[pamflute]

I normally have no problem going to sleep.  The problem I have is that I often wake up in the middle of the night and my mind goes into overdrive with worry about how I’ll get back to sleep.  I find it hard to relax and return to sleep, though sometimes that happens.  I  have recently tried yoga at night and that seems to help.

[gothard]

I call that the 3am curse. Go to bed at 10 or 11 and wake up at 3am. Exhausted, but not at all sleepy.  Prevention seem to be the key. Once I let the thoughts of not being able to get back to sleep creep into my consciousnesses, its game over. If I’m lucky, I’ll drift off for 20-30 minutes usually after hours of fighting to get back to sleep, but restful sleep is over for the night.

The thing that seems to work is to lay back down, get comfortable and let my mind go blank. Sometimes I will also start thinking about what I was last dreaming about if I can remember.

[Martin Reed]

If our minds become active when we wake during the night, it can certainly make falling back to sleep more difficult. I like that you tried yoga and found it to be helpful.

As gothard suggested, relaxing and letting the mind go blank can be helpful — but don’t try to force worries or stress out of your mind since this doesn’t work!

Relaxation is a skill that takes a lot of practice. Progressive muscle relaxation can be helpful, as can a guided relaxation audio session. It’s worth bearing in mind that simply practicing relaxation alone is unlikely to lead to significant improvements in your sleep. For the best results, you’ll probably want to combine relaxation with stimulus control and sleep restriction.

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[jillyrunpee]

I try to give myself a pleasant topic to think about or make lists over, like Favorite Star Trek Characters or something.

This only works if I am not too exhausted from poor sleep. If I am going on many hours of wakefulness, my head is too weak to fight off the bad thoughts.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by jillyrunpee.

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