If you can’t sleep at night, what should you not do?

Our desire to sleep decreases near morning, which makes it more likely that we’ll wake up. If you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep, what should you do? Professor Espie explains that trying to fall asleep creates a kind of paradox: “As morning approaches, the desire to sleep decreases, and you might start thinking about how you can’t fall back asleep. This is one of sleep’s enemies. No one, in my experience, can intentionally fall asleep. You can only drift into sleep. When you try to sleep, you stay awake, and this is part of the problem.”

He continues: “But the circadian clock also ages, so teenagers typically go to bed later and wake up later, while older people tend to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier in the morning, and they might have trouble getting back to sleep.”

February 14, 2025 | 5:20 am