Should you stay in bed if you can’t sleep?

There seems to be many nights where I just lay in bed unable to sleep. I look over at the clock and I start to worry about how I will feel in the morning with such little rest. And the sleep apnea that I have makes things even worse because when I do finally fall asleep the apnea occurrences occur many times even to the point of just waking me up completely. I struggle with the question of whether I should just lay there and try to relax or get up and do something till I get tired.




One of the drawbacks of not sleeping at night or sleeping restlessly is the need to nap during the day. Of course when you do that it makes it harder to go to sleep the falling night. Right now I take a nap during the day and then try to go to bed later. Unfortunately that doesn’t even seem to help. Another thing that hinders your sleep is late night eating. Not only is that bad for your health (you’ll gain weight) it also makes it harder to fall asleep. So try not to eat after a certain period of time.



As for whether to stay in bed, I have read 2 opposing views. One says that you should get up and do something relaxing with the purpose of it causing you to fall asleep. And another opinion is to stay in bed, hide your digital clock so you don’t stare at it all night and listen to soothing music.

I know that I have tried both methods and it seems the one that sometimes works for me is to get up for a little while and then go back to bed. Like I said it works sometimes and other times it doesn’t.



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