This video is about what’s going on when we wake up in the middle of the night and cannot go back to sleep. Here are a few different strategies that you can use so that you can lull yourself back to sleep and wake up in the right frame of mind in the morning.
This used to happen to me all the time. Between 3:30 and 4:30 every single night, I would wake up and be completely awake. It used to happen because I had little babies and they would wake up in the middle of the night. But after they started sleeping all the way through, I still found myself awake at that time.
My brain would be turned way on and this is what would be going on. It was like Judge Judy where we go through a list of everything Stacy did wrong all day long (or maybe even in the past) and I would be found guilty.
You didn’t exercise. Guilty. You said something stupid when you were talking to that other mom. Guilty. Back when you were in your 20s, you did this or that thing. Guilty. I would go through all these things and have all this guilt and then sprinkle in there some worries. What if this happens? What if that happens? Projections into the future that I can’t predict.
After that goes on for a while, my brain is wide awake. Completely and totally awake. And it would be really hard for me to get myself back to sleep. When I would finally get myself back to sleep, all of that energy goes into my dreams. And I would wake up in the morning feeling guilty right away.
But I had all of the great strategies, right? So I would set intentions and use gratitude. I was using all of those tools to fight against this way I’m waking up every day.
Now this doesn’t happen to me very much anymore but it does occasionally. I wake up at that time and I can feel my brain want to wake up. Like someone came in and turned on the lights and turned on loud music and my brain is saying, “Yes! Let’s do this. Let’s start the rundown!”
It’s crazy how quickly my ego can turn on my thinking mind when I am supposed to be sleeping. It thinks of one thing and it’s go time.
So I have some strategies for how to deal with that and I am able to get myself quickly back to sleep and change how I feel in the morning.
When I’m dealing with my transgressions and mistakes and all these things I did wrong, my first strategy is to say this to myself. And as quickly as I can, because I know that the more I engage the more awake I’m going to get. It’s just going to get brighter and louder and brighter and louder. So I say, “Nonsense. You are good and you are loved.” I just repeat that to myself. You are good and you are loved. That’s my first strategy. Most of the time, that one works and I can lull myself back to sleep. It’s like a sweet lullaby.
If that doesn’t work and I’m stuck to something that I’m criticizing myself for and judging myself for, then I go to my next tactic. That is, “What about that thing happening am I grateful for? Why am I grateful BECAUSE it happened, because I did that?” My brain is trying to convince me that it was bad and wrong and so I want to switch that.
Sometimes I come up with the answer of, “I don’t know. I’ve got nothing.” I do not allow myself to get away with that, because then I stay in the cycle. “I don’t know what could possibly be good about that.” And then I’m just getting more and more awake and starting to spin. So “I don’t know” is not an option. I don’t let myself off the hook with, “I don’t know.”
I have to say something that I’m grateful for. And sometimes it just comes down to being grateful that I have the opportunity to apologize and practice giving a good apology. And there is a strategy for that. There is a way to give a good apology. Maybe I just get to practice doing that.
I used to have a very strong core belief that I had to perfect which I have since replaced with, “I am proudly imperfect.” Sometimes it is just the chance to reinforce that new core belief. See, I am proudly imperfect. So that is the second tactic and that definitely works. If the first one didn’t work and I’m too awake and unable to put myself back to sleep with “You are loved and you are good” then it is time to find gratitude for that thing happening. There is always something there to be grateful for and that will ease my mind.
What about worry? Sometimes we’re just worried about stuff. I keep a notepad by my bed always. And I ask myself the question, “Okay, is there anything I can do about this?” If the answer is yes and I can think of an action, I will write that on the paper. That will be waiting for me in the morning, because I can’t do it right then most of the time. But a lot of times the answer is, “No, I can’t do anything about that.”
And then I just have to say, “Okay, I trust you universe. I trust you and I’m going to surrender that to you.”
Those are the strategies I use to get myself back to sleep and this is why it is so important. First of all, I want to get myself back to sleep as fast as I can because the longer I am awake spinning the harder it will be. Secondly when I wake up in the morning, I want to wake up feeling happy and content. I want to add gratitude and intention into an already loving feeling that I have the minute I wake up.
That’s what happens when you meet this head-on instead of let your ego and your brain get the best of you at 3:30 in the morning. Meet it head-on with some strategies so that you get to wake up with that feeling of, “Hey, I am good and I am loved. There is so much to be grateful for. It’s going to be a great day.”
So if you struggle with that middle-of-the-night insomnia, those are some strategies for you.