One doctor has shared a foolproof technique that may help you get back to sleep in the middle of the night.
While we're aware of the many benefits sleep can have on our body and health, some nights are harder than others to fall and even stay asleep.
And sometimes, the harder you try to force yourself back to sleep, the more alert you become.
While you might have heard of military sleep techniques that focus on body positioning, there are other ways we can quiet the mind.
Advert
Taking to Instagram, Doctor Amir Khan has shed some light on what to do if you find yourself awake in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep.
"What if you just can't get off to sleep because your brain won't let you?" the NHS doctor said in the Reel. "Imagine it, everyone is asleep, the house is quiet, you're lying there in bed, but your mind won't stop churning out stressful thoughts."
He explained that sometimes your brain gets stuck in problem-solving mode or fixates on unwanted thoughts, almost telling you, 'it's not safe to sleep and you have to stay on high alert'.
So instead of counting sheep, Dr. Khan suggests a technique called cognitive shuffling.
"The idea is that it interrupts your racing mind and instead scrambles your thoughts, inviting the brain to go into sleep mode, assuring it that it is safe to sleep," the medical expert explained.
To do this, lie down in bed, then 'think of a word that has no emotional connection to you.' He emphasised that the word must be 'completely neutral and ideally has no repeating letters.'
Using the word 'bed' as an example, Dr. Khan explained that you take 'each letter of the word and think of as many words as you can beginning with that letter.' As you do this, you should 'picture those objects in your mind.'
So for 'bed,' you could choose words like bat, binoculars, baseball, banana and visualise each one as you go through them. Once you can't think of any more, move to the next letter and start again.
If you finish the word and still find yourself awake, Dr. Khan suggests picking another word and repeating the process.
"If you're struggling with sleeping, give this technique a go. It's worth a try, but if you're really worried about sleep, speak to a healthcare professional," he concluded.
Many viewers in the comments thanked Dr. Khan for the technique saying that they would 'give it a go' while others found it to work for them.
"This works for me! Thank you," one Instagram user wrote.
"I do this regularly since you shared it. I was totally surprised at how often it works," another added.
"I try something similar but just start doing the alphabet, so A then B etc. I think it works although sometimes I'll just start at a random letter," someone else replied.