So I have never had a problem sleeping - insomnia, whatever, has never really been an issue. But the last three nights running now, no matter what time I go to bed, I'm waking up roughly around 3:30 or 4:00 a.m., unable to fall back asleep again. I can tell that my body is exhausted, and when I get later into the day, I feel horrible like I'm getting sick and my throat gets sore, etc. I haven't made any significant dietary changes (about all I've done is somewhat reduce my caffeine intake during the day, but it hasn't even been a huge difference and I wouldn't think that would be a problem). Emotionally, at first I figured that this just coincides with the beginning of a new school quarter - and I'm certainly busy, working 45 hours a week in a stressful job and doing full-time school. But I've been keeping the same schedule for the past three months, and then before that as well before summer 2009. I don't feel any significantly higher stress level in my life, and usually the school quarter happening results in me being more exhausted and needing MORE sleep, not less. So what else could it be? In August, I bought the new Tempurpedic bed which is ridiculously comfortable, and I have never had problems sleeping in it until this week. Anybody have any ideas? I need to figure something out, because with the current demands of my schedule, I can't keep sleeping 5 hours or less every night. Thanks.
I'm guessing that the stress you feel spills over into your rem cycle and is waking you up. Take naps and exercise I guess.
I have dealt with moderate to chronic insomnia my entire life (23 years). From my experience, I have noticed a few things that have considerable effect on both how tired I am an bedtime, and how alert I am during the day. 1. Stress: This is not as tangible as it seems. Just because you aren't literally freaking out, doesn't mean your body isn't feeling the effects of running on empty, so to speak. Try spreading work out among short breaks, even if you don't feel tired. It sounds like this is plausible. 2. Diet: Whenever I travel, especially overseas. Never even thought about the fatigue part of it, but he advised I could be Iron Deficiency Anemic.(?) I actually noticed that my body had trouble fighting off infections; small things like cuts on my legs were taking longer to heal (ie. several trips). He took some blood and did some doctor stuff, and basically said that my body wasn't getting enough iron. Apparently this is a pretty common deficiency, with the biggest side effect being fatigue or disruptive sleep patterns. He seemed surprised I hadn't noticed anything like that. Simple iron supplements had a significant effect in my case. 3. Routine: Nothing beats makes me sleepier than my bedtime routine, the product of discipline and the effect of simple conditioning. You have to find what works for you, but for me its: a) eating something with milk in it around an hour before bed, b) brushing my teeth and cleaning up about 30 minutes before sleep, and then c) reading or watching a show until I pass out. By the time I start reading, or if I hear the theme song from Home Movies (my sleep show of choice), by brain starts to turn off automatically, expecting bedtime.
My buddy and his father are both insomniacs so it kind of runs in his family. He did sleep studies, they had him stop drinking every kind of caffeine product there was, and numerous other things. When non of that worked the doctor told him he could try this: Spoiler It wasn't surprising to me, but what was surprising is that he lives in Texas so of course it's not legal. The copy gave him a wink wink and told him it was a lot safer then taking sleeping pills.
I have sleeping problems as well. Find a way to reduce stress. Stress, for me, is the number one sleep killer. Exercise helps too. When you wake up at 3:30/4 (like I do very often), get up, get a drink of water or something, and lay back down. If I lay there trying to fall asleep, I cant. It stress me out that I cant fall back asleep and makes it worse. Get up for a couple minutes then lay back down. Hopefully it will help, I know what it's like. I have ambien too. I use to take it way too often, but I've stopped mostly, unless I know I'm going to have a real hard time sleeping. I'd say try that if nothing works, but all sleeping pills have some dependency issues and getting off them may be worse than never taking them in the first place. I had some very mild muscle relaxers for my back spasm. While they don't help me fall asleep, they relax me alot and keeps me asleep. You could try taking 3 or 4 advil, that sometimes helps me.
When I don't get enough sleep, I get that sick sore throat feeling towards the end of the day, then if I get a good nights sleep it goes away. If I continue to get poor sleep it gets worse and I end up on antibiotics for a sore throat. Strange. I have ambien, I'm an awful sleeper and I take it when necessary, but not every night.
These are the two things that are happening to me. Sounds like stress is actually my problem. I like to think I deal with it really well consciously, but apparently I suck ass at it subconsciously. I actually also have moderately changed my diet (getting more produce, cutting out the caffeine), so maybe that's affecting me. Glad to know it's not serious. At least, I hope not.
I only drink 1 cup of coffee in the morning, If I drink anything after 3 or 4 I can still feel it around 11. Caffeine has a half life of about 4-5 hours (depending on your health, metabolism, etc). Keep that in mind. But yeah, I can tell a huge difference in my sleep when I'm stressed compared to relaxed. What moondogg posted helps for sure, lol. But beware, while you cant get physically addicted to it, you will become mentally addicted to it, especailly if you use it to sleep. While you may have a rough couple weeks ahead of you, just try cutting out caffeine after 12pm, and do something relaxing before bed. Read something boring, or watch a rerun of a show you have seen a million times. May be boring, but it should help your mind relax. Also, like I said in my first post, if you cant fall asleep after 15-30 minutes, get up and do something for 10 minutes or so. Tossing and turning for hours will only make it worse.
You can learn self-hypnosis and use that to put yourself into a restful sleep, even in unusual places. There's a good course at streethypnosis.com It's a very useful skill and helpful in other areas, like studying, diet, habit change, making new healthy habits, etc. A light trance and the self-suggestion that you will wake at X hour, feeling refreshed, relaxed and alert, is very useful, esp. travelling. Of course, review your schedule and try to see why you are getting this signal from your unconscious to wake and think about something. See what you can do to ease your busy schedule. There's probably some things you can relax, if you really had to, and it might be prudent to review that with an impartial friend.
