“If you’re wired at night, what actually helps?”
After sharing why so many people are experiencing bad dreams, early-morning waking, and feeling wired yet tired. The next question always comes - So what can I actually do at night?
Here are some things that genuinely help a busy nervous system calm down.
First, lower the bar; the fastest way to stay wired at night is trying too hard to sleep.
Sleep responds to safety. The goal at night isn’t to force sleep; it’s saying to yourself, “I’m allowed to rest, sleep will come later.”
This mental shift alone can help.
Start with a 10–20-minute buffer before bed that tells the body to stand down. Some examples include:
✅ A warm shower or bath
✅ Gentle stretching (not exercise)
✅ Sitting quietly with a drink (not alcohol) and low lighting
✅ Calm, familiar music
Consistency matters more than technique.
Next, just before bed, write down any worries, reminders, or thoughts you might have.
If you wake at night, stop arguing with your mind. If you start the chatter inside your head, it keeps the nervous system switched on.
Here’s what helps instead:
👉 Slow breathing (longer out breath)
👉 Gentle reassurance (“I’m safe right now”)
👉 Imagining something neutral and repetitive (walking a familiar path, waves, a train journey)
You’re not trying to sleep; you’re trying to stay out of threat mode.
Reeducate the nervous system during the day. What shows up at night is often what the nervous system didn’t process during the day.
Throughout the day, to reprogramme your brain, start:
⏸️ Having brief pauses during the day
😮💨 Take moments of slow breathing
🌳 Step outside
📋 Do one thing at a time.
Lastly, be kind about dreams. This one is close to my heart.
Bad dreams don’t mean you’re a bad person or regressing; they often mean the emotional system is processing things that finally feel allowed to surface.
If you wake from a disturbing dream:
✅ Remind yourself it’s memory + emotion, not a prediction
✅ Ground in the present
✅ Avoid analysing it at 3am
If you remember one thing, you don’t fix nighttime wiring with force. You calm it with permission, predictability and compassion.
You can access our sleep tips document here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ewwvA4vB
Let’s talk!
Sleep!