Three O'Clock in the morning wake up call?

I wonder if as well  as, the known surge in the use of electricity at the advert  break in between popular TV programmes there is a similar surge at 3 am in the morning. Is that not the time that you ping awake thinking all those thoughts that you haven't had time to think in the day?

I know how difficult and stressful family breakdown is and your quality of sleep is very likely to suffer.

Some monks actually start their day at 3am , but as you are reading a family blog, I think I can safe fully assume that you are not a monk! 

So you lie there with your head going around like a washing machine on spin cycle. The more you try the worst it gets and you start counting the hours to the alarm. I used to do this regularly, but not so much any more even when I am to face a gruelling day in court.

I am no guru , I just want to share a few tips that worked for me.

Good bedtime routine The old ones are the good ones. Milky drinks and reading works .Alcohol will get you to sleep but it may wake you up as the alcohol level in your body drops. Computer screens ,mobile phones keep you wide awake. Eating is not a good idea either . So getting to bed relaxed starts the night off right. I also keep a notepad by the bed and if there is any unfinished business bothering me it is written down and parked there for the night.

However if you still wake up at 3am , don't lie there no matter how snug you are, you are likely to be still wide awake a couple of hours later. Get up and do something different, read, put the radio, but not TV on, do not go back until your tired. If you still do not go back to sleep  within 20 minutes drag yourself out again and repeat the process.  Keeping a sleep log helps you chart your progress so you don't lose hope and fall back into bad sleep habits. Eventually over days ,perhaps weeks you retrain your body and you don't have to get up hardly ever. 

On the odd occasions that I do ping awake, I use these tools and I soon back in dreamland.

This post on PTSD may also be useful:

http://bit.ly/1AehNSD