Strategy For Falling Asleep When You Wake Up At Night
When you wake up at night, your brain begins a complex spiral in which anxiety, fatigue and desperate doubt as to why we cannot go back to sleep combine.
After this, the person wakes up the next morning tired, with a headache and with the clear feeling of not having regained energy. Undoubtedly, a drawback that threatens performance in different areas of life.
It is clear that staying up at night is due to many reasons. Insomnia is one of them, but stress and anxiety are also negative emotions that alter brain chemistry and cause these types of disruptions to rest.
What to do to be able to sleep when you wake up
John Lloyd is a well-known BBC television producer who gained considerable fame after directing a program on popular science and curiosities.
He is the author of “The Great Little Book of Ignorance” and, in one of its chapters, he addresses those erroneous strategies that many of us have ever used to fall asleep:
- Get up for a walk around the house.
- Concentrate on verbalizations such as “I’m going to sleep, I have to rest.”
- Count number series.
- Watching television for a few minutes, waiting for sleep to overcome us
All these mechanisms respond to what is known as “the pink elephant.” That is to say, it is enough that they tell us “don’t think about the pink elephant” to derive that thought obsessively.
With insomnia, the same thing happens. Counting sheep, convincing ourselves that we should sleep or watch TV are actions that further feed this state and the anxieties themselves. Given this, we can resort to other more effective actions.
1. The importance of temperature
This information may seem curious, but it is actually quite important. To get into a deep sleep, we need to have an ambient temperature between 19 and 22 degrees Celsius, according to the Global Sleep Observatory.
Having “a little” cold facilitates relaxation and helps us to oxygenate the brain a little more. To achieve this state, you can lower the quilt a little to the height of the waist, or lighten your clothes, pajamas or nightgown.
If you sleep in socks, take them off and take one foot off the quilt. This unique fact will also allow you to regulate your body temperature. If you prefer, you can also open the window a little.
2. Posture
Improving the postural axis in bed also helps to optimize rest and to be able to sleep again. It is advisable that you sleep on your left side. In this way, the liver is not compressed and it is easier for the body to carry out its functions without exerting any pressure.
Then put a pillow between your legs. This way you will take care of the lumbar vertebrae and allow an adequate body balance. With this position, in addition, muscular tensions are relieved and greater relaxation is achieved.
3. Suppression of anxious thoughts
When you wake up at night, the most common thing is to sink into your pillow and go from side to side wanting to fall asleep again. Thoughts like “I must go to sleep because in 4 hours I have to get up to go to work” all they do is intensify the anxiety; therefore, it is necessary to avoid them.
A good strategy is to substitute images for mental verbalizations. Visualizing something always impacts much more on the brain to promote pleasant sensations.
Words demand another kind of activity, which tends to overstimulate the cerebral hemispheres. To promote sleep after being awake, the ideal is to carry out a technique like the following.
The palace of serenity
This is a very simple method of falling asleep, which is also very effective for many people. It consists of the following steps:
- Visualize a gleaming palace. You approach him, little by little, to enter a white room with serene light.
- The room has large windows that open onto a calm setting, where dusk falls.
- In this placid setting, the murmur of a river that runs around us can be heard.
- The temperature is perfect, nothing breaks this thread of perfect balance. The problems are in another distant universe, and nothing can reach you in this white room.
- You feel light and very relaxed ; so much so that you choose to lie on a couch to wrap yourself in that magic.
These images help to relax the mind and body. Also keep in mind that people used to doing meditation exercises carry out these strategies more effectively.
Your quality of sleep is essential
You already have all the information you need to put this method into practice: always try to start by looking for a comfortable position, and then start these simple visualization exercises.
Little by little, you will notice that your quality of sleep improves. In the same way, if this situation continues in time, try to consult your doctor.
