I'm tired of waking up early

[choirfarm]

Do any of you have any tips about how to sleep longer? I generally wake up around 3ish, though I try to sleep more and not get up until at least after 4. I generally get into bed between 9 and 10 and read a book for awhile. Dh and I generally have our lights out around 10. I exercise nearly every day for 30 minutes in the morning. I have a couple of cups of cofee in the morning, but after about 10ish, I just drink water. I'm tired of being tired. If I wake up at 2 or 3, then I generally go to our playroom and turn on World News tonight and that will put me back to sleep for an hour or so, then I'm up again. I just generally start my day around 4or so. I can count on my hand the number of times that slept until 5 or 6 in the last year and I felt so rested when I did. I just hate it. On my travels this summer, I would bring my IPOD, so I could listen to it after i tossed and turned for an hour so I wouldn't wake up my roomate (dorm situation).

 

Christine

[Garga]

Do you have sleep apnea? Could you go for a sleep study?

[choirfarm]

I am a size 6 or 8 depending on the clothes and don't snore. (You can ask my hubby.)

 

Christine

[Laura Corin]

What I find is that if I go to bed earlier than 11:30, I wake up at two or three. You could try pushing your bedtime later to see if that helps.

 

Laura

[ele325]

I take melatonin at night. It is natural, doesn't make me wake up groggy. You can find it at most grocery/drug stores in the supplement section for under $5.

 

Good Luck

Eleanor

[Dandelion]

When you wake up (at 3am), how do you feel?

 

Has anything changed in your life and/or your evening routine that may be causing this?

 

A couple things that have helped me (I also tend to wake up in the middle of the night and then have trouble going back to sleep) are occasional Melatonin as well as not drinking any alcohol close to bedtime. I like to have wine with dinner occasionally, but I've found that it always disrupts my sleep. So now I skip it or have it at least 4-5 hours before I go to bed.

 

If you google "sleep hygiene" you'll find all kinds of helpful information on ways to promote better sleep. Might be worth a look...

Edited August 10, 2010 by Dandelion

[Rosie_0801]

Do you have supper? If not, 3am might just be when your blood sugar levels are dropping.

 

Rosie

[Stacy in NJ]

:001_smile:

[Mrs. H]

I'm usually just a lurker, but have had this problem as well and agree with whomever said it was your blood sugar. 3am is the time it often drops, especially if your adrenals are a little fatigued. Have you tried a protein snack before bed? If that doesn't work, you may want to try getting up and eating at 3am (keeping the lights low), and then going back to bed. You'll likely sleep several more hours.

 

After trying this for several weeks and getting more rest, you may find that you stop waking so early (at least that is what happened to me). Also, adjusting your diet during the day to even out your blood sugar levels may help as well.

 

Sarah

[choirfarm]

I normally eat dinner between 5 and 6 pm. So I should have some kind of protein at 9ish? This isn't new, BTW. I've done this for at least 10 years...maybe 15 since I started having children and they totally disrupted my sleep. Before that I would go to bed at 9 and get up at 7. I mean like last night my 8yo woke me up at 1 and I didn't go back to sleep until 3. Hence I am now up at 5 instead of 4. Also, I would need to get up at 5 anyway since that is when dh's alarm goes off anyway. He's a surgeon with early surgeries. But i do vagually remember the days of being in bed when he left. I don't drink any alcohol period at any time. None is even in the house. It is rare that the children get me up anymore. They are 15, 13 and 8 but it happens about once a month. But dh's phone will often go off in the middle of the night as well.

 

Christine

[choirfarm]

bump

[Laura Corin]

Here's the longer version of my previous post. I heard a sleep specialist on the radio here talking about how to cope with middle-of-the-night waking. He said that it was often triggered in women by having children, but also that people don' t realise that they need less sleep as they age.

 

He said to start by staying up until the time when you normally wake up. So, for you, you would force yourself to stay up until 3am. Then you would sleep until a reasonable waking time (don't sleep til noon) and get up for a normal day - don't nap. Assuming that you slept through until the morning, then you can start shifting your bedtime slowly earlier, by 15 minutes a night. So you would go to bed at 2:45, then 2:30, then 2:15..... In each case, get up at your preferred waking time.

 

Keep bringing your bedtime earlier until you start waking up in the middle of the night again. If you have your first disturbed night after going to bed at 11, then your ideal sleeping time is 11:15 or so (you might need to play with that a bit, but this is the general idea). You might find that you can no longer get up at five with your husband, but the good night's sleep might be worth the sacrifice.

 

I did this process a few years ago and it solved the problem. The investigation phase was fairly gruelling, but I discovered that my ideal sleeping time was 11:30pm to 7:30 am. I'm going to have to tinker with that now that the children are going to start school, but it has worked for me for the last few years.

 

Best of luck,

 

Laura

[choirfarm]

Interesting. I've never stayed up past 10, even in college. I could never pull an all nighter. What do you do. To be honest, if I don't keep moving I'm asleep. If we start a movie after 7, I fall asleep. We don't watch much tv at all, but do have Netflix...even if I watch during lunch I have to do something or I will fall asleep. So I basically move all the time. I don't take naps. So what do you do between 10 and 3 am while everyone else is asleep that won't wake everyone else up???

 

Christine

[Laura Corin]

Interesting. I've never stayed up past 10, even in college. I could never pull an all nighter. What do you do. To be honest, if I don't keep moving I'm asleep. If we start a movie after 7, I fall asleep. We don't watch much tv at all, but do have Netflix...even if I watch during lunch I have to do something or I will fall asleep. So I basically move all the time. I don't take naps. So what do you do between 10 and 3 am while everyone else is asleep that won't wake everyone else up???

 

Christine

 

I seem to remember doing some cleaning, decluttering, etc. to keep myself awake. You could end up with a good sleep schedule and an extremely clean house.

 

Laura

[mhg]

Try a TempurPedic sleep masks. Very comfy. Blocks out all light.

 

Avoid caffeine.

 

No milk/dairy after 3 pm.

 

Noisemaker (white noise).

[emubird]

The later I go to bed, the earlier I wake up. I don't know how common that is, but it wouldn't do me any good to go to bed later. I'd just wake up at 2-3 and not be able to go back to sleep.

[cjzimmer1]

I started having problems sleeping about 2 years ago. After about 6 months, I read something about Vitamin D and sleep. I was already taking vitamin D but I decided to double my dose since it's hard to overdose on D. WIthin a few days, I was sleeping through the night again. When I get lazy and don't take my vitamins for a while, I start waking up during the night again. THe vitamin D really does the trick for me.

 

Oh and my parents own a greenhouse and I work outside 30-35 hours a week there in the spring, I still need to take extra D and I'm fair skin so I absorb lots of sun but it's still not enough.

[choirfarm]

I started having problems sleeping about 2 years ago. After about 6 months, I read something about Vitamin D and sleep. I was already taking vitamin D but I decided to double my dose since it's hard to overdose on D. WIthin a few days, I was sleeping through the night again. When I get lazy and don't take my vitamins for a while, I start waking up during the night again. THe vitamin D really does the trick for me.

 

Oh and my parents own a greenhouse and I work outside 30-35 hours a week there in the spring, I still need to take extra D and I'm fair skin so I absorb lots of sun but it's still not enough.

 

Well, I take a calcium/vit D pill every day. Does that count? But they just released the fact that makes your risk of heart attack go up, so I wasn't sure.

 

I may try melatonin. I have some tea. I just worry about side effects. I rarely ever take medicine as medicines affect me A LOT. I can't take any pain medicine as it makes me really, really sick so an occasional tylenol is all I could take even after surgery or babies. The epidural paralyzed me fromt he waist down 2 out of 3 times until they gave me like 1/4 of the dose and that took away the pain, but still let me feel if that makes sense. I have to be real careful with medication, so herbs make me really nervous.

 

Christine

[Alison in KY]

I've just recently finished a sleep study and learned that it doesn't matter what size you are, you can still have sleep apnea. The woman working with me told me a week before that a petite woman weighing 114 was in there with apnea. I also saw a young slender teen in there doing a study...so according to the sleep disorder clinic, it's not correct that you will have apnea if you are overweight...she thought it was about 50% either way.

 

Alison

[choirfarm]

I've just recently finished a sleep study and learned that it doesn't matter what size you are, you can still have sleep apnea. The woman working with me told me a week before that a petite woman weighing 114 was in there with apnea. I also saw a young slender teen in there doing a study...so according to the sleep disorder clinic, it's not correct that you will have apnea if you are overweight...she thought it was about 50% either way.

 

Alison

 

But don't those with sleep apnea, snore? I've wondered because I often wake with a start after 3 or so hours of sleep. I wake up scared that I left the water on and have to go check or to make sure that my credit card is in my wallet or to add to my to do list for the next day so I won't think about what I'm scared I will forget, or rehashing an event. It is like I wake up with my brain on steriods.

[Laura Corin]

I wake up scared that I left the water on and have to go check or to make sure that my credit card is in my wallet or to add to my to do list for the next day so I won't think about what I'm scared I will forget, or rehashing an event. It is like I wake up with my brain on steriods.

 

Laura

[....]

I've been up since 3am, so I'm probably the last person to give suggestions...:toetap05:

[Leanna Tomlinson]

I was waking up too early a couple of years ago. I started natural progesterone cream for non sleep-related female issues, and suddenly I was easily sleeping 8 hours. You are only supposed to take progesterone for 21 days and then take 7 days off. During my "off days" I would start waking earlier and earlier. I mentioned it to my gyn, and she confirmed that progesterone cream does help with sleep.

 

I buy mine at the health food store. It's worth every penny!

[choirfarm]

I was waking up too early a couple of years ago. I started natural progesterone cream for non sleep-related female issues, and suddenly I was easily sleeping 8 hours. You are only supposed to take progesterone for 21 days and then take 7 days off. During my "off days" I would start waking earlier and earlier. I mentioned it to my gyn, and she confirmed that progesterone cream does help with sleep.

 

I buy mine at the health food store. It's worth every penny!

 

I'm on birth control pills (estrogen/progesterone). would that affect the effectiveness?

 

Christine

[Leanna Tomlinson]

I'm on birth control pills (estrogen/progesterone). would that affect the effectiveness?

 

Christine

 

That's a good question. I would check with your gyn. Maybe you could even try a new bc pill? I know a lot of women complain about sleep problems in their 40's and hormones have a lot to do with it.

[Barry Goldwater]

I'm on birth control pills (estrogen/progesterone). would that affect the effectiveness?

 

Christine

 

:iagree: Ask your doc...they don't always tell you potential side effects.

 

If you are falling asleep when at rest as easily as you say, you may be in a state of perpetual exhaustion...I experienced this about 15 yrs ago, and could easily fall asleep in middle of the day while leaning against a wall, standing up.

 

Also, how much sugar do you take in? (Carbohydrates)

 

I had lots of sleep troubles till I restricted my carbs intake.

 

And apnea/snoring and apnea/overweight don't always go together. When I was in college, running 100 miles/week, body fat non-existent, I still snored like a freight train.

 

Consider yoga/meditation, hot bath/shower or hot tub b/4 bed?