Some nights are just different in so many ways. Some people are abruptly awoken by an unpleasant sound in the middle of the night. While for some it’s either a nightmare, the frequent tossing and turning, the need to use the toilet etc. that leaves their eyes wide open without the slightest knowledge of when to catch the next sleep flight. In our local parlance, we use the phrase “Sleep has disappeared from my eyes”, to describe this state.

However, this is a frustrating and exhausting experience, especially when you wish to catch some more Z's but sleep seems to be far away. Unfortunately, not only does this affect the quantity and quality of sleep you will get, it will also impact your productivity the next day.

Here are ways you can fall back asleep after waking up at night

Ignore the time
This seems like an impossible thing to do. It’s a common act to stare at the clock and watch the time slip away while we struggle to snooze off. However, this only makes it more difficult for you to fall asleep as it increases tension and anxiety. This is because your brain will be more active, making falling back asleep more difficult. Resist the temptation of checking the time, focus your mind on something else aside your desire to fall back asleep.

Try music
Do you remember how those lullabies lured you or your little baby to sleep? Ah ha! That’s the power of music. Beautifully, it works for people across or ages.  A beautiful soothing, slow music at night can get you back to dreamland easily. Interestingly, listening to music can help your body relax and prepare for sleep. This is because of its effect on the parasympathetic nervous system. Additionally, those pleasant sounds can penetrate your body, soul and spirit. It can slow your heart rate and breathing, reduce your blood pressure and calm your nervous system. Although, your music preference could also determine the effect of music on you.  Still, music enhances sleep and can work on just anyone.

Leave your phone
Some people quickly resort to checking their emails, chats, play games or see movies with their phones, once they have trouble getting back to sleep. Unsurprisingly, they find it even more difficult to snooze. This is because the brain becomes more alert, making sleep more difficult to achieve when we are exposed to the blue light from our phone. Literally, your brain is tricked into thinking its morning and therefore becomes alert and set for the day. In fact, sleep experts have recommended putting your phone away 2-3 hours before bedtime, so picking it up at the middle of the night is a complete NO.

Create a distraction
When you focus on getting back to sleep, your mind might be stressed out and you’d become too tense to sleep. You can doze off by visualizing a beautiful scene, recollect great memories, or repeat soothing lines, poems or songs till you go off. Also, try counting- repeat a circle of 1-10 or try counting backwards.

Use the meditation technique
Meditation increases your prospect of falling back asleep if you are struggling to. This is because meditating calms your mind. It helps lower your rate, foster slow breathing and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. These activities will help you drift to dreamland faster. You can do this by lying flat on your bed with your head stationed on a pillow. Begin with a few long slow breath-inhale and exhale slowly. Also, be sure your body is relaxed and close your eyes, so you would concentrate. This would help you snooze quickly.  You can also try the meditation techniques in this article: 8 sleep hacks to help you  fall asleep faster.

Get off your bed
Ok, you’ve been struggling to catch some Z’s for over 10-20 minutes yet it seems like an impossible feat. It’s time to get up. Lying on your bed doesn’t not guarantee a doze off, in-fact you only get frustrated and exhausted trying to sleep.  Because, your brain would adjust to sleeplessness on your bed. So, you’ve got to do something different: change your sleep surface, move into another room, read an interesting but not horrific novel with a dim light, and listen to music. Again, you can try a warm or cold shower depending on the temperature of your bedroom.

FINAL THOUGHT

Sleep is a fundamental part of life; therefore anything that robs you of quality sleep should be treated as urgent and important. While staying asleep is very important, falling asleep easily should also be very easy. For some people, the trouble to get back to sleep is a daily experience which may be due to insomnia. For such people, we recommend a visit to your doctor.  More so, you can get a sleep App to help you go back to sleep based on a doctor’s recommendation. We have also discussed in other articles how a mattress can affect your sleep. You can get a new mattress if your mattress is the culprit.

RECOMMENDED READING

https://www.wincofoam.com/best-mattresses-for-couples-in-nigeria/

https://www.wincofoam.com/pillow-prices-in-nigeria-a-giude-for-your-next-purchase/

https://www.wincofoam.com/should-babies-share-a-bed-with-their-parents-find-out-here/

SOURCE: https://www.wincofoam.com/blog/

Thanks for the info

Like now, I'm finding it diff to go back to sleep. and this always happens if I wake up and splash water on my face. But if I don't, i go back to sleep easily.

Its not like anything is bothering me though.

Nice one.

Tried all of these ,it’s 5hrs now still can’t get some sleep.

Village pipo wehdone

Bola146:
Thanks for the info

You are welcome

jeff1607:
Tried all of these ,it’s 5hrs now still can’t get some sleep.

Village pipo wehdone

Are you sure you did?

CalliDora1:
Like now, I'm finding it diff to go back to sleep. and this always happens if I wake up and splash water on my face. But if I don't, i go back to sleep easily.

Its not like anything is bothering me though.

Nice one.

Thank you. I would advice you stop splashing water on your face because it makes you more alert than sleepy.

Y4all:


Are you sure you did?

yea

Y4all:


Thank you. I would advice you stop splashing water on your face because it makes you more alert than sleepy.

Ok.

Thanks.

jeff1607:
Tried all of these ,it’s 5hrs now still can’t get some sleep.

Village pipo wehdone

Hahahahahaha

My issue is early to bed, early to rise literally....

Sleeping 12am - 7am would do my body good than 8pm - 4am (which is when I would likely wake up when I sleep that early).

And if I sleep for 8hrs, wake up, and sleep additional two hours, the first 8 hrs is cancelled and I only slept for two hours.

jeff1607:
Tried all of these ,it’s 5hrs now still can’t get some sleep.

Village pipo wehdone

Go and read your bible

Lamanii22:



Go and read your bible

Don't have one

If you keep your phone far away from you, you will sleep longer than when your phone is just beside you while trying to sleep.

Cutehector:
If you keep your phone far away from you, you will sleep longer than when your phone is just beside you while trying to sleep.

You are correct

Awesome tips, thanks for sharing. I had sleeping troubles in the past so I can share my own experience. To sleep better it's necessary to keep a healthy diet first, to limit caffeine, to exclude alcohol, and go to the bed at the same time every day. Also, staying physically active will help to get quality sleep. But sometimes nothing helped and I bought sleeping pills at online pharmacy. It's a good option but don't forget to consult a doctor.

bukatyne:
My issue is early to bed, early to rise literally....

Sleeping 12am - 7am would do my body good than 8pm - 4am (which is when I would likely wake up when I sleep that early).

And if I sleep for 8hrs, wake up, and sleep additional two hours, the first 8 hrs is cancelled and I only slept for two hours.

Interesting...this means your body internal clock has mastered your bedtime of 12am-7am. We would recommend you stick to it if it does not affect your productivity. However, you can reschedule your bedtime and allow your body some time to adjust.


We recommend you read our article : https://www.wincofoam.com/how-healthy-sleep-can-set-you-up-for-success/ for more information.

Y4all:



Interesting...this means your body internal clock has mastered your bedtime of 12am-7am. We would recommend you stick to it if it does not affect your productivity. However, you can reschedule your bedtime and allow your body some time to adjust.


We recommend you read our article : https://www.wincofoam.com/how-healthy-sleep-can-set-you-up-for-success/ for more information.

Thanks a lot.

Lol. We kind of have similar problems.

No matter how early i sleep, if I wake up and go back to sleep even for 30mins, it would seem like i have not slept at all. I actually googled this problem, and the solution was , "once you wake up don't go back to sleep again".

It is nice solution but sometimes i wake up an hour or an hour 30 mins earlier than i am supposed to wake up so i just have to go back to sleep. Which now makes it difficult to get up from my bed.
However, i also noticed that if I sleep in the afternoon(siesta) for an hour and some minutes, then i would not have much problem waking up even after sleeping back.

Another thing again, the quality of your mattress matters a lot. There are some mattresses(soft mattresses) that would make you weak no matter how long you have slept.

So try and understand your sleep patterns, and know if your mattress is contributing to your discomfort and remember once you're awake don't sleep back.

bukatyne:
My issue is early to bed, early to rise literally....

Sleeping 12am - 7am would do my body good than 8pm - 4am (which is when I would likely wake up when I sleep that early).

And if I sleep for 8hrs, wake up, and sleep additional two hours, the first 8 hrs is cancelled and I only slept for two hours.

Take a book or Bible and read.

You'll fall asleep in no time.

I really need this to sleep back once I wake up na big prob till when it time to actually stay awake then ill be dosing here and there

Gabe427:
I really need this to sleep back once I wake up na big prob till when it time to actually stay awake then ill be dosing here and there

We are glad you learnt from our article

angelfallz:
Lol. We kind of have similar problems.

No matter how early i sleep, if I wake up and go back to sleep even for 30mins, it would seem like i have not slept at all. I actually googled this problem, and the solution was , "once you wake up don't go back to sleep again".

It is nice solution but sometimes i wake up an hour or an hour 30 mins earlier than i am supposed to wake up so i just have to go back to sleep. Which now makes it difficult to get up from my bed.
However, i also noticed that if I sleep in the afternoon(siesta) for an hour and some minutes, then i would not have much problem waking up even after sleeping back.

Another thing again, the quality of your mattress matters a lot. There are some mattresses(soft mattresses) that would make you weak no matter how long you have slept.


So try and understand your sleep patterns, and know if your mattress is contributing to your discomfort and remember once you're awake don't sleep back.

Thanks for the feedback. We always recommend the mattress-topper for mattresses that are too soft, so you can save money rather than buying a new mattress. However, if you want to get a new mattress, we suggest you get the Winco Foam Dual sided mattress, so you can flip to the hard side or soft side as determined by your sleep need) , the Winco Foam Semi Orthopedic(Grandeur mattress) or the Winco Foam Orthopedic mattress.

[https://www.wincofoam.com/product/mattress-topper/
https://www.wincofoam.com/product/dual-side/
https://www.wincofoam.com/product/grandeur/
https://www.wincofoam.com/product/orthopedic/