You glance at the clock: 2:18 a.m. You turned in after the 11 p.m. news, but you’re still awake. You vowed to simply relax – close your eyes – let your worries go – fall asleep.

Didn’t work, did it?

We’ve all had nights like this. Cancer is the original Big Gorilla in the Corner. Awfully hard to ignore, even in the light of day.

But at night? Every awful fear you have bubbles to the top of your brain, a cauldron of competing worries.

What’s chemo going to be like? When will my hair fall out? Will I be too sick to work? How will we pay the bills?

Should I have a lumpectomy, or mastectomy? I don’t want a mastectomy. I don’t want the caner to come back. Why won’t the doctor tell me what to do?

And then there’s the biggest gorilla of all:

Am I going to die?

During the day, surrounded by family and friends, the normal routine of work, meals, errands, it’s easier to shove cancer into a closet and kick the door shut. But in the dark of night, you imagine the worst outcome of every situation, from your son’s struggle with second-grade reading (“He’s going to be illiterate”), to cancer (“Who’s going to take care of the kids when I’m dead?”)

Truly, life isn’t worse at night than it is during the day. It’s just your outlook that changes. Lying in bed, unable to sleep, you have too much time on your hands. The solution?

Get up and do something.

Hey, nothing says you have to crawl into bed at 10 p.m. and stay there. If you find yourself awake at midnight, or 2 a.m., or 4 a.m. – for whatever reason – get up. Leave the bedroom, flick the light switch, move around. Shedding light on the situation will bring back at least some of your daytime confidence.

And while you’re up, you might as well DO something. Remember your grandma telling you “Idle hands are the devil’s work”? So is an idle mind. Here are 10 suggestions for shaking those 3 a.m. “devils”:

1) Do laundry. While it may seem like just one more chore you don’t have time for during the day, there’s a certain satisfaction in pulling warm, clean clothes out of the dryer, and folding them just-so.

Imagine each article of clothing on its owner – your husband in his favorite jeans, your daughter’s training bra, your son in his too-big but majorly cool Cavs jersey. Think of your family sleeping peacefully. Life is good.

2) Take a shower. There’s nothing like a hot shower to relax your muscles – including that overactive “muscle” in your head!

While you’re at it, have that good cry you’ve been holding in all day. Between the noise of running water and the midnight hour, no one will hear you; let it all out. You’ll feel exhausted, and so much better afterwards – maybe even ready for bed.
 
3) Organize things. There’s nothing that’ll make you forget your worries like occupying your mind with inconsequential but exacting tasks.