Awake in the night and can't sleep? Do this.

I once read that there are 30 different types of insomnia. In my experience, there are really only two that matter:

1.     Difficulty getting to sleep

2.    Waking in the night and having difficulty falling back asleep.

Of these, I find the latter is much, much more common. Lots of people I have coached can find themselves awake in the middle of the night, and then find themselves tossing and turning for a couple of hours before finally dropping off again. The problem is that by the time someone resumes sleep, it may be only an hour or so before they are due to get up. Usually, the result is someone feeling wrecked before the day even gets going.

A lot of things can be going on that keep someone from falling back asleep in the small hours. One common feature, though, is that the body and brain are in ‘alert mode’. Somehow, the physiological ‘stress’ response has been activated, and with this often comes one or more thoughts that invade the mind and compound the situation. If this sounds like you from time to time, here’s something that can help.

One technique I find often helps individuals get back to sleep quite efficiently involves controlling their breathing. In essence, breath control can deactivate the stress response (mediated by what is known as the ‘sympathetic nervous system’), while activating the ‘calming’ response (the so-called ‘parasympathetic nervous system’).

Perhaps think of breath control as a way to take one’s foot off the accelerator and apply it to the brake.

Here are a few things that help here:

1.  Slower breaths, and usually six breaths per minute is about right 

2.     An out-breath that is longer than the in-breath

3.     Breathing into the belly (using the diaphragm) rather than breathing from the chest (rib-cage)

 4.  Breathing in through the nose (rather than the mouth)

Putting this all together would mean breathing in for, say, three seconds through the nose, and then exhaling through the nose or mouth for seven seconds, with a focus on drawing air into the lungs via the belly rather than the chest.

I've found this technique is generally equally as effective if someone has woken for an obvious reason (e.g. the need to go to the bathroom or children needing attention), or if someone is spontaneously awake, perhaps with a mind full of 'stuff'.

Whatever the circumstances, just a minute or two of the breathing exercise above will help to dampen the stress response, inducing a state much more conducive to sleep.

This simple breathing exercise does not just calm the physiological stress response – it can calm the mind, too. Just the act of putting focus on the breath and counting is an exercise in ‘mindfulness’, and tends to push out thoughts that might keep us awake.

Many people find that this breathing exercise can make all the difference in whether it takes two minutes or two hours to get back to sleep. Typically, the difference in energy and vitality in the morning is like night and day. 

WHAT WORKS 

Whatever the reason for you being awake in the middle of the night, once you're ready to resume sleep, repeatedly breathe in through your nose to the count of three ocusing on drawing air into your lungs from the belly, and out again (through your nose or mouth) to the count of seven.