Finding yourself staring at the ceiling at 3 am is a frustration everyone has suffered through. The ritual of falling sleep is a little different for everyone. Here are a few ideas to assist you in your sleep endeavors. It might take trying different strategies or different combinations to find what works for you on a particular night.
Here is a checklist to reset your brain and body:
1. The “Don’ts” (The Essentials)
Stop checking the time: Knowing it’s 3:15 AM triggers a “math stress” response
calculating how tired you’ll be tomorrow). Turn the clock away.
- Stay off your phone: The blue light is bad, but the dopamine from scrolling is worse. It tells your brain it’s time to be alert.
- Keep the lights low: If you must get up to pee, use a dim nightlight. Bright overheads signal “morning” to your internal clock.
2. Physical Resets
- The 4-7-8 Breathing Technique: This is like a natural tranquilizer for the nervous system.
- Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds.
- Hold your breath for 7 seconds.
- Exhale forcefully through your mouth for 8 seconds.
There also is Box Breathing inhaling, holding exhaling and hold all the length of time
- Some people use a 4 second hold but it is up to you what feels comfortable.
- I find the body engages relaxation with a longing exhale.
- Bee Breathing – humming on the exhale.
- Look up – with eye lids closed look up for 3 seconds and repeat. This mimics the eye position when sleeping and can encourage sleep.
- Try keeping your eyes open for as long as you can without blinking. This has been said to also encourages sleep.
- Progressive Muscle Relaxation: Starting at your toes and moving up to your forehead, tense each muscle group for 5 seconds, then release instantly. Feel the “heaviness” enter your limbs.
Yoga Nidra helps in finding sleep. Yoga Nidra, often called “Psychic Sleep,” is arguably the most effective tool for falling back asleep because it systematically guides your brain from the active Beta state into the deeply relaxed Alpha and Theta states.
Unlike traditional yoga, you don’t move; you simply lie still and follow a mental roadmap.
· depending on your preference you can pick longer or shorter tracks to listen to. It depends on what is keeping you awake.
· It is recommended to use the same track or practitioner regularly; this creates familiarity and reduces over thinking.
· There are a lot of wonderful practitioners online to choose from. I suggest you find a couple recordings you like before going to sleep for easy access.
· Save different recordings for example one with a background of singing bowls or nature. Find another with no background noise and maybe one with some gray or white noise (try all the different colors of noise to find your fit) in the background. You will find you feel differently about having background noise one night and silence on another.
· Yoga Nidra and Trauma
· The Yoga Nidra practice with the scanning the body can be triggering for some suffering with trauma. If this is the case, try using a faster body scan and one with a shorter duration time. It might help to work with a yoga teacher or therapist that specializes in trauma and or Yoga Nidra.
· if you find you are having difficulty with sleep over a longer period of time, I suggest you talk with a mental health provider, trauma specialist or counselor.
3. Mental Games to Quiet the “Monkey Mind”
If your brain is racing, give it a boring task so it stops looking for problems to solve:
- The Alphabet Game: Pick a category (like “Fruits” or “Cities”) and find one for every letter. Apple, Banana, Cherry… Most people pass out by ‘M’.
- Cognitive Shuffling: Imagine random, unrelated objects in your head for 5-10 seconds each (e.g., a red paperclip, a snowy mountain, a slice of pizza). This mimics the fragmented thoughts we have right before falling asleep.
The “15-Minute Rule”
If you’ve been lying there for what feels like 20 minutes and you’re starting to feel agitated, get out of bed. Go to another room, keep the lights low, and do something incredibly boring (read a technical manual, fold socks, or listen to soft instrumental music). Only return to bed when your eyelids feel heavy. You want your brain to associate the bed with sleep, not struggling.
Other ideas to help with sleep.
· Exercise – doesn’t need to be a strenuous workout. Simple walking, yoga, Tia Chi does the trick
· Sunlight – regulates the bodies internal clock the circadian rhythm.
· No Caffeine – at lease cut it down and not after lunch.
· No Alcohol – this can make the brain sluggish and then the brain tries to overcompensate keeping you awake; it is also hard on the liver which will wake you up around 3 am in a “rebound” effect due to a flood in adrenaline and cortisol. Alcohol also fragments REM sleep and creates other physical disruptions such as breathing issues, bathroom runs, and temperature regulation.
· Meditation – is a great practice for a better life. It is a dimmer switch on the nervous system dancing with the parasympathetic nervous system that triggers rest and digest response. lowering heart rates and cortisol levels. Some research shows meditation increases melatonin in the body and meditation quiets the brain network that ruminates on past worries.
· Hydration before bed – 8 hours is a long time to go without water.
· A little starch in the belly before bed help with energy while sleeping and lets the body know it is a good time to rest triggering the rest and digest system (Parasympathetic Nervous system).
· Magnesium Glycinate (The Top Choice for Sleep) This is widely considered the best for sleep and relaxation. Why it works: It is magnesium bound to glycine, an amino acid that has its own calming effect on the brain. Benefits: It is highly absorbable and “gentle” on the stomach, meaning it is much less likely to cause the laxative effects (diarrhea) associated with other types.
Bannai, M., & Kawai, N. (2012). New therapeutic strategy for amino acid medicine: Glycine improves the quality of sleep. Journal of Pharmacological Sciences, 118(2), 145-148.
Siebrecht, S. (2013). Magnesium Bisglycinate as Safe Form for Use in Supplements. OM & Ernährung, 144, 2-16.·
CBD before bed to assist in calming the ruminating mind – CBD interacts with GABA and Serotonin receptors in the brain. It also assists in regulating pain and body temperature to aid in a better night’s sleep (Wang 2025). – *see research below just because I am a CBD person. If you need help with finding CBD and or dosing, I can assist you, it is a simple process.*
· Theanine amino acid before bed
· Brain dump – keep a pad and pencil next to the bed to write down what’s in your head to remember for later.
· Lastly if you find yourself awake be kind to yourself. Get quiet and listen to what your body might be trying to tell you. Just notice your body is awake and tell it you are safe and to go back to sleep. Let go of trying to control your mind and allow it with you noticing and validating its process. This happens to everyone at least once in a lifetime.
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CBD study context
This specific trial is often referred to as the Le Rêve 3.0 study. It is notable for being one of the first high-powered, placebo-controlled trials to use objective data (collected via wearable devices) to prove that a specific CBD-terpene blend could increase restorative sleep stages rather than just making someone feel “tired.”
This research, specifically looked at how a high-purity CBD formulation impacts the “macro-architecture” of sleep—meaning the actual time spent in specific stages like Deep Sleep and REM.
Key Research Findings (2025)
Unlike older studies that often-showed cannabis suppressing REM sleep (usually due to high THC content), this 2025 clinical trial found the following:
· Increase in “Restorative” Sleep: Participants using a specific formulation of 300 mg CBD combined with low-dose terpenes (like myrcene and linalool) saw a significant increase in the combined percentage of Slow-Wave Sleep (SWS/Deep) and REM sleep.
· Targeted Benefits: The most robust improvements were seen in “day sleepers” (shift workers) and individuals who had very low baseline levels of deep/REM sleep. For some, restorative sleep increased by an average of 48 minutes per night.
· Natural Transitions: The study noted that unlike traditional sedatives (benzodiazepines or Z-drugs), which often force the brain into a “knocked out” state that skips REM, this CBD-terpene blend appeared to support the body’s natural ability to cycle through stages.
Wang, M., Faust, M., Abbott, S., Patel, V., Chang, E., Clark, J. I., Stella, N., & Muchowski, P. J. (2025). Effects of a cannabidiol/terpene formulation on sleep in individuals with insomnia: A double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, crossover study. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 21(1), 69–80. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.11324