The problem of Sleepless Nights You've found this article, so you've likely had these nights.
The nights where all you want to do is knock yourself out and sleep for the rest of the night, but your body is tossing and turning while your mind worries about what time you have to wake up tomorrow and what you're going to feel like.
It can be a frustrating place to be in, unable to sleep and yet desiring nothing more than to rest.
It seems like there should be an easy fix.
The Ultimate Solution to Sleepless Nights Takes Time I'm sorry to tell you, but any solution that forces you to fall asleep is not a viable life long solution.
Drugs have side effects, and are not meant for extended use.
To get out of the habit of staying awake all night, there are many things that we need to work on.
This can include getting rid of old habits that keep us awake, reducing or eliminating alcohol and caffeine consumption and learning new habits and techniques for deep restful sleep.
This is the long-term plan, but what do we do when we're in the midst of a terribly sleepless night? 1.
Let go of worrying about being able to sleep.
2.
Find a stress reducing activity to do out of bed.
3.
Guide yourself back to sleep with a relaxing guided meditation mp3.
Let go of Worry Looking at the clock and worrying about whether we will have enough energy to function tomorrow will not give us any more energy.
Worrying about the future will only deplete our energy.
How can we let go of this worry? By focusing on the present.
How do we focus on the present? Get out of bed and do something that is easy and not too stimulating.
Pay complete attention to whatever it is that you choose to do.
Find an Easy Activity to do out of Bed This can be reading a book, going for a short walk, preparing your breakfast the night before, organizing your closet, or anything that you find relaxing and can do without adding more stimulation or stress.
Two activities that I would avoid are using the computer, and watching television.
It can be very enticing to turn on the television and allow the mind to become distracted but the stimulation of the light coming straight at your eyes will keep you awake, and the varying levels of sounds will keep you from going into a deep state of sleep.
The computer monitor will keep you awake as well.
When I was a teenager I would spend hours after the sun went down on the computer playing video games, and wouldn't be able to fall asleep for hours after turning it off.
We are wired to have darkness prepare us for sleeping.
If we are tricking our mind into thinking it is daytime by having light directed into our eyes, we won't be ready to fall asleep.
A small amount of background light is fine for your easy activity like an overhead light to read a book.
The rule that I follow is that as long as you aren't staring into the light source (like you are for television or computer) then the light shouldn't be too stimulating.
I still like to dim the lights as I get closer to my bedtime, or go for a short walk in the dark before going to bed(bring a flashlight just in case).
Return to bed when you feel ready After you've been doing your activity for a while, you may get some signs that show that your body is ready to go back to bed.
You may be sitting up reading your book, and your head starts to nod, and you keep losing your place.
When you start getting these sleepy signs, then you can return to the bed, and easily fall asleep.
What if you still can't fall asleep? You've done your activity and felt the physiological symptoms of sleepiness coming on, but your mind is still unable to rest.
This is when I recommend listening to a guided meditation to ease your mind towards sleep.
You can download a free guided meditation from my website below, or you can search YouTube or Google and experiment with a few to see which ones are relaxing for you.
Just lay back, listen to the voice.