What to do When You Can’t Sleep?

One of the most frustrating things in life is when you can’t sleep! This can affect your health, your work and your mental well-being.

Do you ever find you’ve been asleep for a while and then wake up and can’t get back to sleep, just tossing and turning? Or you’ve gone to bed and just can’t get to sleep?

These are a few things I have personally found successful:

1. Put the light on and read for a while. You may need to read for half an hour or even an hour by which time your eyes should be dropping and you’re ready for sleep.
2. Have you ever found yourself half awake and half asleep, tossing and turning, dreaming and then waking?
   This can often occur when you’re stressed about something. The best way to deal with this is to get up and wake up fully. It might sound like the opposite of what you should do but it actually breaks the cycle of being half-awake/half-asleep. Get up and have a glass of water or a cup of hot milk and sometimes even a light snack can be beneficial. Then go back to bed and you may find you can get to sleep.
3. If you’ve been lying there for a while and can’t sleep, give yourself a time limit. “If I’m not asleep in 15 minutes I’m getting up”. I’ve done this many many times and have fallen asleep before the end of the time limit. And if you’re not asleep in 15 minutes then get up. As per 1 and 2 above – read for a while, have a glass of water, check if you’re hungry which might be keeping you awake.
4. Another thing to do when you get up is to go for a walk. This might not be practical depending on where you live so you might just take a few steps around the garden, or if you live in a flat look out the window at the lights in the neighbourhood and look at the stars. This helps to get your attention out and off the fact you can’t sleep.
5. If you’ve tried all the above try using a little imagination and think up a story which you’re involved in – a little adventure but not so adventurous that adrenalin starts pumping! Or think up a poem. Trying to remember the lines is almost guaranteed to put you to sleep!

It may seem that you’re “wasting” valuable sleep time by doing the above but in actual fact, you’ll save yourself a lot of tossing and turning!

You may also find these 7 tips to prepare for a good night’s sleep useful.