Here's What to Do When You Can't Sleep—and It's Kind of Counterintuitive

Did you have any trouble sleeping this month? Perhaps you woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't fall back to sleep. Or maybe anxiety cost you valuable rest. If so, you're not alone. In a 2021 survey by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 56% of responders reported an increase in sleep disturbances—like trouble falling or staying asleep and sleeping less overall. And in a 2020 survey by the CDC, 14.5% of American adults reported having "trouble falling asleep most days or every day in the past 30 days." Is it any wonder people are feeling so tired?

When you can't sleep, or you wake up hours before your alarm, you might think making yourself stay in bed sounds like the best plan—however agonizing it may be. In other words, your response to not sleeping is to try harder to sleep. But sleep scientists say this approach can actually make things worse. It could increase your chance of developing chronic insomnia.

So, what to do if you can't sleep? Get out of bed. We spoke to a sleep expert about why this method may be the best thing you can do the next time insomnia hits.

Why You Should Stop Trying to Force Sleep

Michael Perlis, Ph.D., the director of the Penn Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program, describes the pitfalls of prolonging what’s called “sleep opportunity,” which can lead to misalignment with your actual sleep ability.

“Those with insomnia typically extend their sleep opportunity,” Perlis says. “They go to bed early, get out of bed late, and they nap. While this seems like a reasonable thing to do, and may well be in the short term, the problem in the longer term is it creates a mismatch between the individual’s current sleep ability and their current sleep opportunity; this fuels insomnia.”

Put another way, people often try to overcompensate for sleep loss by extending their sleep opportunities (or adjusting their sleep schedule).

What You Should Do Instead

If you can’t fall asleep during the night, Perlis suggests getting out of bed to make use of that time to do something else, such as reading, folding some laundry, or writing those thank-you notes you’ve been putting off. You might find yourself falling asleep after an hour or so, but you’ll fall asleep faster and into a better sleep than if you'd stayed in bed wondering why you can’t sleep.

Though it may appear completely counterintuitive, choosing to stay awake—instead of trying to force yourself to sleep—is a formal strategy for insomnia treatment in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which the American College of Physicians announced as their preferred first treatment last month. And Perlis says keeping a regular sleep/wake schedule should help regulate your sleep within three to five days.

It’s also important to reserve your bed for sex and sleep (not reading, working, or scrolling through your Instagram feed)—so your brain doesn’t start to associate it as a place for wakefulness. Limit time awake in bed to up to half an hour a week, suggests Michael Grander, director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

What Else You Can Do to Help With Sleep

There are a number of strategies that have been proven to enhance your ability to sleep, and they often involve starting healthy sleep habits. Here are a few options to try:

• Practice good sleep hygiene.
• Use a weighted blanket.
• Do some simple stretching exercises before bed.
• Read a book before bed.
• Try breathing exercises just before turning in.
• Test out the Scandinavian sleep method.
• Adjust the lighting in your bedroom.
• Adust the temperature in your bedroom.
• Take melatonin.
• Eat sleep-inducing foods.
• Practice calming yoga poses before bed.