What helps you fall back asleep?

[charcb]

What helps you fall back asleep after baby’s nightly wakings? Today for example he woke up at 1.30 after his first stretch and it’s now 5 am and I’m still awake. I really could do with more sleep!

I used to read and fall asleep with book in my hand
Anything that took my mind off how tired I was or anxieties
As it made my brain switch off

It's a tough time so I hope you catnap in the day when you can or get to bed early if you have someone else to do evening feed (or even just bring you baby and take baby back after feed if bf so you don't have to get up)

I lie on my front and imagine improved endings to books. Or go on Mumsnet with a blue light filter app enabled until my eyelids start to droop.

I do a tweaked version of 'military method' and it really works if you put some effort in and focus.
I do imagine I'm looking at black or grey wall and I don't let any thoughts come my way - this is the hardest part as you catch yourself starting to think about different things every couple of seconds. Need to focus on black wall again and again :)

Here's some info about the military method:

www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/the-trick-soldiers-use-to-fall-asleep-in-minutes-in-even-most-uncomfortable-situations.html
www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/the-trick-soldiers-use-to-fall-asleep-in-minutes-in-even-most-uncomfortable-situations.html

White noise. Used it for the baby, realised it made me sleep far better too!

Podcast or desert island discs.

I found this so, so hard to begin with. It’s so frustrating because you know you could be getting a lot more sleep if you could just drop off!

The thing that works for me is listening to a quiet audiobook. I choose something I’m familiar enough with that I’m not too captivated by the story, but just interesting enough to listen to. For me that’s Harry Potter, or Sherlock Holmes stories. I have it on quietly and it’s just enough to distract me from my thoughts and stop me from tensely listening out for the baby crying again, which is what used to keep me up. Now I’ve been using the method for so long it’s like I’m Pavlov’s dog, and it sends me off to sleep in a few minutes.

I think this is a bit the same as the military method.
I choose a three figure number eg 666 and decide to count backwards each time I breath out until I reach 555. So you are holding the 6 - - number in your head, plus 555 as that is where you are heading. And if that is not enough also move a finger or move toes each time.
Tell yourself you are not trying to fall asleep (or you will panic if you get to say 500 and are stil awake) you are trying to count to 555.
Distracts the brain and you wake up later hopefully.

Also gentle audiobooks eg about wildlife rather than a story.

I count. I try to visually imagine the shape of the number as if I'm tracing it with my finger. Any time my thoughts wander I pull them back to the last number I remember and start again. You have to really focus, not just idly mumbling through them while thinking about something else.

If I'm stressed rather than wired or I've remembered things I need to do, I jot them down and promise myself I can worry about them tomorrow. If my brains not holding on to them worried I might forget, it's easier.

Insight timer. It's a free app with white noise and meditations on it. I'm a bit obsessed with a Scottish man called Andrew johnsonnwhondoes lovely meditations on there, including a power nap one, a back to sleep one and a healing one.
Maybe 5% of the time i don't fall asleep before I get to the end, which is a pretty good hit rate.

I find that I fall back to sleep easier if I don’t look at my phone (or even check the time) when I wake up in the night. I also find that if my mind starts overthinking then counting back from 30 helps as it seems to distract it

Getting back into a warm bed made the difference for me. I’d put my electric blanket onto warm up mode as I got out of bed and would turn it off when I got back in. Ahhh that cosy factor!!! 😄

I get up, have a slice of toast and a glass of water and read a book for ten minutes enjoying the silence. Invariably I start thinking 'actually I'm quite tired' and I can then go back to bed and fall asleep feeling relaxed. For me it beats lying there for twenty minutes stressing out about being awake.

I count to 10 and breath in on 1, out on 2, in on 3 (and so on) and try not to think of anything at all apart from the counting and breathing

Listening to radio 4 or thunderstorm noises, using a lavender roller ball