'Work worries keep me awake at night. How can I switch off?'
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Q: I don't think of myself as particularly stressed but I keep on waking at night and thinking about work. Sometimes I can't sleep for a few hours at a time. Do you have any suggestions to help me shut off my mind when I wake up in the middle of the night? Graham, 38. |
our online advisors reply:
You say that you don't feel particularly stressed, but work is obviously intruding into your home life. It's so frustrating to be kept awake at night with unwanted thoughts and worries about work. It can easily become a vicious circle where lack of sleep makes work harder, which gives you more to worry about at night, and so on.
If you find yourself remembering things you didn't do that day, or suddenly thinking of things you must remember to do tomorrow, you could try keeping a pen and paper by the bed and writing them down in a list. That can often be a good way of convincing your mind that the problem is dealt with and is no longer something to worry about.
And there are more things you can try. There's an article in our stress gym called sleep and feel better, which discusses stress and sleeping problems. It has a long list of ideas for tackling the problem – everything from milky drinks to daily exercise.
You mention that it can be a matter of hours before you get back to sleep. Have you tried getting out of bed after the first half-hour and doing something else for a while? You could try listening to some gentle music, or perhaps reading until you feel sleepy again. The alternative – of tossing, turning and checking the time – can often make the problem worse.
Learning how to relax properly is something else that can help enormously. Relaxing can be easier said than done when you are stressed about something, but there are lots of techniques you can try. One method involves relaxing all the muscles in your body one by one. The website Awakenings has a series of pages about this technique, which is called progressive muscle relaxation. Other ways of relaxing are discussed on the site too.
Have you considered whether complementary therapies might help? There are a number of different therapies that are thought to help with sleep problems and our complementary medicine and insomnia page weighs up the evidence for the effectiveness of each one.
I hope some of these suggestions help you get a good night's sleep, Graham.
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