WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU JUST CAN’T SLEEP?

Getting sleep is an essential part of life. “Outside of bacon and sex, sleep is the most important thing on the planet,” says MH Advisor W. Chris Winter, MD, neurologist, sleep specialist, and author of numerous books on sleep including The Rested Child. And for good reason. When you are lacking in quantity and quality Z’s, you leave yourself open to a host of issues, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and depression.

Even if you are doing all of the right things to foster a good night’s sleep, including regular exercise, sleeping on a schedule, avoiding alcohol at night, sleeping in cooler temperatures and keeping your room dark and quiet, good sleep can sometimes still be a struggle. Luckily, it’s not always a major cause for concern. “An occasional cupcake or missed meal is irrelevant. If either becomes the standard it’s deadly. Same with sleep. Tonight’s sleep is not that big of a deal,” says Dr. Winter, who notes that the difference between sleeplessness and insomnia is the anxiety you choose to bring to the situation.

Still, that doesn’t make the fact that you can’t snooze any less annoying. If you are having trouble, here are a few in-the-moment things you should and shouldn’t do.

Just enjoy the rest. Really.

You may not think there is value in just closing your eyes and lying in bed, even if sleep is evading you, but the truth is that resting is tremendously beneficial from a physical and cognitive perspective, according to Dr. Winter, who says that we put far too much emphasis on tips to fall asleep. Resting is a way to simply get your body and mind to relax. “If it’s impossible not to sleep, we just need to take ourselves off the hook and be comfortable with being awake in bed. It’s nothing to fear,” explains Dr. Winter, who also says that we need to eliminate the word “unconsciousness” from our list of goals when we get into bed. “I would say, if you do not mind being in bed, awake, thinking, meditating, praying, thinking about your celebrity crush…stay there,” says Dr. Winter.