Waking Up at Night? 5 Ways to Get Back to Sleep – Stress Series 2

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Are you one of those that wake up at two or three in the morning and you just can’t fall back to sleep? You toss and turn but the ruminating in your head doesn’t stop. Or maybe you’re dealing with menopause and getting hot flashes, or you’re getting up to pee all the time. You might pick up your tablet or your smartphone and you start looking at social media or maybe turn on the TV, and suddenly, it’s two hours later and you have to get up for work. Today, we’re going to look at the causes of waking up in the middle of the night and give you 5 simple ways you can start doing now to help you get back to sleep. Well, we have five simple things you can do to help you manage those troubling nights and get you back to sleep.

Highlights of this episode:

• How stress effects our sleep
• The overworked HPA Axis and the circadian rhythm
• The barrage of chronic stress in our lives
• How weighing every day wakes us up
• 5 Tips to help us sleep better

Episode Show Notes: 

[03:54] How stress affects our sleep
In this Post-Pandemic COVID-19 world, we are dealing with a lot more stress than we have in over 80 years. Not since after World War II has our lives been just turned upside down. Not to mention all our own personal stresses like finances, family, health, and so much more. It’s A LOT to say the least! These stressors continue to create more challenges to an already challenging healthcare system. Stress affects our sleep in two major ways: It keeps us from falling asleep, and it disrupts our quality of sleep.

[07:24] Types of stress: Acute and Chronic
Stress causes increases in our fight or flight response, which requires a lot of energy. This energy has to come from the stored reserves from mostly the liver and then muscle. Because we deal with a low, but very consent level of stress from things like the pandemic, racism, illnesses, healthcare, finances, jobs, mass shootings, and political and social injustices, we are constantly barraged by the stress hormones like cortisol. Cortisol and other similar hormones then get the body to release sugar and fat into the body, but because it’s so consistent, the body has a harder time managing it. Stress alone could drive blood pressure and blood sugar to the level of disease diagnosis, and we may not even be aware of it. In the long run, our bodies have a harder and harder time going back to sleep because of the effect on the circadian rhythm. The constant overthinking, rumination, and worrying about things we can’t control, leads to difficulty getting a better quality or longer sleep. This disruption of the natural diurnal rhythm of our bodies further fuels the stress response, damaging our bodies even further.

[08:23] The barrage of chronic stress in our lives
Stress alone could drive blood pressure and blood sugar to the level of disease diagnosis, and we may not even be aware of it. In the long run, our bodies have a harder and harder time going back to sleep because of the effect on the circadian rhythm. The constant overthinking, rumination, and worrying about things we can’t control, leads to difficulty getting a better quality or longer sleep. This disruption of the natural diurnal rhythm of our bodies further fuels the stress response, damaging our bodies even further.

[09:00] How weighing every day wakes us up
An example of how we perpetuate that critical voice that keeps us up in the middle of the night is the action of consistently weighing ourselves every day. Some people tend to weight themselves so often that, unbeknown to them, they are fueling that very same critical voice at night. For example, when someone weighs themselves and it reads a positive value “Yeah! I’ve lost weight” or “Good job” might ring in their heads. At first this might seem like a good thing, right? It shows progress and that they are on track, but what it also does is keep the negative a live and well. More importantly, if the person sees a negative value (they’ve gained weight), that negative voice starts down the barrage of criticism “I shouldn’t have eaten those chips”, “You are bad for doing…” and it just keeps getting louder. The battle is on! The good is perpetuating the bad, and vice versa. Eliminate the battle and stop weighing! This keeps that critical voice from popping up in your head all the time, and it’s one less thing that keeps you awake at night.

[16:47] 5 Tips to help us sleep better

• 1. Try some Relaxation Techniques
• a. Deep breathing exercise – The 4, 7, 8 diaphragmatic breathing – breath in for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds, and then exhale slowly for 8 seconds
• b. Visualization exercises – imagine a sight, sound, or smell from a peaceful place in your life and keep holding it in your mind with your eyes closed
• c. Progressive Muscle Tension/Relaxation Exercises – tighten your feet muscles for 3 seconds and then release for 3, and the do any muscle group on up to your face and then go back down
• d. Mind chant – repeat a chant on an on for a few minutes, or sign a song in your mind
• 2. Get out of bed – if after 20-30 minutes you can’t go back to bed, go to a different room and just relax there for a while. You can bring your pillow and a blanket if you like, or you can also read or listen to soft or light music. Don’t turn on any bright lights, TV, or any electronics like your smartphone or tablet.
• 3. Avoid your electronics – avoid scrolling through your social media feed, or emails, and the temptation to shop, or type out your next slide deck presentation.
• 4. Snuggle your partner or a pillow – don’t go at this alone. Ask your partner to help you
• 5. Journal – take a small paper and pen and right out your stream of consciousness, or bullet form. Whatever works for you, but use a dim light and get those thoughts out of your head

Lastly, if you are still having trouble getting back to bed, it’s probably a good idea to see a doctor or a sleep specialist like a sleep center or a sleep psychologist.

Resources:

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