There are various kinds of insomnia and sleeping disorders.

Some folks simply cant get to sleep at the appointed time. They toss and turn, and some find their minds becoming closed-loop machines, working and reworking the same fantasies and fears.

Others, like me, get off to sleep quite easily, but we awaken after a few hours, feeling energized; all undressed with nowhere to go.

What can you do when its two or three in the morning and you know for a fact that youre definitely not going to drift off to sleep if you stay in bed?

Ive found this is a golden time, if used constructively. In fact, I do some of my best thinking and most creative work in the wee hours.

But this takes some practice and I have found reprogramming by beliefs to be helpful.

For example, if you believe that awakening in the middle of the night is ABNORMAL, and you label it as such, what will happen?

Youll probably wake up and immediately ask yourself: Why am I so ABNORMAL?

Undoubtedly, this will lead to some disturbing thoughts, and youll compound the misery of being awake at that hour.

On the other hand, if you WELCOME being awake, and you label it an OPPORTUNITY, then youre definitely more likely to get something positive from it.

Sometimes, Ill ask this question: What is my unconscious telling me to work on?

Once, when I was doing an extensive consulting assignment in Texas, I awoke in the middle of the night, anxious about the seminar I was delivering the next day.

After tuning into my concerns, and accepting that I wasnt going to fall back to sleep, I redesigned the programs, and the results paid off immediately.

Those five hours of work were, literally, career changing.

Of course, I do a considerable amount of writing when Im prematurely awakened.

As a matter of fact, this piece is being composed at exactly 3:20 in the morning.

Hope it helps you as much as its helping me!