We all experience nights when sleep just isn’t happening.

Perhaps we are worried about something or someone. Perhaps we can’t shut down after a hectic day or event. Perhaps pain or other physical disruptions awaken us and keep us awake.

Whatever the cause, sleeplessness is distressing. And, as with most everything else in life, prayer can help.

The rosary is a good way to use our nighttime awake time productively, and it may help calm us down so we can fall back to sleep. Wooden, plastic or cord rosaries won’t poke us awake if we fall asleep on top of them. With a little practice, our hands may learn to “freeze” in place on the beads so we can pick up where we left off if we doze. Try keeping one handy under your pillow.

Another prayer idea is what I call a “Midnight Song Prayer.”

Instead of allowing ourselves to mull over and fret about our upcoming day, we can sing in our hearts to God about what we fear we will face or what we hope could happen. We can sing to God about the day we just survived. We can sing about someone whom we are concerned about, or pray a song of thanks for all that went right for our loved ones. We can sing our thanks to Him for our own blessings.

This ‘singing’ can be as simple as humming — with our thoughts sung up to God using just a note or two, similar to how the psalms are sung by cantors at Mass.

Or we can put our own words into a familiar tune. A song like “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow” provides an easy tune and encourages our own words of thanksgiving to God, especially if we start our prayer with the song’s first verse.

For all of us who are not blessed with great voices, it’s wonderful that we can sing these inner songs of prayer from our hearts without troubling our imperfect vocal cords.

Another helpful middle-of-the-night prayer is what I call a “Crawl-In Prayer.”

God is infinite. That fact may make us hesitate to picture Him once we grow past the paintings of God the Father with long, white hair and beard. However we imagine God, it will be inadequate.

Even so, the Book of Genesis says that “God created man in His image, in the divine image He created him; male and female He created them” (Gn 1:27). Even though it is far from accurate for an artist to picture a child held in the palm of God’s hand or for a poet to speak of playing at God’s feet, such images also are not wholly inaccurate.

Imagining ourselves as children grabbing God’s fingers, bouncing on His knee or snuggling our noses into his neck works somehow, even when we know He is so much greater.

Especially in the middle of the night, especially when we are upset, our prayer can be a matter of crawling into God’s arms and letting Him hold us. He does in fact hold onto us at every moment of every day. Picturing Him doing so in a familiar way is a good use of His gift of our imagination.

Another good use of that gift is what I call the “Imagination Prayer.” It works well on nights when you are wide awake, as opposed to half awake. It is good also when you need to focus your mind to keep it from galloping off a cliff with worry.

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you with insight as you picture a building — a house, a store, a warehouse. Imagine that it has many wonderful things inside and that each includes an intangible gift within. Perhaps you will find a wind chime of peace, a flower of joy, a belt of self-discipline or a box of answers. Wander around and see what you find.

Then imagine Jesus walking up to you. Let him show you around and explain some of the many good things he has stored there.

If you could take one thing home with you, what you would choose? Tell Jesus why that is something you want for your life.

Ask him what he would choose for you. Ask him why and really listen to his answer. Think about those two gifts and end your meditation by asking God for whatever gifts He wants to give you.

Nighttime is a good time for pondering the gifts of God and His greatness. Instead of fretting when you can’t sleep, think of such sleepless nights as a gift of quiet time to draw closer to the Lord. And let Him be there with you.

These are some of the ideas in Hudson’s ebook, “When Prayers Go Blah — 100 Ideas,” which can be borrowed for free from the Kindle Owners Lending Library Program, or purchased for $2.99 from Amazon.com.