Shore Snorer wrote:The conventional sleep hygiene wisdom on sleep maintenance insomnia is consistent, specific, and totally negative. There's lots of advice on what not to do if you wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep:
- Don't use a computer.
- Don't watch TV.
- Don't read a book.
- Don't exercise.
- Don't do anything that reinforces a habit of, "Yippee, it's 3 am and I can't sleep, now I get to do (fun thing)!"
- And for heaven's sake, if you want to fall back asleep, don't stay in bed!
Interestingly, Dr. Krakow gives a decidedly and
intentionally mixed message about this issue in
Sound Sleep, Sound Mind. While sticking with "Don't stay in bed," he firmly rejects "Don't do anything that reinforces a habit of, 'Yippee, it's 3 am and I can't sleep, now I get to do (fun thing)!' ". Or more precisely, he argues that it is better to do something FUN (even if it is WAKEFUL) rather than sit around doing nothing except worrying about being awake in the middle of the night. Actually you can almost interpret part of his advice as bordering on "Embrace the fact that you're body doesn't want to be asleep and listen to it. Get out of bed and do something that's a real treat for yourself.
Do anything except worry about the fact that it's the middle of the night and you're not in bed asleep."
Krakow also discourages doing anything WORK related in the middle of the night on the grounds that (a) this is punishment for waking up, which is a no-no in his mind and (2) this is stress inducing and likely to cause more worries when returning to bed. He does discourage using a computer or watching TV. The blue light emitted by those things plays havoc with the melatonin cycle in some people. The main problem with "read a book" is that too many of us choose books that are real page turners and once we start reading it's hard to put it down because we're so interested in the book ....
Presuming that Dr. Silberman's advice is good, what are some good things to do when you can't fall back asleep? What's worked for people here?
Traditional
positive suggestions for things to do when you get out of bed include:
- Make yourself a cup of camomile tea (if you like it) or some other kind of "sleepy time" tea or warm milk and sip it slowly and enjoy drinking it.
- Listen to some quiet music in a semi-dark room (this one has been my "go-to" activity for serious middle of the night wakes going all the way back to when I had to get up to feed my babies at 3:00AM ....)
- Do a crossword puzzle with pencil and paper. (Unlike "read a book, you get to the end of the crossword and you're done ....)
- Play a game of solitare with a deck of real cards.
- Knit or crochet for a while (if you do either of those things)
- Do some very, very gentle stretching and/or focused relaxation techniques----relaxation techniques from yoga or mindfulness both can be used. Yoga relaxation sometimes works for me.