Three Ways to Reset After a Bad Night’s Sleep
As an insomnia therapist, I’ve noticed time and time again that people’s response to a terrible night’s sleep can determine whether their sleep is going to improve or continue on a downward spiral.
The reality is, if you’ve had a really bad night’s sleep, it can be very easy to fall into habits that are actually going to keep the insomnia going even longer.
So, here are three tips to help you reset after a bad night and to stop one bad night from turning into a bought of insomnia.
Make friends with caffeine. Despite some people thinking caffeine is the cause of insomnia, there’s actually no problem with having tea or coffee in the morning as a way to boost your energy levels and make it easier to move on from the poor night. As long as you’re not having it all afternoon or in excessive amounts, then it’s a really good way of teaching your body that it’s morning time.
Write down how you feel. After a bad night, it's normal for your mind to be going to some really negative places, which increases your chances of another poor night. If you’re stressed about the fact you have had a bad night’s sleep then write down your worries, frustrations, worst-case scenarios, fears, and what might happen. You don’t have to have the answers, part of the process is learning that we can’t always get the certainty we want - but we can acknowledge we want it. This way you’re processing your thoughts and fears, and taking these out of your mind and onto paper is a really therapeutic way to move on from a poor night.
Don’t go to bed too early the next night. After a bad night’s sleep, it can be very tempting to ‘correct’ it by going to bed earlier the next night. However, that’s the worst thing you can do. Your natural sleep drive is built up by time out of bed so an early night will result in your body clock not knowing what you want to do and more time in bed feeling the pressure to sleep. Instead, have a relaxing evening, stay up a little later and then you’ll have a much stronger drive to start sleeping better again the next night.
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