Can’t sleep? Get out of bed

30 day sleep challenge day 8: stop forcing sleep

#8anight

It’s 2am and you’ve been tossing, turning and wishing yourself to sleep for hours but staying in bed is actually making your sleep problems worse. By getting out of bed, you’re not calling it quits for the night, rather you are better preparing yourself to get back to sleep as soon as possible. According to research, one of the most successful psychological approaches to treating insomnia is getting out of bed and your bedroom when you can’t sleep.

By staying in bed and forcing yourself to try and get to sleep, you are beginning to associate your bed and bedroom with frustrated, negative feelings of sleeplessness. So, as comfy as your bed may be, you need to breakdown these negative associations and one place to start is by removing yourself from the situation.

However, we need to be aware of where we spend this time out of bed and what we are spending this time doing. Remember, your goal is to get back to sleep as soon as possible, some activities will help in supporting this, others will have quite the opposite effect.

What are your relaxing go to’s when you can’t sleep?

Over the next 30 days we will be taking it back to basics and exploring simple, quick and effective techniques you can begin to implement and which hopefully will result in a longer, more restful and restorative night’s sleep. So join us for the 30 day challenge and see if you can start getting your 8 a night.

Use the hashtag #8anight and find us on Twitter @sleepkokoon to share your hints, tips, struggles and successes.