alert. Breath deeply and slowly, and keep your movements gentle to maintain a sleepy state.
2) Empty your bowels. Many times, we just need to pee and that’s enough to fall back asleep again. Visit the bathroom with just enough light to get there and back safely, then return to bed.
3) Allow your body temperature to cool. If you feel hot, take a few moments to cool down before wrapping yourself in your sheets. You can lay on top of the bed for a while, or keep your feet outside of the sheets if your room is quite cool. Cooling down by 1-3 degrees is necessary to fall and stay asleep.
4) Encourage deep relaxation. Use a deep relaxation technique such as progressive muscle relaxation, mindful breathing, or NSDR. This will calm your mind, relax your body and help you to fall back asleep with greater ease.
5) Change environment. If you’re struggling to fall back asleep, even after following the above steps, you may find lying down in another room helps. Moving to another room that’s cool, dark and silent can sometimes be enough to encourage further sleep.
Provided you don’t have an underlying health condition, are under a lot of stress, or have generally bad sleeping habits, this should be enough to get you back off to sleep effectively until morning.
What NOT to do when you wake up
There are few habits that increase stress, wake us up even more and make it difficult to return to sleep. These should be avoided as much as possible during the night:
- Don’t panic, or start worrying about why you woke up
- Don’t check the time
- Don’t pick up your phone
- Don’t put all the lights on
- Don’t drink any tea, or coffee
- Don’t read anything that stimulates thought
Just stay relaxed and allow yourself to fall back asleep in your own time. Sometimes it will take longer than others, but that’s OK. We’re human beings, and not robots, so sleep patterns will inevitably shift over time.
Master your sleep
Sleep is essential for our long-term health and performance. It’s a fundamental part of life that we should all aim to master. We can each benefit from more and deeper sleep, so it’s wise to do a sleep audit once in a while and build solid bedtime habits.
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Featured Image: @qstevenson
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