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Can’t Sleep? Dos and Don’ts When You’re Up at Night

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Can’t sleep? Whether you can’t fall asleep or stay asleep, it’s a big problem. Discover things to do and not do when you can’t sleep on HealthyPlace.

Can’t Sleep? Dos and Don’ts When You’re Up at Night

Can’t sleep? When sleep eludes us in the middle of the night, it’s highly frustrating. We’re tired. We know that sleep is restorative and an important part of mental and physical health. We want to sleep. But we can’t. We feel tired, but somehow wired, too.

It’s not unusual to experience anxiety when this happens; tension and worry increasing with each tick of the clock. There are ways to deal with middle-of-the-night sleeplessness and anxiety.

When you can’t fall asleep or stay asleep, don’t:

  • Constantly look at your clock, worrying that you have to get to sleep immediately because you have to get up soon
  • Turn on the television, your tablet, your phone, or any other electronic device. These are too stimulating
  • Imagine the consequences of lack of sleep; the more you think of the next day’s consequences for being exhausted, the more worked up you’ll become

When you can’t sleep, do:

  • Cover your clock so you can’t watch the numbers advance
  • Turn on a dim light and read something enjoyable or color
  • Practice mindfulness to keep your thoughts and feelings centered; when you catch yourself worrying about tomorrow, take a deep breath and turn your attention to the here-and-now

Sleep is vital for mental health, and you don’t have to destroy your mental health when it eludes you.

Related Articles Dealing with Sleep

Your Thoughts

Today's Question: What do you do when you can’t sleep? We invite you to participate by sharing your thoughts, knowledge, and experience on the HealthyPlace Facebook page and on the HealthyPlace Google+ page.

From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs

On all our blogs, your comments and observations are welcomed.

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments at the bottom of any blog post. And visit the mental health blogs homepage for the latest posts.

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From HealthyPlace YouTube Channel

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Here are the top 3 mental health articles HealthyPlace Facebook fans are recommending you read:

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If you're not already, I hope you'll join us/like us on Facebook too. There are a lot of wonderful, supportive people there.

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Mental Health Quote

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That's it for now. If you know of anyone who can benefit from this newsletter or the HealthyPlace.com site, I hope you'll pass this onto them. You can also share the newsletter on any social network (like facebook, stumbleupon, or google+) you belong to by clicking the links below. For updates throughout the week, circle HealthyPlace on Google+, follow HealthyPlace on Twitter or become a fan of HealthyPlace on Facebook. Also, check out HealthyPlace on Pinterest and share your mental health pins on our Share Your Mental Health Experiences board.

back to: HealthyPlace.com Mental-Health Newsletter Index

APA Reference
Peterson, T. (2018, July 23). Can’t Sleep? Dos and Don’ts When You’re Up at Night, HealthyPlace. Retrieved on 2024, October 4 from https://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-health-newsletter/cant-sleep-dos-and-donts-when-youre-up-at-night

Last Updated: July 25, 2018
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Medically reviewed by Harry Croft, MD

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