If you suffer with your mental health or you're currently struggling with a physical condition that makes it hard to sleep, you'll understand the never-ending frustration of sleepless nights. For whatever reason, you just can't get to sleep - and you're stuck until the early hours of the morning tossing and turning while your stress level is slowly building up. Hopefully this post will help you to cope with sleeping problems, and offer some solutions that may help until you are able to fix your sleeping problems for good!
♡ Try to figure out what's keeping you awake ♡
It's a bit of a no-brainer, but if you can figure out what's keeping you up you can start to do something about it. If you have no idea what it is, don't feel pressured to try figure it out straight away. Everyone has the odd sleepless night for various reasons, especially if you're stressed. Don't make yourself feel worse thinking about it! Just go with the flow and know that sleep will eventually come. If it becomes a real problem, visit your doctor. Also, pain may be keeping you awake; if this is the case, try to take some painkillers before you go to bed. Or if you're on medication that can affect drowsiness or alertness - as long as what you're doing is perfectly safe for you - figure out a time table in the day of the best time to take your medication that will aid your sleep.
But if the reason you can't get to sleep is an external factor - like room temperate or too much light in your bedroom - do something about it! Many people struggle to sleep because their room is too warm, so consider buying a fan that can lower the temperature. The white noise of the fan may also help if you struggle to sleep in a silent room. If you share a room with someone who sleeps with a light on and you require pitch black surroundings, buy an eye mask! Many people will suffer in silence and attempt to overcome a problem alone instead of trying simple solutions, so even if you don't think these things will help very much, just try them and if they're not for you, you can move onto other solutions. The next time in the day that you are refreshed and awake (preferably not when you're in bed at night as this may make you more frustrated) try and find some ideas you'd want to try that can combat the events that are keeping you awake.
♡ Place yourself in a relaxing environment ♡
Honestly, from my own experiences, if you know you're not going to sleep the most stressful thing you can do is sit in silence in the dark and constantly will yourself to fall asleep. It's just a frustrating situation and will probably make even more problems when it comes to allowing yourself to relax. Soft lighting and calm activities will help preoccupy your mind without overloading it. Sitting downstairs with just a lamp on whilst reading or drawing would be perfect - as it would help steer away from boredom without making things worse for yourself by waking up your mind too much. If that's not your thing, or you already have a low-stress hobby you take part in, do something else that works for you. If you're actively trying to calm your mind, then I'd recommend avoiding bright screens and anything over stimulating. But, when sleepless nights have become a way of life and the boredom is driving you crazy, it's perfectly okay to watch a film or pop on the TV in the background. It may help to lower the brightness of whatever you're looking at so you're still able to watch it but it won't give you a headache or any eye strain.
Your bed should stay a place for sleep: try not to create a habit of engaging your brain at night whilst laying down in bed (this is easier said than done). If that's gone out the window and you're sitting awake in bed for hours on end, then try and go to another relaxing but comfortable space in your home that you can do whatever you want in. Maybe light a candle (not if you're going to fall asleep though) or play some calming music, and sit somewhere that's not your room. Do something you enjoy! The perfect activity would be something engaging or distracting, that doesn't take a huge amount of effort, and will keep you from glancing at the time every ten seconds. Then, once you're drifting off, return to your room and try to fall asleep. One of the worst feelings is being wide awake in bed with no chance of falling asleep - it makes you stressed and irritable, and all you can think about is how you're not sleeping. If you take yourself out of this situation, even just to get up and make yourself a hot drink (no caffeine though!) you're breaking what feels like an endless cycle, and allowing yourself a much needed distraction.
♡ Make the night as positive as possible ♡
If sleepless nights have become a part of your life that you can't immediately fix and you have to live with, do as much as you can to change how you think about it. Even just laying there, sleeping or not, you're recharging your body. So if you can lay down in bed for hours on end without going crazy, give your mind and body as much rest as you possibly can. But if your problems are due to mental health, sitting in the dark in silence all night may be your worst nightmare (I'm writing this post at 5:30am so trust me, I know your pain). I really don't want to encourage any bad habits, but if you find that watching TV all night keeps you from over thinking and driving yourself crazy, then don't feel bad for doing it. If for a couple nights you spend your time having a netflix binge or reading an entire book instead of being incredibly stressed and frustrated, then go for it. I would not recommend doing things like this every night, as once you're in that habit it's incredibly hard to break. But if you need to do something to help distract you or relax you that may stimulate your mind a bit, do what you need to do! The worst thing you can do is make your night something you begin to stress about and dread throughout the day.
The next time you're awake, buy some herbal teas that help promote sleep. Camomile is my personal favourite as it promotes sleep and you can buy many different variations. If you hate the flavour, try adding some manuka honey, which is very sweet but also has some health benefits. Buy yourself a book that you've always wanted to read or has been highly recommended, and save it for the nights when you're wide awake. Try to create something that you can look forward to that's specific for the nights you're struggling to sleep. It's all about trying new things and finding something that works for you. Don't forget that you'll have the best sleep when your body and mind are fully relaxed and you can drift off peacefully. Falling asleep through exhaustion isn't the best way to go, so don't push yourself too far. If you plan to watch a film and start to feel tired ten minutes in, don't wait and watch the film, go to bed and try to sleep! You can always finish whatever activity you're doing the next day. Don't be afraid to try and drift off when you're only a bit tired. It's important to take as much pressure out of the night as possible, even if you have something you need rest for tomorrow. Stressing out and worrying won't help. Sleep will come naturally when you're relaxed, so just enjoy your time of being in a peaceful environment!
♡ Thank you for taking the time to read this post! I really hope it helps and if you have any ideas or tips feel free to comment below ♡
