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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to use time better when

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Speaker 1: you're up and spinning your wheels in the middle of

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Speaker 1: the night. I'm generally a good sleeper, but the later

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Speaker 1: stages of pregnancy are never good for this, And this

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Speaker 1: episode is airing when I'm about eight months pregnant. Between

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Speaker 1: getting up to go to the bathroom or getting a

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Speaker 1: shot of adrenaline because I've just been kicked in the ribs,

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Speaker 1: I wind up awake for at least an hour every

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Speaker 1: other night. I'm fortunate in that I know this is

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Speaker 1: a time limited condition. Chronic insomniacs, on the other hand,

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Speaker 1: can deal with this for their entire lives, and I

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Speaker 1: know it can be incredibly frustrating to lie awake hoping

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Speaker 1: for visions of sugar plums to dance in our heads. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: the thoughts we turned through at two am are seldom

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Speaker 1: productive ones. We re visit an argument with a coworker

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Speaker 1: or friend. We hunt for evidence that a spouse isn't

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Speaker 1: keeping up his or her end of a bargain. We

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Speaker 1: worry about problems, We can't currently do anything to solve

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Speaker 1: and one wake up a week is one thing. But

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Speaker 1: because my middle of the night wake ups became so frequent,

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Speaker 1: I decided to really think about how to handle this time,

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Speaker 1: and some of what I came up with might be

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Speaker 1: helpful to other people too. First, I made rules. For instance,

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Speaker 1: after lying in bed for half an hour, if I

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Speaker 1: wasn't tired, I would get up. I would use this

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Speaker 1: time to read, and I made sure to always have

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Speaker 1: books I found relaxing available, generally nonfiction on something interesting

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Speaker 1: but not scary. I made it through a lot of

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Speaker 1: science writer Mary Roach's books. This way, I also tracked

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Speaker 1: my time so I could study patterns. For instance, I

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Speaker 1: soon learned that while being up for an hour was

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Speaker 1: par for the course, I usually get sleepy again by

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Speaker 1: two hours. Since I knew this, I could assure myself

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Speaker 1: that waking up at two am didn't mean that I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't sleep again. I probably would, if not for as

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Speaker 1: long as I might want. Any sort of catastrophizing makes

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Speaker 1: the middle of the night worse. When I felt myself

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Speaker 1: getting sleepy after reading for forty five minutes, I turn

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Speaker 1: off the light and try again. Generally this worked I

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Speaker 1: changed my definition of what was a good night. Well,

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Speaker 1: I know from time tracking that my body likes to

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Speaker 1: get seven point three to seven point four hours of

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Speaker 1: sleep per day. If I woke up after more than

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Speaker 1: six hours, I wouldn't try too hard to go back

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Speaker 1: to bed. I just get up and start work. I

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Speaker 1: wrote some good stuff from five am to seven am

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Speaker 1: over the course of the pregnancy, and I tried to

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Speaker 1: be disciplined about going to bed on time. I generally

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Speaker 1: didn't have trouble falling asleep, it was staying asleep that

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Speaker 1: was the problem. By setting it lights out time of

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Speaker 1: ten thirty, I knew that a sixty five wake up

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Speaker 1: would mean getting about six and a half hours of sleep,

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Speaker 1: even if I was up for close to two hours

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Speaker 1: in the middle of the night. And if by some

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Speaker 1: chance I didn't wake up, well, I might even get

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Speaker 1: up before my alarm clock in the morning then feeling rested,

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Speaker 1: And when you're dealing with lots of middle of the

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Speaker 1: night wake ups, that can feel pretty grand. I know

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Speaker 1: a lot of people have dealt with this issue, so

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear your tips. What do you do

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Speaker 1: if you wake up in the middle of the night

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Speaker 1: and can't immediately go back to sleep. You can let

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Speaker 1: me know at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com.

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Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and

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Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

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Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.

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Speaker 1: That's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.

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Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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Speaker 1: podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled

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Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look

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Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production

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Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.