It always hits me around 2 a.m. Any tips on how to go back to sleep

[KFld]

I try and tell myself there is nothing that staying awake at 2a.m. and worrying is going to solve and that everything can wait until morning, but I'm sure that's when it hits because during the day I can fill my mind up with work, zumba, friends, things that keep my mind busy and when I go to bed I have the t.v. on so that is what my mind is on when I fall asleep, then low and behold I wake up and the worrying begins.

He's finally getting on the suboxone today, so hopefully this is the beginning of good things to come and the sleep will just fall into place when I have less to worry about.

 

[CrazyinVA]

I wanted to add: when I mentioned "mindfulness," I was thinking of the things I learned from this book. I have his other book, "Full Catastrophe Living" as well .. what better phrase to describe the life of the parent of a difficult child??!!

I know what you mean about your mind being filled up with other things during the day, I think that's exactly the problem I have late at night/early in the morning, as well.. there are no distractions to keep us from worrying. The wisdom I gained from that book helps me to embrace a "moment" of peace, howevever, even at 2 am. In fact, this post (and my own added stress recently) has me thinking it's time to pull the books out and re-read again

 

[Nomad]

I was thinking many of the same things as the others. It takes practice to get to the place we need to get to on this.
I too like the idea of reading...but much of our reading material might need to be things like the mindfulness literature (as mentioned).
Additionally, I personally have taken low dosages of Melatonin when under way too much stress and can't sleep.
I get a tiny dosage sold at Life Extention...it's less than 1/2 mg. I find that a low dosage is what works for me.

 

[compassion]

Three cal-mag capsules plus sleeptime tea help me. I also take baths and read Al-anonor spiritual lit.

 

[klmno]

That's what was going on with me too at first, klfd. That's when it finally dawned on me that I was actually "stuffing" during the day instead of really dealing with it all and I had to give myself time to cry, grieve, be angry, talk it thru (even if it's just to myself or posting about it here), write about it, etc, during the day. As my old therapist told me when I was going thru drug rehab many, many moons ago- if I stuff it I might think it's gone, but it will come back to haunt me one way or another- like not sleeping- and with me, I had to learn not to stuff it and try to cover it up with drugs or anything else- I had to learn to work things thru in a healthy way. It worked then and it's very gradually working now.

 

[klmno]

Also, if I can decide on something today that will help things or help me feel better tomorrow, I try to remind myself of that when I wake up during the night- so I tell myself "I really need to get back to sleep because I need to get up in the morning and do ABC." Then I think of each physical part that is tensed up- my jaw, shoulders, etc and one by one try to focus on relaxing them. That helps me.

 

[KFld]

Then I think of each physical part that is tensed up- my jaw, shoulders, etc and one by one try to focus on relaxing them. That helps me.

Wow, that is something I remember my mother teaching me when I was little and couldn't sleep. maybe if she was still alive today she would have been able to remind of this sooner
I remember her teaching me to talk to each part of my body and tell it to relax and I would go back to sleep.

Thanks for that memory