Dr Lindsay Browning, a sleep expert, has revealed several techniques to help people who wake up during the night and struggle to return to sleep. Speaking on the Dig It podcast, she advised against lying in bed forcing sleep and instead suggested activities that occupy the mind.
Get Out of Bed to Reset Your Brain
Dr Browning explained that many people react to night-time waking by thinking, "Oh no, I have to stay here because I have to sleep and it's so important that I sleep and I have an important day tomorrow so I'll have to just try harder to sleep." However, she noted that "the more you're staying in bed and trying to force sleep, the more annoyed you're getting that you're not sleeping."
Instead, she recommends getting out of bed and doing something calming such as reading a book, doing a jigsaw, painting a picture, or having a decaffeinated tea. This helps "reset" the brain. "And then when you come back to bed again, you kind of [think], 'Okay, I can go back to sleep again' but of course before you've got to that point in bed, if you wake up, you can always try some relaxation exercises," she said.
Relaxation Exercises: Breathing and Cognitive Shuffling
Dr Browning suggested "slow deep breathing" and a technique called "cognitive shuffling," which involves thinking of a letter and listing as many words as possible that begin with it. Repeating this with different letters can "exhaust" them. "These words, they are not a coherent worry," she explained. "They're not you thinking [of stressful situations], they're just random words." This can help you "calm down and drift back into the next sleep cycle."
Avoid Checking the Time
A common habit Dr Browning advises against is checking the time when you wake up. Doing so, she said, means you are "triggering yourself" and making yourself "more anxious." She shared, "What I would say is, please do not... nobody should have a clock that they can see from their bed." She added, "If you're awake enough to realise you're awake, we don't need to know what the time is. Knowing the time is only going to lead to us doing mental calculations about how much sleep we've had and how much time until morning and [it'll] make us frustrated. So don't have a time because that will help you, hopefully, to go back to sleep again."
