How do I fall back asleep after waking up at night?

How to get back to sleep quickly at night

1. Don't look at the clock. Checking the time starts you calculating lost sleep, and that alertness is the main thing standing between you and dropping off again.
2. Keep it dark. Resist turning on a light or your phone. Even a brief burst of bright light suppresses melatonin and tells your body clock the day has begun.
3. Relax your body deliberately. Soften your jaw, shoulders and hands, and breathe slowly with a longer out-breath. Letting go of physical tension often lets sleep return on its own.
4. Let your mind wander gently. Instead of chasing sleep, picture something calm and repetitive. Trying hard to fall asleep creates the arousal that prevents it.
5. If you're wide awake, get up briefly. After about 15 to 20 minutes, leave the bed and do something quiet in very low light, then return when drowsy, rather than lying there frustrated.
6. Don't catastrophise. Tell yourself resting quietly is still restorative. The worry that tomorrow is ruined keeps you alert far longer than the wake-up itself would.

Why going back to sleep feels so hard

Waking in the night is normal, but getting back down can be hard because of what you do in those first minutes. Checking the phone or clock floods your eyes with light and your mind with information, both of which raise alertness. The brain's melatonin, which supports sleep, is easily suppressed by light, so a quick glance at a bright screen can push proper sleep further away.

The bigger trap is effort and worry. Lying there thinking "I must get back to sleep or tomorrow is ruined" activates the stress response, and the resulting arousal is incompatible with drifting off. Sleep returns most easily when you stop chasing it: keep the room dark, release physical tension, and treat lying quietly as rest in itself. If you are still clearly awake after 15 to 20 minutes, a brief, dull, low-light activity usually resets things better than forcing it.

Common mistakes

• Checking your phone to see the time, which wakes you with both light and content.
• Switching on a bright light, resetting your body clock toward morning.
• Straining to fall asleep, which raises arousal and does the opposite of what you want.
• Spiralling about how wrecked tomorrow will be, keeping the stress response switched on.