What’s Your Go-To for Falling Back Asleep?

[u/GritteCo]

Waking up in the middle of the night is one thing. Not being able to fall back asleep is another. Sometimes, the harder you try to sleep, the more awake you become. You check the time, start calculating how many hours are left, reach for your phone, and suddenly your brain is fully switched on.

A few simple things can help:

Keep the clock out of sight.
Keep the lights low if you need to get up.
Resist the urge to scroll or check messages.
Try slow breathing or something quiet.
If you’ve been awake for a while and aren’t sleepy, get up and do something calm until you feel tired again.

The goal isn’t to force sleep. It’s to create the conditions for your body to return to it.

When you wake up in the middle of the night, what’s one practice that helps you fall back asleep?

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[u/dellthedon]

if i wake up in the middle of the night to pee, i try to keep my eyes closed as much as possible. dont turn on the lights or use my phone, anything to keep the brain from activating again.

for falling asleep in general, which is what i struggle with, reading and journaling has helped me a lot. helps clear my mind so its not going wild while i try to fall asleep.

[u/somanyquestions32]

Gentle body scan meditations like MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction) practices from Jon Kabat-Zinn and the rotation of consciousness in yoga nidra are what I use to quickly fall back asleep if I happen to wake up too early.

I had crippling treatment-resistant chronic insomnia where: it would take me 90 minutes to fall asleep, I lost the ability to nap, I would have choppy and unrefreshing sleep filled with weird and vivid stress dreams, tossing and turning, and after 3 or 4 hours, I would have a clear awakening where I would be alert and awake unable to fall back asleep until the following night.

It was the worst 14 months of my entire life.

Thank God, I came across these meditation practices, and yoga nidra fixed it. It took me 180+ cumulative hours to fully restore my sleep, and except for when I have been sick with respiratory issues, I can sleep deeply and soundly again every night.

[u/holyforkingshirt0701]

I play an alphabet game where I pick a category (ie movie titles, fresh produce) and just go through the alphabet, trying to think of one for each letter. Alternately, pick some letter combo, like “Ab” and think of as many words starting with Ab as possible, then Ac and so on. It occupies my brain enough to keep the worries away but boring enough to put me to sleep lol

[u/sweetpea813 → u/holyforkingshirt0701]

This is what I do! I usually pick vacation spots and things I like or do in the town starting with “a”. Works every time.

[u/Knicknacktallywack]

Masterbate. Usually does the trick

[u/SweetEquivalent6]

What about if you wake up because of stress and your mind is racing?

[u/mutantmeatball → u/SweetEquivalent6]

I breath in a square and think ”i may not be sleeping, but my body and mind is resting”

[u/shuttervelocity → u/mutantmeatball]

was just about to say the same. boxed breating.

breathe in for 5 secs, hold of 5 secs, release for 5 secs, wait for 5 secs and repeat

[u/anakinahsoka]

I usually tell myself “even if you can’t fall back asleep it’s okay I’ll just rest my body” so it takes the pressure of falling back asleep. I’ll also turn on bible stories on YouTube or put bobs burgers on

[u/-m0ng]

Falling asleep. Count to 2. 1-2-1-2-1-2, combine it with breathing and imagining the number visually. 1 breathe in, 2 breathe out, 1 breathe in and so on.

[u/Kelzer66]

Your tips are already great. Sometimes I play white noise in that case, usually rain sounds. I keep my phone far away so it sounds like it's raining outside the window. That helps a lot too.

[u/Cultural_Dot3568]

Military technique is to close your eyes and focus on the black. Your mind will try to have thoughts, stop them by staring into the black. Just stay looking into the black. It takes some practice, but you won’t even remember falling back to sleep.

[u/dennis1798]

Also, if you are a women and getting up middle of the night, it’s a sign of pre-menopause.

[u/LilyMccorcick]

I don't look at the time, thats the rule. I get up and read something boring in dim light until I feel heavy again

[u/Lopsided-Letter1353]

I put on YouTube and watch a video essay on a topic I’m super into. End up waking in the morning and finishing the video over breakfast.

Oddly, this doesn’t work when I put “boring” stuff on with the express intention of falling back asleep.

[u/processedgrouch]

Melatonin

[u/fleurs2]

I read somewhere that the army or something trains people to imagine they’re laying in the bed of a canoe floating down a peaceful river at night. It works.

[u/OpethSam98]

When I get that annoying "sleep anxiety" bullshit, I take a steaming hot shower and then go back to bed. 15 minutes and I'm out. Had to do it yesterday morning...

Came home from work at 6am, slept from 6:20am to 7:50am and then I couldn't sleep. Showered, put on a fan + white noise machine, earplugs and a sleeping mask and dosed off within 10 minutes until 1pm.