Get Up Instead of Tossing and Turning

For some people, staying in bed when they cannot sleep is not an option. If that describes you, it’s okay to get up instead of tossing and turning. However, you don’t want to get up too early.

Instead, if you do get up, avoid:

• Technology – Don’t subject yourself to the onslaught of television or your smartphone or any blue light before it’s time to get up in the morning. You can engage in other slow-moving activities if you must but keep it low tech.

• Eating – Even if you are feeling hungry, don’t eat at night. Set a time a few hours before bedtime that you’ll eat your last bit of food and a time in the morning that you’re going to break your fast. This is the only way to train your body and brain that nighttime is for sleeping. If you’re hungry a lot at night, improve your eating in the daytime.

• Drinking too Much – If you’re thirsty, you should drink water but try not to drink so much that you’ll need to use the toilet before it’s time to get up in the morning. Instead, heat some water in the microwave and sip slowly on it while you do something not stimulating.

• Work or Exercise – You don’t want to get up and do any work or exercise or do heavy cleaning during the night. This is a sure-fire way to mess up your sleep patterns completely. You have to let yourself be unproductive during your sleep times.

• Negative Self Talk – This is not the time to engage in negativity while trying to sleep. Instead, you can get out your gratitude journal and read it as you contemplate.

If you get up, do these positive activities:

• Read calming material – If you get up, consider this a quiet time to read thoughtful materials void of politics or anything that will cause you to start getting into work mind frame and away from sleep mind frame.

• Meditate – When you get up, this is a good time to practice meditation. You can do that from your bed without getting up instead, but if you feel the need to get up anyway, consider taking that time to meditate deeper than you do in the daytime so that you can rest your mind.

• Take a Hot Bath – If you’re feeling really awake and wired, you might want to take a hot bath or if you have it, get in a hot sauna. The main thing is to keep moving carefully, slowly, mindfully without becoming agitated or fully awake until it’s time for you to get up.

Remember, even if you’re not sleeping, being comfortable resting in your bed doing nothing is preferable to stimulating your brain and getting up. And if you do choose to get up, you don’t want to do stimulating things to encourage your brain to keep you up all the time.