Have you ever fallen asleep, then fully awake an hour later? Disrupted sleep patterns can be very irritating and lead to morning fatigue, when you need to be alert. This article will give you some tips and exercises to follow if you wake up in the middle of the night, as well as suggest long-term changes you can make to your sleep habits to develop healthy, undisturbed sleep patterns.
Step
Method 1 of 2: Go back to sleep on the spot
Step 1. Do deep breathing exercises
By concentrating and controlling your breathing, you can slow your heart rate and lower your blood pressure; and thus prepares your body to go back to sleep.
- When in a supine position, relax as many muscles in your body as possible.
- Inhale slowly through your nose, concentrating on filling the lower part of your chest cavity with air. You will see your stomach rise, not just your chest moving.
- Do this step slowly and in control. Do this for 8 to 10 seconds.
- Hold your breath for 1-2 seconds.
- Relax and let the air out of your chest at a natural rate.
- Repeat this process until you feel yourself falling back asleep.
Step 2. Do Progressive Relaxation
Progressive relaxation is a technique that asks you to focus on each of the major muscle groups in your body individually, relaxing them one at a time. Even though we live with our bodies, most people really find it difficult to conceptualize their entire body at once. When lying down and trying to relax to fall asleep, we may still be holding some parts of our body tense. Instead, try the following:
- Lie on your back, close your eyes and focus on how your body is feeling at that moment.
- Focus on your feet, relax all the muscles that are there and let your feet sink into the mattress. Try to imagine every muscle in your foot, from your toes to your heels, and relax them.
- Continue up to the calves and knees. Continue the previous step from heel up, loosening any tension you might be holding in your muscles and simply letting your feet lie there.
- Continue up your thighs, doing the same.
- Continue on your buttocks then your lower back.
- Set aside a few moments on your chest and stomach. Focus on the breath - make your breath deeper and focus on the process of inhaling and exhaling.
- Continue on to your hands. As you have done with your legs, imagine all the small muscles in your hands and relax one by one. Start with your fingers, then your palms, then your wrists.
- Continue to your upper arms, then your shoulders.
- Relax the muscles in your neck, many people store most of the muscle tension in this area.
- Loosen the muscles in your jaw that you may be constantly clenching involuntarily.
- Continue on your eyelids and cheeks. Let your whole skull sink into the pillow.
- Once you've done your full body relaxation inventory, try to fall back asleep.
Step 3. Perform toe tension exercises
While tensing a muscle over and over again may seem like it can keep you awake, stretching your toes actually relaxes other muscles in your body and prepares you for rest.
- Lie in bed, close your eyes and focus on your toes.
- Pull your toes back, toward your face. Hold this position for 10 seconds.
- Relax the muscles of the fingers for 10 seconds.
- Repeat this process 10 times, then try to fall back asleep.
Step 4. Use a calming mantra to reduce anxiety
Mantras are sounds that are repeated over and over again to focus attention away from distracting thoughts. The most common of these spells is the sound "Om," although you can use any sound that is simple and soothing. The mantra draws your focus on 1) the activity to produce the sound, 2) the tactile feeling of producing the sound with your mouth and throat, and 3) the soothing sound it produces.
- Lie down on the bed and close your eyes.
- Inhale deeply to slowly fill your lungs, drawing air into the lower part of the chest cavity. You will see your stomach moving up, not your chest.
- Say "Om," hold down the "o" for as long as you feel comfortable.
- Focus only on the three dimensions of the mantra - action, feeling and sound. Think about these three things until everything else disappears.
- Rest for one second in silence.
- Repeat until your anxiety subsides.
Step 5. Fight negative thoughts
If you wake up in the middle of the night, helpless because of anxiety or stress, then you won't be able to go back to sleep until you get over the negative thoughts that are taking over your mind.
- Ask yourself, "Are these thoughts productive? Will they help me achieve my goals or are these just endless obsessive, useless thoughts?"
- If these thoughts are productive thoughts, let them find their own way out. You may feel relaxed, after thinking of a solution to a problem you encountered that day.
- If these thoughts are negative thoughts, don't let yourself get caught up in them. Realize that thinking these kinds of thoughts will not have a positive effect on your life and force yourself to stop thinking them.
- This step is very difficult and will require a lot of practice and determination. At first you may not succeed, but as time goes on with effort, you will learn to control whether negative thoughts can keep you up at night or not.
Step 6. Use positive affirmations
It's very difficult to fall back asleep if you stay in a negative mindset, so positive affirmations - a technique of repeating positive thoughts to yourself until your anxiety subsides - can come in handy in the middle of the night.
- Start with more tangible and common positive affirmations like "I'm a good person"; "I believe in myself"; or "My day tomorrow will be beautiful!"
- Repeat a few of these affirmations to yourself until you feel a little relaxed by the repetition process.
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Then move on to more specific affirmations that target right at the root of the anxiety that keeps you awake. Examples could be:
- "I will find the man/woman of my dreams"
- "I'll find a better job soon."
- "I'm happy with my body."
Step 7. Lower the room temperature
Subconsciously, the brain regulates your body temperature all the time. But the brain tries to reach a different internal body temperature when you are awake than when you are asleep. Lowering the external temperature slightly will help the body get ready to rest. If your room is warm, lower the temperature to 18 to 20 degrees Celsius.
Step 8. Get your pet out of bed
While collaborating with a dog or cat at bedtime can make you feel emotionally comfortable, research shows that 53% of pet owners who sleep with their pets admit that their furry friend disrupts their sleep patterns throughout the night. Your pet doesn't have the same sleep cycle as humans and won't feel compelled to stay calm or quiet for your sake. Keeping pets out of the bedroom can be the key to allowing you to sleep through the night.
Step 9. Get up and do something after 20 minutes
If you're too used to lying awake in bed, your brain may start making unwanted connections between bed and wakefulness. To prevent your brain from making such connections, get out of bed if you can't fall back asleep after every 20 minutes and do some kind of light activity until you feel ready to go back to sleep. Read a book or listen to soothing music, but avoid bright lights from the television or computer screen as these light stimulate the brain and prevent you from falling back asleep.
Method 2 of 2: Developing Healthier Long-Term Sleep Patterns
Step 1. Get yourself checked or undergo treatment for sleep disorders
While some sleep disorders (such as narcolepsy, in which people fall asleep unexpectedly at times when they should be awake) are real and observable disorders, you may be suffering from disorders you don't even know about. Sleep apnea is a disorder that makes people stop breathing during sleep, causing them to wake up throughout the night without understanding what woke them. The American Sleep Apnea Association estimates that of the 22 million Americans believed to have sleep apnea, 80% of cases of the sleep disorder go undiagnosed - so get yourself checked!
Step 2. Get yourself checked or take medication for other medical conditions that may be interfering with your sleep
Even if you don't have a sleep disorder, there are a number of underlying medical conditions that can occasionally wake you up throughout the night. For example, people who suffer from acid reflux often suffer from insomnia, sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome. Men who suffer from an enlarged prostate will wake up all night with an urgent need to urinate.
- Explain your sleep disorder to a healthcare professional and seek their advice on what medical conditions may be causing your problem.
- This step will most likely involve a blood test and if the doctor finds a medical problem, their treatment advice can range from simple changes to your diet to surgery.
- To avoid stomach acid reflux, avoid foods such as citrus, chocolate, fatty and fried foods, garlic, onions, tomatoes, spicy foods and drinks that contain caffeine.
- Over-the-counter acid reflux or stomach pain medications will not treat the underlying cause of the problem, but will treat the symptoms on the spot if taken before bedtime.
Step 3. Keep a sleep diary
The best thing you can do to find out what your body needs to get healthy sleep is to monitor it through a sleep diary. Over time you will be able to figure out which habits are making it difficult for you to get a good night's sleep and which habits can ensure that you are getting a good night's sleep.
- Use the sample sleep diary pattern from the National Sleep Foundation. Set aside a few minutes each day to fill out the diary, making sure you do it thoroughly and don't skip a single day.
- Analyze data from your sleep diary. Look for patterns: do you sleep through the night on the days you exercise? Does watching television before bed result in disturbed sleep? Do certain medications cause sleep disturbances at night?
- Change your daily habits based on the pattern you choose to prepare yourself for regular, uninterrupted sleep.
Step 4. Adhere to a regular bedtime
Depending on your schedule, both personal and professional, you may have an erratic schedule that requires you to stay up late one night and then fall asleep the next night. However, to prevent unhealthy sleep patterns that result in sleep disturbances that often occur throughout the night, set firm benchmarks as your sleep schedule. Prioritize trying to go to bed at the same time every night, even if it means rearranging your schedule throughout the day.
Step 5. Follow a bedtime habit every night
By following the same steps before bedtime each night, you'll be training your body and brain to expect a restful night's rest. Do the same thing every night before going to bed. An example might be with:
- Bath or shower.
- Read a book or listen to relaxing music.
- Meditation.
Step 6. Avoid all screens for at least an hour before bedtime
Research shows that bright light from phone, computer and television screens interferes with the body's production of melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that is used to regulate the internal clock in the body.
Don't stare at any screens for an hour to two before you go to bed each night
Step 7. Don't drink caffeinated drinks before bedtime
Some people are more sensitive to caffeine than others - you know best how your body responds to coffee and soda. If you're particularly sensitive to caffeine, avoid drinking caffeinated drinks after lunch, just to be safe and make sure there's no caffeine left in your body to disturb your sleep at night.
Step 8. Build a relaxing bedroom environment
A cool room temperature will help lower your body temperature and keep you asleep through the night. If there are streetlights outside your window, buy heavy curtains (block-out curtains) to keep out any light from disturbing your sleep throughout the night and do your best to keep the environment quiet and free of background noise.
If background noise is unavoidable - for example, if you live in an apartment with thin walls and noisy neighbors - try to sleep with regular, soothing background noises that will drown out the irregular noise. A rotating fan can be useful, as can a phone or computer app that plays soothing sounds like raindrops or waves crashing on the beach
Tips
- If you fixate on falling back asleep while watching the clock, you may not be able to fall back asleep. So turn around and don't look at your watch. You don't have to know what time it is until the alarm goes off to wake you.
- Turn on soothing sounds like wind, rain, water etc. Then take a deep breath clear your mind.
- Go to the sink and pat some cold water on your neck and arms. This will help calm and relax you. Before you know it, you will fall back asleep very quickly.
