Best Trick to Fall Asleep Fast When You Wake Up at Night
Ah, you go to bed early to get more sleep and wake up tomorrow morning refreshed and full of energy. Everything goes well, you fall asleep quickly, and... your body wakes you up at 3 am. You try to go back to sleep, but you can’t. Well, here’s something to help you.
Do muscle-relaxing exercises. Straighten your legs, squeeze them together, then relax. Pull your toes forward, hold for 10 seconds, then return them to their normal position for 10 seconds. Repeat this exercise 3–5 times.
Don’t take the phone. The screen’s glow with a bluish tinge blocks the production of melatonin in your body. This hormone reminds your body that it’s time to sleep, and you feel tired. Blue light eliminates the feeling of fatigue, so you can’t fall asleep for a long time. Better to open a paper book. Also, try not to use the phone at least one hour before going to bed.
A warm and cool shower will help you fall asleep again. Your body often wakes up from overheating. Use cold water to lower the temperature. Your mind will clear, and your body will want to sleep.
Lavender tea or essential oil improves the quality of sleep without any side effects. You can even buy a lavender plant, so its smell always fills your bedroom.
Another great way to drift asleep quickly is to get out of bed and do something relaxing. Leave the bedroom and enter another room. Read a book or listen to some quiet music. Your brain gets a little activity which will help your mind to relax again. Also, try not to look at the clock. The thought there’s just 3 hours left before the alarm ringing can make you upset.
The 4-7-8 method is a breathing exercise that reduces anxiety and stress. You can do this at any time. Touch your tongue tip to the back of your upper teeth. Exhale through your mouth letting out a whistling noise.
Close your mouth and take a deep breath through your nose for 4 seconds. Hold your breath for 7 seconds. Open your mouth and exhale for 8 seconds. Keep holding the tongue to your upper teeth. Repeat the exercise at least 3–5 times.
Try not to nap more than 30 minutes during the day and do it well before the evening. Daytime naps can prevent you from falling asleep quickly at night. Use this little “siesta” correctly, and it will help you stay alert throughout the day. But if you get too carried away with sleeping after lunch, it will cause problems with sleeping at night.
5 minutes before bedtime, start writing down your thoughts in a diary. It’ll help you get rid of a thousand unnecessary thoughts. Write all the positive events you had during the day and how you feel now. This method gets rid of disturbing thoughts and calms your mind.
A strange but working technique for falling asleep: make it a goal to stay awake as long as possible. Think about the fact that you don’t want to sleep. Stay awake in your mind! Imagine that you go for a run or work out in the gym. Surprisingly, it can help you fall asleep quickly. When someone tells you not to think about a pink elephant, you immediately think about it. This technique works similarly.
Imagining a beautiful picture also helps you fall asleep. This isn’t a sheep-counting method. You need to imagine something moving, but these movements should be monotonous. For example, you see an elephant bathing in a river, or a train passing through a green meadow.
Focusing on imaginary sounds helps, too. It can be the sound of rain or the crackling of a fire. At first, it will be difficult for you to focus on the “picture”, but five minutes later, you’ll feel the moving image lead you straight into the dream world.
This method will help you fall asleep in 10 seconds. But at first, you need to waste 2 minutes. And the last 10 seconds of them will be the ones which you fall asleep after. Relax your face — jaws, eyes, lips, and eyebrows. Relax your shoulders to release tension and lower your arms to your sides. Exhale, relaxing your chest. Relax your legs, thighs, and calves.
Clear your mind for 10 seconds by imagining a calm picture. Lake or forest, whatever. If this doesn’t work, try saying the words “don’t think” over and over again for 10 seconds. After this, it’ll be easier to fall asleep! It might not work so quickly the first time around, but if you train every day, then in a few weeks, you’ll be able to fall into a dream using this method in any position, even sitting.
It’s not always possible to get quality sleep. Fortunately, there are ways to help you feel good in the morning, and get up from the first alarm ring even if you haven’t rested enough. Practice getting up from the first ring of the alarm clock. At night, when you go to bed, set the alarm for 2 minutes. Close your eyes and after 120 seconds, get out of bed and turn off the alarm. Repeat this exercise 2–3 times.
This is a way to train your mind and body to get up at the first ring. In the morning, when your alarm clock rings, you will remember the exercises you did before and get out of bed much easier than usual. This method is effective since the brain can unconsciously repeat what you did earlier in a similar situation.
One of the best alarm clocks is the sunlight. Don’t close the curtains before going to bed, so you wake up with the first rays of the sun. Better not to do it in summer, though, when the sun rises too early — it can disrupt your sleep. When you’ve got out of bed, look out the window and take a deep breath of the fresh morning air.
Doing something unusual is a great way to quickly wake up your sleepy brain. If you usually pick up your phone after waking up, don’t touch it next time. Try dancing while lying in bed or loudly name the last 3 movies you’ve watched. Get your brain and body working! If you feel sleepy on the way to work, then change your usual route or ask a stranger what time it is. Getting out of your comfort zone will cheer you up perfectly.
There are smart alarm clocks that wake you up during the light sleep stage. When you’re in a deep sleep, it’s very difficult to get up, even if you’ve been sleeping for 8 hours. A smart alarm clock records your sleep and wakes you up at the moment when you move in bed, that is, during the light sleep stage. If you need to get up at 7 am, the alarm clock will wake you up between 6 and 7, depending on when you start to toss.
Put the phone on the other side of the room. To turn off the alarm in the morning, you’ll have to get out of bed and walk there. From a standing position, it’s much easier to resist the temptation to lie down in bed again. It’s important to wake up at the same time every day. No exceptions for weekends or holidays, sorry.
Your body needs to get used to a proper sleep schedule. Even if you go to bed late, it’s better to wake up at your usual time and then have a nap in the afternoon. Soon, your body will start to wake up at the same time by itself, and you will forget about an alarm clock.
For hundreds of millennia, we’ve developed a habit of going to bed after sunset. And of course, this habit is preserved in our body, regardless of what kind of lifestyle we lead. The most useful sleep, according to the biological clock, occurs 90 minutes before midnight. That’s why it’s so important to go to bed at this time.
If you go to bed late and think about how difficult it will be for you to wake up in the morning, then it will certainly happen. Try to fall asleep with positive thoughts. If you go to bed at 3 am and are about to get up at 7, tell yourself that the next 4 hours will help you gain strength and get a great night’s sleep. Imagine waking up full of energy, and it will be easier for you to survive the morning. Nighty night!