It’s 3 a.m. and I’m Awake

Do you ever wake up hours before dawn and find yourself unable to get back to sleep? Your body is tired, but your mind is alert, buzzing with plans, ideas, challenges … everything!

Luckily, I never have that problem — just kidding.

Today was one of those mornings. I woke up at 3 a.m. and my mind was a whir of random thoughts and pressing issues. At one time, this temporary insomnia used to frustrate me no end, which only exasperated the problem. In fact, I used to get so wound up that I’d grumble out loud to the point of waking my wife up.

What are my solutions?

Try to Relax

Truthfully, waking Molly up has a bit of a hidden motive, because she is very soothing and will sometimes take me through a meditative exercise that helps me get back to sleep. (I finally realized this isn’t fair to her, so I rarely use it anymore.) Another option for getting back to sleep is to practice a self-meditation where I will repeat a phrase such as “let go and let God.” I say this over and over as I breathe in and out and relax all the muscles in my body.

However, there are times when even that mantra doesn’t work.

Harness Your Energy

On those nights, rather than just thrash around in bed — which seems pointless — I get up and head downstairs to my home office. There, I either complete some of the work that’s bouncing around my brain or I read. This newly adopted behavior has proved surprisingly beneficial.

I recently read somewhere that perhaps what I considered an annoyance was my soul waking me to solve a problem or work on a strategy that I’d been wrestling with (consciously or subconsciously). I have now shifted to viewing these bouts of waking in the middle of the night as more of an inspiration than an irritation.

Be Productive

The benefit has been two-fold. First of all, I seem to be waking up a lot less frequently or at least waking and quickly settling back to sleep. When I do find that I can’t lull myself back to sleep quickly (under 30 minutes), then I get up and address whatever is on my mind.

This doesn’t mean answering e-mail; that’s not a deep-thinking exercise. Rather, I use this unique “bonus” time for inspiration and insight, not for clearing away piles of unresolved business.

Occasionally, I’ll do some cleaning up and organizing, but only if clutter is the cause of my restlessness. However, even then, I first try to uncover a problem or strategy that needs to be worked on.

Be Insightful

The second benefit is that when I reflect either through writing or journaling, I often have insights. These insights are usually small. They’re frequently more clarification then brilliance, but on rare occasions, I receive true gifts from God.

Remember 2008? The huge upheaval in the stock market? One of my most dramatic and tangible insights occurred one morning while I was journaling. Sitting there quietly, I had the distinct impression that I was to pull all my money out of the stock market before the drop and subsequent recession. When I called my stockbroker, I actually had to argue with him! He thought it was unnecessary and foolish to turn my funds into cash. After much wrangling, I conceded to leave my 401K and self-funded pension in his hands (upon his insistence), but I did pull out the bulk of my estate and convert it to cash.

I then spread the money around to several banks to cover the FDIC insurance limit and paid down my mortgage. From my safe position, I watched the market plunge from a Dow Jones high of approximately 16K to a low of 6K. Then in the spring of 2009, I got back into the market, following the adage “buy low, sell high.”

In hindsight, I was right, and my broker was wrong (although he was hardly alone in his thinking). My 401K and pension were pummeled. Fortunately, from this one early morning moment of insight, I was able to preserve most of my assets and pay down my mortgage. This was especially beneficial since I had bought my condo at the height of the market and subsequently my equity was upside down when real estate values dropped significantly.

Bottom line? Most nights, I sleep well simply by remembering to “let go and let God.” When I do struggle with restlessness, I now head downstairs to do some reading, writing, or reflecting. And sometimes, I even have a moment of grace and insight that is quite literally money in the bank.