Have you ever woken up at night and still wanted to go back to sleep? Some strategies, such as breathing exercises or listening to calm music, may help you fall back asleep if you wake up during the night....Read Full Article >>➤
According to Healthline, the inability to fall back asleep after waking up is known as sleep-maintenance insomnia. Other forms of insomnia may cause difficulty falling asleep and frequent awakenings.
It could be nature’s call, the pitter-patter of little feet (No, honey, it’s not daytime yet, go back to bed) or a squirrel scampering loudly across the roof over your bedroom – and suddenly you are awake. Very awake. Then before you know it, your mind is flooded with things you forgot to do, worries over finances or reliving an unpleasant experience you planned to forget. Sleep is a lost cause – or is it?
Deep breathing is a well-known method of stress reduction and relaxation, if done correctly.
Start by putting your hand on your stomach. Close your eyes and take a slow, deep breath through your nose, making sure that you can feel your abdomen rise. Try to breathe in for a slow count of six. Now release that breath very slowly – to the same count of six – through your mouth.
“Taking slow deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth using our main respiratory muscle, the diaphragm can help relax the body and mind,” said sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.
Try guided sleep meditations and muscle relaxation
Meditation, of course, is a great way to calm the mind. But if you’re not a practiced meditator, the act of trying to keep your mind focused might become a source of stress.
You could try a guided sleep app, “some of which actually embed delta sleep waves,” said stress management expert Dr. Cynthia Ackrill, an editor for Contentment magazine, produced by the American Institute of Stress.
“Put it on loop so you don’t wake up,” Ackrill said. “Lie there and listen and slow your breathing down. Keep focused on their guidance or if you are just listening to a music/white noise, focus on your breath. Your mind will interrupt — don’t judge it, but keep coming back to your breath.”
Don’t use a computer, smartphone or tablet to jot down your worries, though, experts warn.
In fact, the No. 1 rule is “no computers, cell phones, and PDAs in bed and at least one hour prior to bed time,” said Dr. Vsevolod Polotsky, who directs sleep basic research in the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Instead, write your to-do or worry list on paper, using only a dim light, he advised. And if you decide to read to put yourself to sleep, make sure you read in a dim light off from a real book, not a tablet or an e-reader.
That’s because “any LED spectrum light source may further suppress melatonin levels,” Polotsky said. Melatonin, secreted in a daily 24-hour circadian rhythm, is often referred to as a “sleep hormone,” because we sleep better during the night when levels peak.
“Digital light will suppress the circadian drive,” Polotsky said, while a “dim reading light will not.”
Oh, and one more thing, Polotsky said: “Grab the most boring paper book you can find,” because you don’t want to read or do anything stimulating when you are trying to fall back asleep ...Read Full Article >>➤
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