Bore yourself
Start coloring, knitting, listen to calm music or read books (not on your phone). Count to 100 or solve basic math problems. Occupy yourself until you are bored enough to make you feel sleepy again.
However, refrain from eating. Eating is a way to energize your body. Also, it’s not a good idea to make your brain think that it’s okay to wake up in the middle of the night and raid the fridge.
Avoid checking the phone
Smartphone screens emit blue light that decreases the melatonin that your body produces. The pineal gland produces melatonin hormone in your brand that further helps to restore your sleep cycles. If you can’t avoid checking your phone in the middle of the night, there are various ways to limit the blue light exposure to your eyes.
Many devices, including your smartphone, offers night mode that changes the screen to a warm tone. Other than that, amber glasses are also a cheap way to limit blue light exposure.
Focus on boring things
You can do the classic ‘counting sheep’ or ‘back counting’ technique. Any kind of boring task occupies your mind and distracts you from the surroundings. This phenomenon helps you to sleep again faster. Hence, reading a boring book like your coursebook or an article about a war might do the work for you.
The nucleus accumbent, present in your brain plays a significant role in pleasure and motivation. This part of the brain might be the reason why you fall asleep when you are bored.
Avoid exposure to blue light
It’s always irresistible to see who has liked or commented on your picture, or see if you have any other interesting notifications on your phone. But, don’t!
Tuck your iPads and iPhones far away before you sleep so you don’t end up giving in to your temptations.
These screens emit blue light which makes your brain think it is daytime. The longer you expose yourself to blue light, the more awake you will feel.
Relax your muscles and try breathing exercises
Relaxing your muscles is the best way to fall asleep again in the middle of the night. However, you have to do a full-body scan.
Here’s how you can do a full-body scan:
- Close your eyes and breath in rhythm
- First, focus on your face and try to relax every muscle
- Move to your shoulders and neck and try to relax them as well
- Continue relaxing your muscles in every part of the body
Moreover, you can combine it with the 4-7-8 breathing technique as well. In this breathing exercise, you inhale the air for 4 seconds, hold the breath for 7 seconds and take 8 seconds to exhale with your mouth open.
Don’t look at the time
If you are anything like me, the first thing you do when you open your eyes is looking at the time. However, when you wake up mid-sleep, this can keep you from going back to sleep. When you look at the clock tick, you realize you’re losing out on your very limited sleeping hours. This, in turn, will stress you out and activate your nervous system – making you feel alert rather than sleepy.
If looking at the time is a habit, turn the clock’s face to the other side or just get rid of the clock altogether.
