Tips for Dealing with Middle of the Night Insomnia

You know that feeling---you wake up, feeling wide awake, and look at the clock to find out that it's something like 3 am. Despite the fact that you haven't been asleep that long, you don't feel the least bit tired anymore. Maybe your mind is racing with thoughts, or maybe you just find yourself needlessly alert. Middle of the night insomnia is annoying at best, and stressful and destructive at worst. So here are a few tips for dealing with your insomnia.

Before I go on, I want to state that I am not a medical doctor or anything of the sort, and that these tips are just things I have done in the past that have worked for me personally. Of course, if you have chronic insomnia, you should contact a doctor and see about getting medical help.

If you're feeling very wide awake, lying in bed and trying to force yourself to fall back asleep may only make your situation worse. So one thing you can do is just allow yourself to be awake. Don't keep trying to fall back asleep, but rather just get up and be awake and do something for a bit before you try to fall asleep again. A few good things to try are:

a) reading a book: lie in bed, turn on a dim light, and read for a while. The reading will take your mind off your stresses and after a while it may help put you back into a sleepy state where you can much more easily fall back asleep.

b) eat something: a hungry stomach can be the cause of waking up in the middle of the night, and even if it's not, having some food can help put you back to sleep. You know that sleepy feeling you get after eating a big meal? Try to use that to your advantage. I'm not saying make yourself a huge meal in the middle of the night, but some kind of snack (I usually go for toast) can sometimes help. Of course, it's not the best thing for your weight, but once in a while isn't going to hurt and after all, insomnia is an extreme circumstance.

c) go for a drive: obviously, you shouldn't do this if you're feeling even the slightest bit sleepy, but if you're wide awake and alert, a drive may help calm you down and put you in state more conducive to sleep. The rhythm of a moving car induces a soporific feeling; think about how easy it is to fall asleep in a moving car, or how many parents drive their young children around to help put them to sleep. So put on some soothing music, pick a route with little traffic and few lights (but do stay close to home), and go for a short drive.

Of course, you may not want to allow yourself to wake up completely or get up out of bed. If you think you can fall back asleep without forcing it too much, try these tips to help you along:

a) do some deep breathing: focusing on your breath will help you clear your mind, and deep breathing is a great way to get your body relaxed enough to fall back asleep. Take deep inhales and slow exhales, focusing your attention on your breath in order to quiet any other thoughts. You should begin to feel more relaxed almost immediately. Even if this doesn't take you right to sleep, don't give up. Just keep breathing deeply and focusing on your breath. Eventually, you should find yourself drifting off into a nice, relaxing sleep.

b) think about a movie a book you recently enjoyed: worried thoughts are often the enemy of sleep. Whether you are spending too much time thinking about what you have to do tomorrow, or feeling worried or anxious about life in general, such thoughts can keep you awake. One thing that can help is thinking of a movie or book and watching it in your mind. Mentally go through the plot from beginning to end (although hopefully you'll be asleep before you get to the end). This will distract your mind from its anxious thoughts and help it calm down. Since watching TV or a movie often puts people to sleep, this is a good way to reap that advantage without having to get out of bed or turn on a light.

I have one more suggestion to those who have trouble sleeping: sleep with a fan on. The white noise of fans can be quite soothing, and they drown out a lot of outside noise that may otherwise wake you up in the middle of the night. If you don't want to have a fan blowing on you while you're sleeping, you can always put it out of the way in a corner and just use it for white noise. They're cheap and effective.

So next time you wake up in the middle of the night, try one or more of these tips to help you get back to sleep with the least amount of stress and annoyance possible.