What are some productive things to do when you wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep for a few hours?
I’m looking for suggestions that zombie-me could follow through with. The problem is I can barely bring myself to get out of bed, let alone do a useful task. It just wastes typically 2–5 hours of my life as I wait for tiredness to finally (re)take hold.
Yin yoga is good for this exact situation. I do it without getting out of bed usually (husband is a heavy sleeper). I read somewhere “vigilance is the enemy of sleep” and that makes sense. Yin yoga is designed to calm your nervous system and I find it does help knock me back out. Try to let go of unhelpful thoughts, if you think you need to remember something for the morning place a rubberband around your wrist to make you notice and remember in the morning then let it go.
If it’s so late (early?) that you might as well get up, a morning run, jog, or walk as the sun is rising is a very encouraging activity. It feels so happy to see the new day born, and vigorous exercise in particular (so if you can run instead of walk, do it) is invigorating.
Was up at 4am and thought… oh! I can scan some of those old family photos I’ve been meaning to get to. Just ended up on my iPad reading the news and browsing Etsy and eBay for two hours instead. Every time, I remind myself I need to keep screens out of the bedroom.
Otherwise, if it’s nearly morning anyway, I find it a good time to listen to music and make playlists. If it’s too early, I’ll read a book.
Move to the couch, and read a boring book if you can’t sleep. Don’t do anything stimulating or chances are it will make it harder to eventually go back to sleep.
Well, if the plan is to eventually continue to sleep, I’d say nothing. Once you get up and start doing something you will just get more awake and it will taken even longer to fall back asleep.
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