Do you waken up in the middle of the night and struggle to get back to sleep? Following this five step guide may help you find your way back to a contented slumber.
1. Be positive
Firstly and most importantly, decide consciously that you are going back to sleep. Be in no doubt in your mind that it is very easy for you to fall asleep again. The worst thing you can do is think, “I will never get back to sleep” because you have already set your self up to fail. Don’t do it!
2. Keep the light off and don’t check the time on your phone
Why? The light from your phone will trigger your brain to think it’s time to get up. You will then start counting how long you’ve actually been awake for. If it’s around 4:30am or 5am you might think that there’s not much point in going back to sleep.
3. Breathe slowly and deeply
This will keep your body relaxed and remind it that you are ready for sleep.
4. Get comfortable and relax
If you find that you can’t get comfortable or are restless, start a relaxation technique. Lie on your back with your hands placed gently on your stomach. Breathing slowly and deeply as in point 3. Starting with your toes, focus your mind on relaxing the muscles in each and every part of your body moving up from your toes to your head. Chances are that you will nod back off before you’ve got to your head.
5. Meditate
There are many methods for doing this but here’s a great step by step guide from WikiHow that you can learn. Let your mind wander on this journey. Putting your brain into a meditative state will tell it that it doesn’t need to be thinking about all the things that are worrying you or all the things that you need to be doing the following day.
Do you have any other techniques to help you get back to sleep?
Please share them by posting a comment below as you might have the answer for someone else’s insomnia. Thank you <3
