What to do if you wake up in the middle of the night and cannot sleep

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The clock is three nights, and there is no sleep in one eye. You are tormented, rolling from side to side, and remember some kind of resentment or problem, and the alarm clock is preparing to ring at 6:30. What to do?

So now it’s the middle of the night, you know you have to sleep, but you cannot. Something is keeping you awake. Maybe your employee doesn't want to give you a lift to the bus stop anymore, or your friend said something rude. Whatever it is, you cannot get it out of your head, and at the same time, you need to sleep, because tomorrow you have to go to work.

Probably everyone experienced these terrible sensations. As for me, this is real torment. Moreover, the reason why you cannot sleep can be completely frivolous: an unpleasant comment or a statement that you are not doing your job.

Add stress and anxiety to this, and your brain starts working wildly at the most inopportune time - in the middle of the night.

Get up, take out the worry

You cannot get rid of severe stress just like that by agreeing with yourself in your thoughts. The more you think about the problem, the deeper you sink into stress and anxiety. You just go around in circles, worrying more and more. What a dream here!

Plus you feel nervous about not being able to sleep and getting up soon. It turns out that you not only do not sleep, but also worry all night, so that in the morning you feel completely overwhelmed.

You just won't be able to calm down and sleep, so stop torturing yourself - get out of bed. Doing something can help distract you and vent your anxiety.

It's really important to do this. The longer you stay in bed like this, the greater the risk of being awake all night. Eventually, your brain will stop seeing your bed as a place to rest.

Let your bed cool and air out. You must want to go back there, to blissful comfort on cool sheets. Take a walk, make a cup of herbal soothing tea, or drink a glass of water. Do something refreshing to shake off the stress of the day. Of course, this is not a panacea, but it will surely help break the circle of nervousness and worries, and this is the first step to defeating insomnia.

Do something meditative but distracting

The next thing to do is get away from the clock and worry about late time. Find yourself some meditation activity (not necessarily meditation as such). If meditation calms and relaxes you - meditate, if not - now is not the best time to learn it.

If you have some housework to do, do it. Cleaning (of course, if she does not wake up your family or neighbors), tidying up the closet, table, reading in dim light - these activities are great.

You can play a podcast or audiobook and let a pleasant voice or favorite track take you into the realm of sleep.

Your activity should be interesting and thoughtful, but not overly exciting. Your goal is to occupy your mind, focus on something else, not think about the things that stress you. You do not need to completely ignore the question that worries you, you just need to relax so that you calm down and fall asleep.

Don't spend time in front of the monitor

Try to avoid working on a computer, smartphone or tablet during this time. This is general advice for improving the quality of sleep, but it is also relevant for our situation. Blue light from your device lowers melatonin production, and your brain thinks it's time to wake up and stay awake.

Plus, looking at emails and checking social networks is too exciting for someone who wants to sleep. So put your smartphone aside and don't rush to turn on your computer.

If you find reading comforting, opt for e-ink readers. Unlike a tablet, they are readable, and their screen is not too bright and contrasting, so your brain won't be fooled about the time of day.

If you turn on your laptop or tablet, turn down the brightness or install apps like or. They change the color temperature of the screen depending on the time of day.

Of course, this is not the best choice, but let's be realistic: the first thing many of us will do when we realize that we will not be able to fall asleep is to reach for our smartphone to read Twitter, check messages on the VKontakte page or watch a couple of funny videos on YouTube.

Basically, if it helps you calm down, why not. Just stop in time, when you have calmed down, and try to fall asleep, and do not sit on social networks and on YouTube all night.

Use sleeping pills with caution

If you're really short on sleep, you can try over-the-counter sleeping pills, but be careful when taking (and choosing) your medications. Many of them have side effects, and what works great for other people may not help you at all.

Therefore, before taking sleeping pills, make sure that there really is no other choice. This is especially true of sudden night awakenings, when you wake up at three in the morning and cannot sleep, and at eight in the morning you have to be at work. If you take a sleeping pill in the middle of the night, its effects can last even after you wake up, so you’ll be like a sleepy fly until lunchtime.

It usually takes about eight hours for the sleeping pill to completely wear off. Therefore, take a look at the circumstances and read the instructions for the medication to choose the correct dosage.

You can try taking melatonin, which helps some people to improve the quality of their night's sleep. At least you won't feel as sleepy as with other drugs like diphenhydramine or doxylamine sleeping pills.

Whatever you do, don't start working

Whether you've picked up your smartphone or opened your laptop, it's tempting to get started. Don't give in!

Don't try to be productive or focus on what caused you stress. Don't reply to an annoying email, don't ask a friend on social media what he meant when he said this rude. Don't make it worse. Trying to fix the problem can only increase your stress levels, which, of course, will not help you fall asleep. Moreover, in this state: tired, nervous and angry, you are unlikely to decide anything.

Moreover, if you want to settle some kind of interpersonal relationship at night, you most likely will not succeed. It is better to clarify misunderstandings in communication at a meeting, or at least write messages when it is convenient for a person to answer them, and not when he sees the tenth dream.

A sleepless night is terrible, but you can hardly solve the problem that prevents you from sleeping at three in the morning. So it's better to be distracted by something, and solve problems during the day.

If you can’t resist, do not send what you wrote. Save email or SMS in drafts, write whatever you want to say in the note-taking app. In the morning, re-read and decide whether to send or not. No wonder they say that the morning is wiser than the evening: in the morning your grievances may seem like sheer nonsense, and you just delete this draft.

Take a day off

If you feel that nothing is helping, take time off from work at least until lunchtime. Send a message to your boss, tell him that you are not well and want to take half a day off. Set an alarm clock in the morning to call before the start of the day and notify you that you will be in the afternoon.

The thought that you don't have to get up early tomorrow will relieve some of the stress of having to sleep and not being able to. Most likely, after that you will calmly fall asleep, and the day off will give you time to get a good night's sleep and catch up in the afternoon.