Wake up in the middle of night and can’t fall back to sleep.

Mlrgoofy14

I need help. My mind turns on and I can’t fall back asleep. Any suggestions?

ninerbuff

Smoke some or eat some weed.

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AnnPT77

This is not a regular thing for me, and I'm sure solutions are individual, but what helps me is something like "The Relaxation Response". Instructions here:

http://www.relaxationresponse.org/steps/

. . . except in this case, you'd be doing the steps while lying in a comfortable position in bed, rather than sitting.

I've also used a routine that is similar, but you do the progressive body relaxation, then slowly count backward from 100, in coordination with normal breathing. If you get all the way to zero, start over at 100.

I'm also not saying this is super easy, when my mind wants to take off in some direction. But doing it, and returning to it if I'm temporarily off-track, usually works eventually for me.

kshama2001

I read myself back to sleep but the sleep clinic I attended recently said to get up and do something soothing until you're sleepy again.



Oh, and for falling back asleep my book can't be too interesting or have a lot of dialog. Long, descriptive passages in a book I've already ready works best for me. The Clan of the Cave Bear series has lots of these. I use a kindle and look up things in Wikipedia. These can put me to sleep. I fell back asleep twice reading an entry about a Slavic goddess

I usually fall asleep the first time to a new and interesting book, and have another book going for getting back to sleep in the middle of the night.

xbowhunter

Cannabis has has helped me tremendously with my sleep. I used to wake up as well after sleeping for a few hours. It was horrible. I make my own gummies now out of the weed I grow in the summer-time.

Now I sleep like a baby and feel refreshed and ready to go when I wake up...

sc9cbxxs94

I find herbal teas ie twinnings sleepy tea , camomile , sleep meditation music off YouTube, and cbd oil really help me to fall asleep well and a lavender scent ,
Hope some of this suggestions help 🙏🙏

avatiach

What is occupying your mind when you wake up? For me it's usually work things, and it's usually not important work things. See if you can write down what is bothering you. Could be journaling or (if it's work things, like me) could be just making a list. To be honest, in the morning I usually will look at the list and be like, "What? THAT was keeping you up?"

Arriarrison

do some research into mindfulness. What works for me is to lie on my back and breathe, through my nose long and deep breaths. I then focus on the feeling of the breath through my nose and the feeling of my lungs expanding or retracting. This helps me channel through the thoughts and craziness going on in my thoughts. Doing this can also reduce your overall pulse rate and make it easier to transition back to sleep. I can only get to sleep on my left side so once I've done this for a while and feel calmer, I roll over and, very often, go back to sleep.

You have to find what works for you. It's hard and what works for me may not work for you but give it a go and see what you think.

cwolfman13

I have generalized anxiety disorder which comes and goes in waves. I'm currently in an episode that's been about 3 weeks long and I wake up every night around 3:30am and can't get back to sleep until seemingly about 10 minutes before my alarm goes off. I used to get it way more often and it would last considerably longer than it seems to now, but it's still a real bugger. I went to counseling for it back in 2014 and I'm starting up again next week. I'm pretty much at a loss for sleep remedies when these happen...tried everything but nothing really works. Good luck.

history_grrrl

This happens to me fairly often, especially since menopause, and it’s so frustrating! (Maybe once every few months or so, I end up taking a sleeping pill that lets me sleep through the night, which is bliss but not a real solution.) What usually helps me is listening to one of the ten-minute Headspace videos on YouTube. The ones I like most are Beachcombers and Nighttime SOS: Mental Chatter. I think there are longer versions on the Headspace site, but I’m not a subscriber and the short ones are often enough to get me back to sleep. If not, I try Jon Kabat-Zinn’s body scan video, also available on YouTube.

missa526

I have the same issue. Then I can't get anything done the next day-abd on and on. Yesterday I woke up at 2:30 a.m and today I woke up at about 1 a.m. I'm going to try to stay awake all day. I'm on klonopin (anti-anxiety), several other things that help me sleep, and I get 15 Ambien every 3 months. I know part of my issues are severe anxiety and Bipolar 2. Medical marijuana has helped some, but some nights It just doesn't work. Natural Zquil helps sometimes. Melatonin helps some people. CBN (type of CBD) seems to help people sleep. http://www.medterra.com hasthose tincture and gummies but they're expensive. Hope this helps.

Hobartlemagne

Learn the techniques of mind-emptying meditation. Actively think of nothingness.
It takes a lot of practice and patience with yourself. The biggest part of it is to be able to identify a thought and abandon it when it pops into your mind.

*or*

Put 100% of your attention into very slow breathing. Inhale, counting 5. Exhale, counting 6. Really get settled into the slowness. Then after a few minutes raise the numbers- inhale 6, exhale 7. Feel the air moving through your mouth and nose. Listen to the sound of your breathing. Put all focus on all things breathing.

I've done both of these methods when sleepless

elisa123gal

There's a good sleep doctor on YouTube.. I watched one of his videos.. he explained that most people wake at 3 a.m. which I always do. He says there is a drop in some ??? hormone or something or other that causes people to wake. The trick is to not get up but to do a breathing routine of 8 or so breaths. The particulars I don't recall. But the breathing elevates what you need in your system and you will go back to sleep.
What I do now.. is not get up when I wake at three. I tell myself. .this is normal.. roll over relax.. breath deep and you'll go back to sleep. and I do.. it works.

ConnieKay1

Do math problems in your head. It forces you to use a different part of your brain.

MsCzar

I turn on the TV on low volume and find an audio book or short story with no adds on YouTube. I set the TV timer for 30 minutes and am usually sleeping in ten. For me, meditations have never worked since the 'relaxing' is an active process - breathe, count, visualize, etc. Simple stories keep my mind from engaging, wandering or worrying. My favorites are Victorian ghost stories, short stories by Somerset Maugham or even Nancy Drew mysteries.

KareninCanada

I find it helpful to turn on a podcast or something, or to pray/meditate. If I take the reins and give my brain something to focus on, then it settles down and I fall back to sleep.

Hobartlemagne

Play 2 games of Catan online then try to sleep again

MovinNow

I used to wake up and start worrying about “undone” things at work. I Put a tablet by the bed and just jotted them down. This helped me let go of the worry and get back to sleep. If allowed my work-brain to shut off.

xombiebite

I listen to guided by meditations by Jason Stevenson or there’s a podcast that literally talks about the most boring things. Good luck!

hostasnakeyes

Have you tried magnesium capsules? My sleep is much better since I started taking them.

justgirl81

GABA

WilliamShreckengost

It really depends how long you can sleep before that.

3-4 hours before waking early? You might've woken up at the end of a sleep cycle, which is what people actually aim for when they want a polyphasic sleep pattern. If that happens to me, I'll often lean into it and get up, stop by the bathroom if I need to, grab a glass of water to take back with me, and make sure what I need in the morning is where I should've left it. Usually that means I'll hit the hay again in an hour or two and try to grab that second half. Sometimes I have work in another few hours and I probably just have to live with it for the day.

1-2 hours? Try to pin down what might be waking you up early. A glass of water before bed can actually be an effective alarm clock, so try to avoid that but still pay attention to your thirst and just throw out everything I said here if you think you need it anyway. Noise can also wake us up early, and you might not even know that was it if it ended before you got your wits about you. I also sometimes get woken up by minor earthquakes, and I usually don't know until later because I'm probably too out of it to tell if the floor is jelly or not.

Rather than suggesting taking something since that was like half of the thread already, I'll say another possible cause could be that you're eating too close to bedtime. For me, anything but a really light meal (hard to call a cup of yogurt a meal, but more than that) gets me going again if I eat too late. We're all at least a little different there, but for me I aim for dinner about two hours before bed, and maybe 3-4 hours if there's any slowly-digesting stuff like meat in that meal.

csplatt

no phone / computer two hours before bed and no looking at a screen when you wake up in the middle of the night

jeri30

Are you feeling overwhelmed or anxious or just have a lot to do? Journaling can help that. Just getting it out of your mind and onto paper can help. If you've got a lot to do, create a to-do list or just a list of whatever is on your mind. If you wake up, add more if necessary.

Also, I've found Valerian helps especially if you combine it with Benadryl. Knocks me right out.

Cut out phone/computer/tv screen for one to two hours before bedtime as the blue light emitted by the devices reduces melatonin (the sleepy-time hormone) by half in adults and even more in children. So go take a relaxing bath, journal, read a book, meditate, crochet, whatever, listen to an audiobook. And get outside in the sunlight when you first get up to help reset your body clock--get in that morning daylight, which lowers your sleepy-time hormones and increases your wakeup hormones.

dydn11402

I turn on an old sitcom on youtube that I've seen before and close my eyes and just listen to it. It's interesting enough that I'm listening and boring enough that I fall asleep again pretty quickly. Trick is to stop thinking. Right now it's everybody loves Raymond. Still funny after all these years.