Let me set the scene. You did your pre-sleep ritual. Magnesium? Drunk. Lights? Dimmed. Room? Blanketed in calming scents.
You drift off to dreamland with ease. Then, at about 2AM, you wake up. After that positively delightful pre-bed routine, you’ve found yourself the most awake you’ve ever been.
This is a very common occurrence for most of us. Maybe it’s happening to you right now. (Hey! Welcome to the blog.) In fact, around 30% of people are waking up in the middle of the night, multiple times a week.
I spoke to Professor Moira Junge, CEO of the Sleep Health Foundation, about what to do when you wake up and how to get back to sleep stat.
Here’s what she said:
1. It’s Normal!
“One of the most important things to know is that waking is a very normal part of the sleep transition,” explains Moira.
“When we have the sleep staging, we have lots of different stages across the seven hour eight hour period. We transition through multiple sleep stages like light and deep REM or non-REM and every time we do that we come up to the surface and we wake. Most of the time, we’re not even aware it’s happening.”
2. Don’t Panic
“If we happen to wake and then look at the time, we usually go: “Oh my god, I'm awake.” We identify that it’s a negative thing, which means we’ll probably stay awake.”
“So, how do you avoid that? One of the first things to answer that question is to know that it's normal to wake. Don't even open your eyes. Don't buy into thinking it's a problem. Normalise it. Remember, waking is actually a really important part of your sleep cycle.”
“Keep your eyes closed. If you must go to the toilet or have a drink of water, keep your eyes sort-of closed and go back to bed. Then, roll on your preferred side and do some breathing. There's a nice little technique around letting go of your breath. Three deep breaths and when exhale the breath, you tell yourself to let go, say: “I'm letting go of wakefulness. I'm sinking into the mattress.”
3. Play Hard To Get
“Ironically, if you’re trying too hard, you probably won't get back to sleep. It's almost like playing hard to get.”
“It's called paradoxical intent—where we teach people to just shrug your shoulders and try not to worry about it. Because everything's still ready for sleep. It’s dark. It's quiet. Melatonin is still high. The body temperature is right. Everything's fine and you will go back to sleep, if you let it happen”
4. Distract Yourself
“If all that stuff doesn't work and you think: “I'm actually really awake,” then the rule of thumb is that if you’ve felt around half an hour go by, get up and go just sit somewhere else. Do some knitting. Listen to podcasts. Don't do anything strenuous. Stay in dark conditions with the dim light and do whatever works for you. Then, come back to bed.”
“For me, when I can’t go back to sleep, I put on a podcast on my phone. Because it's a distraction. The most important thing is to distract yourself with something familiar. For me, a podcast works to go back to sleep because I was number nine out of ten children growing up and I had to go to bed early. I just love hearing people talking. That's comforting to me. It’s my cue that it’s calm and I'm not even thinking about being awake.”
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