Second Cup: When you’re up in the middle of the night

Tossing and turning? How to cope with less-than-ideal sleep

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about how to use time better when
you're up and spinning your wheels in the middle of
the night. I'm generally a good sleeper, but the later

(00:24):
stages of pregnancy are never good for this, And this
episode is airing when I'm about eight months pregnant. Between
getting up to go to the bathroom or getting a
shot of adrenaline because I've just been kicked in the ribs,
I wind up awake for at least an hour every
other night. I'm fortunate in that I know this is
a time limited condition. Chronic insomniacs, on the other hand,

(00:46):
can deal with this for their entire lives, and I
know it can be incredibly frustrating to lie awake hoping
for visions of sugar plums to dance in our heads. Unfortunately,
the thoughts we turned through at two am are seldom
productive ones. We re visit an argument with a coworker
or friend. We hunt for evidence that a spouse isn't

(01:06):
keeping up his or her end of a bargain. We
worry about problems, We can't currently do anything to solve
and one wake up a week is one thing. But
because my middle of the night wake ups became so frequent,
I decided to really think about how to handle this time,
and some of what I came up with might be
helpful to other people too. First, I made rules. For instance,

(01:30):
after lying in bed for half an hour, if I
wasn't tired, I would get up. I would use this
time to read, and I made sure to always have
books I found relaxing available, generally nonfiction on something interesting
but not scary. I made it through a lot of
science writer Mary Roach's books. This way, I also tracked
my time so I could study patterns. For instance, I

(01:52):
soon learned that while being up for an hour was
par for the course, I usually get sleepy again by
two hours. Since I knew this, I could assure myself
that waking up at two am didn't mean that I
wouldn't sleep again. I probably would, if not for as
long as I might want. Any sort of catastrophizing makes
the middle of the night worse. When I felt myself

(02:15):
getting sleepy after reading for forty five minutes, I turn
off the light and try again. Generally this worked I
changed my definition of what was a good night. Well,
I know from time tracking that my body likes to
get seven point three to seven point four hours of
sleep per day. If I woke up after more than
six hours, I wouldn't try too hard to go back

(02:36):
to bed. I just get up and start work. I
wrote some good stuff from five am to seven am
over the course of the pregnancy, and I tried to
be disciplined about going to bed on time. I generally
didn't have trouble falling asleep, it was staying asleep that
was the problem. By setting it lights out time of
ten thirty, I knew that a sixty five wake up

(02:57):
would mean getting about six and a half hours of sleep,
even if I was up for close to two hours
in the middle of the night. And if by some
chance I didn't wake up, well, I might even get
up before my alarm clock in the morning then feeling rested,
And when you're dealing with lots of middle of the
night wake ups, that can feel pretty grand. I know
a lot of people have dealt with this issue, so

(03:17):
I'd love to hear your tips. What do you do
if you wake up in the middle of the night
and can't immediately go back to sleep. You can let
me know at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and
here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

(03:44):
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.
That's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled

(04:07):
out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look
forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.