People who tend to ruminate on unfinished work, impending responsibilities, etc. will have an especially tough time falling back asleep the longer they stay awake in bed at night.
“If you’re waking up thinking about all the things you didn’t get done that day, that’s a warning sign,” Rountree told mbg co-founder and co-CEO Jason Wachob during a recent Sleep Summit Masterclass. It signals that you went to bed with a lot of unprocessed information. Staying in bed, shutting your eyes, and obsessing about why you can’t sleep won’t quiet those thoughts. Instead, the mind needs to be distracted.
“If it’s been more than 30 minutes, you might as well get up and do something else,” Rountree said. “You’re better off just going and reading with a little bit of light or doing something that’s non-stressful.”