If you have insomnia, and you’re not doing this, it’s not too late!

If you have insomnia and you’re not doing this, it’s not too late!

If you are tired of being awake and frustrated at night, I'm going to share with you what you can do to get back to sleep faster.

OUR REACTIONS ARE NORMAL

The first thing I want you to understand about being awake at night is that it’s completely normal to react with fear, stress, and frustration when you can’t fall back asleep.

Nobody wants to be awake at night, and it sucks! And nobody wants to feel like crap the next day. You are obviously not alone in this.

It’s also normal to try and control sleep when awake at night. We'll try anything when we are awake at night and feeling desperate to fall back asleep. You may try supplements, stretching, sleepytime tea, sleeping pills, meditation, CBD, melatonin, or whatever else is out there.

Nothing seems to work, yet we keep trying.

Your brain is trying to help you problem-solve and fix this issue.

DON’T GO TO SLEEP TO TRY TO SLEEP

I know that sounded really weird. I have a few points I want to make about this one.

One of the worst things you can do is to go to bed early to try and catch up on sleep. This doesn’t work and will only leave you tossing and turning all night.

Also, don’t have a set bedtime. One of the worst rules people like to follow when they have insomnia is to go to bed at the same time every night.

So if you aren’t feeling tired at your desired bedtime of 11 pm (for example), you should go to bed anyway and hope you fall asleep? 

No way!

Instead, I recommend waiting until you are sleepy and ready to fall asleep. Then wake up around the same time every day no matter how little sleep.

This will get you back on a good cycle.

Now here is a really good tip to help.

Go to bed with the intention of resting and not trying to sleep. 

When you think about going to bed “trying” to sleep, that adds a lot of pressure and performance anxiety to fall asleep.

If you go to bed with the intention of resting, that can mean being awake or asleep at night. Even if you are lying down and resting while wide awake, you are relaxing your body and rejuvenating some of your energy.

If instead, you choose to try and sleep and are getting stressed and frustrated, you are using up more energy and leaving yourself feeling depleted the next day.

5 SIMPLE STEPS TO SLEEP MORE

Before I move on to the next tip, if you want a free, easy 5-step guide on overcoming insomnia, head to www.katelingates.com/5simplesteps to download the guide today and get started on your journey.

Now with that out of the way, let’s move on to the next tip on what to do when you are awake at night…

I want to start this one off by talking about our reaction to sleeplessness again.

When we can’t sleep, our normal reaction is to react with fear and try to escape sleeplessness with pills, supplements, and whatever else.

Your brain thinks there is a threat out there. You are fearing something and trying to escape it, so your brain activates the fight or flight system. Yes, your brain is confused, but it now has sleeplessness on the threat radar.

Understanding this alone gives you a good idea of the direction you need to go to overcome insomnia.

This brings me to the next tip I have for you when it comes to what to do when you are awake at night.

IF FEAR IS KEEPING YOU STUCK, THEN DO THE OPPOSITE OF FEAR.

Of course, you can’t just make yourself stop fearing sleep or decide in a moment that you don’t fear it anymore. That takes time and working on the mindset.

Some things that can help are remembering all the days in the past when you were able to get through the day on little to no sleep and maybe even had some good days thrown in there. Yes, you were likely tired, and feeling that way isn’t ideal, but you did just fine. 

This helps take off the pressure to sleep. The more pressure you can take off, the more sleep you will get. Remember, pressure is not going to help you sleep. It will only make it more difficult.

Also, remember that you can’t control or make yourself sleep, and trying to do so only leads to more stress, frustration, and fear because it doesn’t work.

What do you think all that stress, frustration, and fear are doing for your sleep? It obviously makes it more difficult.

If you can’t make yourself sleep and you are stuck awake, you could even turn it into a positive experience. Read a book, watch some tv, and enjoy your night. This reduces your hyperarousal levels, teaches your brain that you are safe, and leads to more sleep.

YES, YOU CAN USE YOUR ELECTRONICS AT NIGHT

Yes, you read that correctly!

Blue light can affect your sleep and delay when you are sleepy. When I read the studies about it in the past, it was something like minutes.

However, if you are enjoying your night, not focused on trying to sleep, and feeling more at peace, you will overall have more sleep than if you just laid awake stressed, frustrated, and upset that you aren’t sleeping. 

Think about “good” sleepers; they tend to have the worst sleep hygiene of everyone. If you are worried, you can buy a pair of blue light-blocking glasses, and that’s what I do.

So grab your electronics and bring some enjoyment to your bed.

I hope these tips help and that you enjoy your night a little bit more.

The next blog post I recommend after reading this one is “The Real Reason You Have Insomnia” Click here to read/watch it.