Can’t sleep? Catch more Zzzz with these 8 tips
We all have those days. Those days when during waking hours your productivity hits an all time low and your brain appears to forget how to put words in an order that makes up a coherent sentence. Come the cover of darkness, however, and your brain is alive, dancing with ideas about how the universe was created and how to achieve world peace.
And so here you are, lying in bed desperately counting the hours of sleep you’d get if you fell asleep now. Or now. Don’t fight it; get up and do something to take your mind off the frustration of not sleeping!
1. Do not look at the clock
Before you embark upon any other middle of the night activities the most important thing to do is turn your clock round to face the wall. Constantly glancing at it will only put you more on edge.
2. Read a book
In our day to day lives there’s barely any time to sit down with a good novel. Sure, you can read a bit on the train to work but listening to blaring music through someone else’s headphones and being squashed against a wall doesn’t exactly lend itself to getting blissfully immersed in a gripping storyline.
3. Bake
The process of baking itself is therapeutic, and as an added bonus you’ll have warm cookies to satiate those midnight munchies while you’re cuddled up on the sofa reading your book. Plus your housemates will love you when they wake up at a socially acceptable hour to find that a fairy cakes fairy has been and left them goodies in the morning. What they will not love is being woken up at 2am by the sound of a whirring whisk. Maybe best to mix by hand.
4. Go on the internet
This might seem a bit vague but there is literally so much to do on the internet that can immediately lift your annoyed at not sleeping mood and make you extremely happy: any video of a cat is a classic example. A spot of online shopping also works just as well.
5. Play games online
If we were going to be even more specific about what other treasures you might want to accidently on purpose stumble upon in the early hours we’d suggest an online casino. After all, Vegas never sleeps, right? You’re awake at 3.37am? No problem, so’s Vegas: it’s one big party. Plus it’s a party at which there’s the potential of making money. Just make sure you keep the screen light dim because too much light can disrupt the production of melatonin— that’s the hormone that regulates sleep—in your brain.
6. Call your friend in a different time zone
It might be 11 pm where you are, but by the laws of nature that means there’s a pretty good chance it’s day time somewhere else. Take this opportunity to call the friend who moved abroad and who you normally struggle to stay in contact with thanks to pesky time zones.
7. Run a bath
Like reading a book we’re often granted very little time for a bath. Hopping in and out of the shower, maybe using some sort of quite nice shower gel, is about as luxurious as it normally gets. Running a bath in the middle of the night will not only give you a bit of much needed me-time, but will also make you drowsy and more likely to sleep when you go back to bed.
8. Make a to-do list
Often one of the things that keeps us up at night is all those niggling little thoughts about how to approach that client meeting at work and the sudden revelation about what to buy mum for her birthday. Why these useful thoughts can’t just come to us in the day is one of life’s great mysteries. Get up and write lists to get the thoughts out of your head and on to paper. Once they’ve kindly vacated your brain you’ll be able to sleep.
