How to Fall Back Asleep
Practice deep breathing exercises., Practice progressive relaxation.Progressive relaxation is a technique that asks you to focus on each of the major muscle groups in your body individually, relaxing them one by one., Do toe-tensing exercises.Though...
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Practice deep breathing exercises.
By concentrating on your breath and controlling it, you can slow your heart rate and lower your blood pressure, thus prepping your body to get back to sleep.While lying down on your back, relax all the muscles in your body as much as you can.
Inhale slowly through your nose, concentrating on filling the bottom of your chest cavity with air.
You should see your stomach rise instead of just your chest.
Do this in a slow, controlled manner, taking 8-10 seconds.
Hold your breath for 1-2 seconds.
Relax and let the air escape your chest at a natural rate.
Repeat this process until you feel yourself drifting back to sleep. -
Step 2: Practice progressive relaxation.Progressive relaxation is a technique that asks you to focus on each of the major muscle groups in your body individually
Even though we live in our bodies, most people actually find it very difficult to conceptualize the whole body at once.
When we lie down and try to relax for sleep, we may be keeping certain parts of our body tensed up.
Instead, try the following:
Lying on your back, close your eyes and focus on how your body is feeling in the present moment.
Focus on your feet, relaxing all the muscles in them and letting them sink into the mattress.
Try to imagine the individual muscles in your feet, from your toes to your ankles, and unclench them.
Move up into your calves and knees.
Working your way up from the ankles, relax any tension you might be holding in your muscles and simply let your legs lie there.
Move up into your thighs, doing the same.
Move on to your buttocks, then your lower back.
Spend some time on your chest and abdomen.
Focus on your breathing — deepen your breaths and concentrate on the inhalation and exhalation processes.
Move on to your hands.
As you did with your feet, imagine all the many small muscles in your hands and relax them one by tone.
Begin with your fingers, then your palms, then your wrists.
Move on to your upper arms, then your shoulders.
Relax the muscles in your neck, where many people carry much of their tension.
Relax the muscles in your jaw, which you may be keeping clenched unconsciously.
Move on to your eyelids and cheeks.
Let you whole skull sink back into your pillow.
Once you’ve done a relaxation inventory of your entire body, try to drift back to sleep. , Lying down in bed, close your eyes and concentrate on your toes.
Flex your toes backwards, toward your face.
Hold that position for ten seconds.
Relax them for ten seconds.
Repeat the process ten times, then try to drift off to sleep again. , The most common mantra is the sound "Om," though you can use any sound that is relaxing and simple.
Mantras draw your focus to 1) the action of producing the sound, 2) the tactile feeling of producing the sound with your mouth and throat, and 3) the soothing sound produced.
Lie down in bed and close your eyes.
Take a deep breath to fill slowly fill your lungs, drawing air into the bottom of your chest cavity.
You should see your belly rise, not your chest.
Say "Om," holding the "o" sound for as long as is comfortable.
Focus solely on the three dimensions of the mantra — action, feeling, and sound.
Think about those three things until everything else falls away.
Rest for one second in silence.
Repeat until your anxiety has waned. , If you wake up in the middle of the night paralyzed by anxiety or stress, you won't be able to get to sleep again until you deal with the negative thoughts that are taking over your mind.
Ask yourself, "Are these thoughts productive? Will they help me reach my goals, or are they just useless, circular, obsessive thoughts?"If they are productive thoughts, let them work their way out.
You may feel relaxed, having worked toward a solution to a problem you had during the day.
If they are negative thoughts, don't let yourself indulge them.
Acknowledge that thinking these thoughts will have no positive effect on your life, and force yourself to stop thinking them.
This is very difficult, and will take a lot of practice and will power.
You may not be successful at first, but over time, with effort, you can learn to control whether or not you let negative thoughts keep you awake at night. , You'll have a lot of trouble falling back asleep if you stay in a negative headspace, so positive affirmations — the technique of repeating positive thoughts to yourself until you feel less anxious — can be useful in the middle of the night.
Begin with the more obvious, generic positive affirmations like "I am a good person"; "I believe in myself"; or "I will have a good day tomorrow" Repeat a handful of these affirmations to yourself until you feel slightly relaxed by the process of repetition.
Move on, then, to more specific affirmations that pinpoint the root of the anxiety that is keeping you awake.
Examples might include: "I will find the man/woman of my dreams." "I will find a better job soon." "I am happy with my body."
Reducing the external temperature slightly will help your body gear down for rest.
If your room is warm, turn down the temperature to 65-68 degrees fahrenheit. , Though you may find it emotionally comforting to have your dog or cat snuggle with you at bedtime, studies show that 53% of pet owners who sleep with their pets say their furry friends interfere with their sleep patterns throughout the night.Your pet doesn't have the same sleep cycle as human beings, and won't feel compelled to keep still or quiet on your account.
Keeping your pet out of the bedroom may be the key that allows you to sleep through the night. , To jar your brain out of making such associations, get out of bed if you can’t get back to sleep after twenty minutes, and perform some kind of light activity until you feel ready for sleep again.
Read a book or listen to relaxing music, but avoid the bright light of a television or computer screen, as those can stimulate your brain and keep you from falling back to sleep. -
Step 3: relaxing them one by one.
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Step 4: Do toe-tensing exercises.Though it may seem as though flexing muscles repeatedly might keep you awake
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Step 5: toe-tensing exercises actually relax the rest of the muscles in your body and prepare you for rest.
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Step 6: Use a calming mantra to ease anxiety.A mantra is a sound that's repeated in an effort to focus attention away from distracting thoughts.
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Step 7: Confront negative thoughts.
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Step 8: Use positive affirmations.
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Step 9: Lower the temperature.Your brain unconsciously regulates your body temperature at all times
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Step 10: but it tries to achieve different internal temperatures when you are awake versus when you’re asleep.
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Step 11: Kick your pet out of the bed.
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Step 12: Get up and do something after twenty minutes.If you get too used to laying in bed wide awake
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Step 13: your brain might start making an unwanted connection between your bed and wakefulness.
Detailed Guide
By concentrating on your breath and controlling it, you can slow your heart rate and lower your blood pressure, thus prepping your body to get back to sleep.While lying down on your back, relax all the muscles in your body as much as you can.
Inhale slowly through your nose, concentrating on filling the bottom of your chest cavity with air.
You should see your stomach rise instead of just your chest.
Do this in a slow, controlled manner, taking 8-10 seconds.
Hold your breath for 1-2 seconds.
Relax and let the air escape your chest at a natural rate.
Repeat this process until you feel yourself drifting back to sleep.
Even though we live in our bodies, most people actually find it very difficult to conceptualize the whole body at once.
When we lie down and try to relax for sleep, we may be keeping certain parts of our body tensed up.
Instead, try the following:
Lying on your back, close your eyes and focus on how your body is feeling in the present moment.
Focus on your feet, relaxing all the muscles in them and letting them sink into the mattress.
Try to imagine the individual muscles in your feet, from your toes to your ankles, and unclench them.
Move up into your calves and knees.
Working your way up from the ankles, relax any tension you might be holding in your muscles and simply let your legs lie there.
Move up into your thighs, doing the same.
Move on to your buttocks, then your lower back.
Spend some time on your chest and abdomen.
Focus on your breathing — deepen your breaths and concentrate on the inhalation and exhalation processes.
Move on to your hands.
As you did with your feet, imagine all the many small muscles in your hands and relax them one by tone.
Begin with your fingers, then your palms, then your wrists.
Move on to your upper arms, then your shoulders.
Relax the muscles in your neck, where many people carry much of their tension.
Relax the muscles in your jaw, which you may be keeping clenched unconsciously.
Move on to your eyelids and cheeks.
Let you whole skull sink back into your pillow.
Once you’ve done a relaxation inventory of your entire body, try to drift back to sleep. , Lying down in bed, close your eyes and concentrate on your toes.
Flex your toes backwards, toward your face.
Hold that position for ten seconds.
Relax them for ten seconds.
Repeat the process ten times, then try to drift off to sleep again. , The most common mantra is the sound "Om," though you can use any sound that is relaxing and simple.
Mantras draw your focus to 1) the action of producing the sound, 2) the tactile feeling of producing the sound with your mouth and throat, and 3) the soothing sound produced.
Lie down in bed and close your eyes.
Take a deep breath to fill slowly fill your lungs, drawing air into the bottom of your chest cavity.
You should see your belly rise, not your chest.
Say "Om," holding the "o" sound for as long as is comfortable.
Focus solely on the three dimensions of the mantra — action, feeling, and sound.
Think about those three things until everything else falls away.
Rest for one second in silence.
Repeat until your anxiety has waned. , If you wake up in the middle of the night paralyzed by anxiety or stress, you won't be able to get to sleep again until you deal with the negative thoughts that are taking over your mind.
Ask yourself, "Are these thoughts productive? Will they help me reach my goals, or are they just useless, circular, obsessive thoughts?"If they are productive thoughts, let them work their way out.
You may feel relaxed, having worked toward a solution to a problem you had during the day.
If they are negative thoughts, don't let yourself indulge them.
Acknowledge that thinking these thoughts will have no positive effect on your life, and force yourself to stop thinking them.
This is very difficult, and will take a lot of practice and will power.
You may not be successful at first, but over time, with effort, you can learn to control whether or not you let negative thoughts keep you awake at night. , You'll have a lot of trouble falling back asleep if you stay in a negative headspace, so positive affirmations — the technique of repeating positive thoughts to yourself until you feel less anxious — can be useful in the middle of the night.
Begin with the more obvious, generic positive affirmations like "I am a good person"; "I believe in myself"; or "I will have a good day tomorrow" Repeat a handful of these affirmations to yourself until you feel slightly relaxed by the process of repetition.
Move on, then, to more specific affirmations that pinpoint the root of the anxiety that is keeping you awake.
Examples might include: "I will find the man/woman of my dreams." "I will find a better job soon." "I am happy with my body."
Reducing the external temperature slightly will help your body gear down for rest.
If your room is warm, turn down the temperature to 65-68 degrees fahrenheit. , Though you may find it emotionally comforting to have your dog or cat snuggle with you at bedtime, studies show that 53% of pet owners who sleep with their pets say their furry friends interfere with their sleep patterns throughout the night.Your pet doesn't have the same sleep cycle as human beings, and won't feel compelled to keep still or quiet on your account.
Keeping your pet out of the bedroom may be the key that allows you to sleep through the night. , To jar your brain out of making such associations, get out of bed if you can’t get back to sleep after twenty minutes, and perform some kind of light activity until you feel ready for sleep again.
Read a book or listen to relaxing music, but avoid the bright light of a television or computer screen, as those can stimulate your brain and keep you from falling back to sleep.
About the Author
Logan Cox
With a background in education and learning, Logan Cox brings 10 years of hands-on experience to every article. Logan believes in making complex topics accessible to everyone.
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