Another sleepless night, laying awake staring at the ceiling, the clock, my iPhone, iPad or just about anything else in that hotel room. Desperately trying to sleep but failing miserably…
Got up at one point and walked around a bit, hoping to tire myself out… didn’t work. A little later on, got up to read a few chapters. That didn’t work either.
I bet it was that gigantic shawarma dinner I had, a little too late in the evening. Getting to sleep was not a problem, waking up every hour throughout the night was.
There are dozens, maybe hundreds of pages on the topic. The following tips on getting back to sleep were taken from the National Sleep Foundation’s site:
Tips for getting back to sleep at night
- Avoid caffeine in the afternoon and evening, and alcohol close to bedtime. These can promote wakeups during the night.
- Make sure your sleep environment is quiet and dark throughout the night. Use darkening shades to block streetlights and early morning light, and a fan or noise machine to block sounds.
- Practice a simple breathing exercise.
- If you are unable to fall back asleep for 20 minutes do not lay in bed and worry about not sleeping, get up and go to a space in the house to do a relaxing activity, like reading, with dim light.
The first two tips are something I do already, leaving the last two. I’ll look up some simple breathing exercises, maybe that will help. I did try the last one but it didn’t help.
Eventually I did get to sleep, about an hour before my alarm went off.
the dan blog 