The First Thing A Sleep Expert Tries After Waking Up At 3AM

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about what sleep experts do when they find themselves awake in the middle of the night, unable to return to the land of nod. Both agreed that getting out of bed after about 20 minutes of sleeplessness, trying your hardest not to stress about the morning, and avoiding your screen can help. But Dr Allie Hare, consultant in sleep medicine and co-founder of Grace Sleep, said, “If I wake at 3am and it doesn’t feel like I am about to return to sleep, I try cognitive distraction strategies first”. Here’s how Dr Hare uses the method to nod back off, as well as what she turns to if that doesn’t work.How can you distract yourself when you wake up at 3am?You might have heard of “cognitive shuffling,” which involves associating words which share a letter in order to stop yourself from overthinking. This is meant to calm a racing mind and prevent the stress about being awake, which can, paradoxically, prevent you from falling asleep.For Dr Hare, that involves “counting backwards from 1000 in sevens”. I sometimes imagine myself cooking my last meal in enormous detail: my editor says she pictures as many nooks and crannies of her childhood home as possible. The point is to distract your mind from worry or obsessing over returning to your slumber. After all, independent sleep expert and author of books like A Sleep Divorce: How to Sleep Apart, Not Fall Apart, Dr Neil Stanley, previously told HuffPost UK that stress and “frustration” are the natural enemies of a great night’s sleep.What else can I do if distractions don’t work?Dr Hare said “cognitive distractions” aren’t her only method, though they are the first technique she turns to.“If that doesn’t work, I will always get out of bed, as trying to get back to sleep never works and can condition your body and brain to associate the bed with tossing, turning and frustration,” she told HuffPost UK.“I’ll do something else, like reading or listening to music for 20-30 minutes before going back to bed.”And, like sleep experts before her, Dr Hare doesn’t think it’s a good idea to let a bad night’s sleep disrupt your usual cycle.“If I’ve had a bad night, I will still focus on getting up at the same time I usually would in the morning and focus on getting early bright, outside light to minimise fatigue.“I will then go to bed at my usual time the following night, and this usually resets things!” Related...Wake Up At 3AM And Can't Get Back To Sleep? You Might Have This Condition'Drockling' Feels Amazing On Winter Mornings, But It Can Ruin Your SleepSleep Experts Share Their Rules For Handling A 3AM Wake-Up

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