I'm a bilingual yoga teacher who helps people who sit a lot gain mobility, move without pain and reduce their stress.
Why you wake up in the middle of the night
|
Why do I wake up in the middle of the night then struggle to go back to sleep?
Should I stay in bed or should I get up and wait for sleepiness to come back?
This is one of the most asked questions on my Q&A podcast, so I thought it might be time to answer it here too. Most of the time, it's stress.(Is anything not caused by stress nowadays? 🥲) Something is bothering you, maybe not enough to keep you awake at night, but enough for your nervous system to be on alert. And enough for you to start thinking about it the second you wake up, whereas if you were a bit more zen, you would fall back to sleep without even noticing you woke up. But it could also be...
What should I do when it happens?If you wake up and can't fall back to sleep, don't look at the clock. You would start counting the hours until you have to get up and stress about falling back to sleep... which will prevent you from falling back to sleep. If you feel very awake (my tell-tale sign is if I can open my eyes fully) and have tried to get back to sleep for over 15 minutes, get up and go to another room. No bright lights, no screens. Do something relaxing like reading, listening to music, gentle stretching... and as soon as you start feeling tired again, go back to bed. Sleepiness comes in waves, so we want to prime the nervous system for sleep while we wait for that sweet wave. If that happens to you regularly...See which boxes you tick from the list of causes above. I'm sure you can get some quick wins like avoiding caffeine late in the day or ordering earplugs and a sleeping mask. And if you'd like to reduce your average stress level and build a night routine that will make you sleep like a baby, that's what I do :) Send me a short message explaining your situation as a reply to this email or on WhatsApp, and I'll tell you how I can help you. Om, peace 🧡 Clem |
Clémence Dieryck
I'm a bilingual yoga teacher who helps people who sit a lot gain mobility, move without pain and reduce their stress.
What’s the widespread misconception that absolutely drives you mad as an expert in your field? During my psychology studies, it was the nonsense about humans only using 10% of their brains (complete rubbish, we use our entire brain, and evolution wouldn’t preserve anything we don’t actually need). Now, it’s the belief that you need perfect posture at your desk to avoid back pain. It’s even worse than a simple misconception, because the truth is that trying to have "good posture" could be the...
Here's something that might sound backwards: what if those uncomfortable sensations you keep pushing through are actually your body's way of looking after you? I know, I know. When your neck aches after a day of Zoom calls, or that 3pm energy crash hits, it feels more like your body is working against you. But hear me out. Your body speaks in "discomfort dialects" I want to share with you a way to understand discomfort that completely changed my relationship to my body. Think of it this way:...
Last week, I took a proper tumble on an e-scooter. Nothing serious, just bruises and scrapes. But what happened next fascinated me. In the moment, I was mainly focused on the fact that I was going to be late for my class and needed to get moving. Adrenaline was rushing through me, and the pain faded into the background. During the session, focused on my client, I barely felt my injuries. But that evening, alone at home with my laptop, the pain came roaring back. And over the following days,...