You’re staring at the ceiling at 2am panicking about tomorrow and how exhausted you’re going feel, desperate to fall back to sleep, but how?
You know the drill. You start to calculate how many hours you have left before you have to get up; which only stirs more anxiety making it even more challenging to fall back to sleep.
Here are 3 tips to help you fall back to sleep.
Don’t look at the clock
This is rule #1 because we all do it!
Looking at the clock will only make your mind race faster making it more difficult to fall back to sleep.
It’s tempting and such a habit that it will take some effort to stop, but not knowing the time or how many hours are left before your alarm goes off will help you get back to sleep faster.
4-7-8 Breathing
Calming the body and getting the heartbeat to an average of 60 beats per minute is essential to sleep.
The 4-7-8 breathing technique will help you do this.
Breathe in deeply for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds and release for 8 seconds.
Continue this controlled breathing and you will find most of the time you will fall back to sleep, or at least get yourself into a more relaxed state.
You could even pair this breathing with some guided meditation or calm music to help the process along.
Don’t get up
Unless you absolutely have to, don’t get out of bed and start walking around or jumping on your phone, this will only keep you more awake longer.
Some people think if they get up and move around there’s a better chance they’ll fall back to sleep, but remembering the breathing technique above, getting your heartbeat up is the last thing you want to do.
Stay in bed and remember this additional tip; one hour of non sleep rest is equal to 20 minutes of real sleep, simply by resting your mind and body.
