How do I resolve insomnia where I wake up often in the middle of the night?

Doctor's Answer

Common causes of fragmented sleep include anxiety, depression, nocturia (need to wake up to pass urine), obstructive sleep apnea (where an individual feels choked and would wake up from sleep) and alcohol use. It will be good to seek medical attention so that your sleep problem can be properly diagnosed.

If the frequent awakenging is due to stress, tension, anxiety, then you can try getting back to sleep after waking up. If for the next 20 minutes, you still cannot get to sleep, it will be useful to go to another room, where you can do relaxing and soothing activities like reading a book that you have read before or listening to soothing music (nothing that excites you). Only when you are feeling sleepy again, should you then go back to the bedroom and try to get some sleep. It will be good not to turn and toss in bed for long periods of time as that will lead to the brain associating the bed with poor sleep. You may want to use the following key phrase "stimulus control strategy" to read more on this form of intervention. Do seek treatment early as insomnia disorder can be effectively treated and managed. It is important to nip the problem in the bud.

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