Waking up in the morning - can it be a medical problem?

I strongly agree with going to see a sleep specialist (just as an FYI I am doing my residency in neurology).

Since you have had the problem since you were very young, it seems to be more of a medical condition than say a psycho-social condition (depression and some psychiatric diseases often manifest as sleep disturbances). Some sleep specialists are pulmonologists (lung specialists) but others and the ones I would refer you to would be neurologists (ok I might be a bit biased but I would see a neurologist first). They can do a polysomnograph at the same time measure your brain EEG levels. This way they can tell if you have sleep apnea due to an obstructive problem in your breathing or some disturbance in your REM cycle such as narcolepsy. Besides narcolepsy, there are other less well known sleep disorders out there, some of which are genetic (check to see if any family members have similar problems). Of course it may not be a pure medical problem, but you won't know until you get yourself checked out.

I wish you the best of luck, and I am sure there must be someone in the medical center who can help you out.

 

This may require more time than you have...no pun intended.

Determine what your normal body cycle requires for sleep and then remain within your required sleep cycle.

Do this by taking a few days to allow yourself to go to sleep when you are tired and then waking up when your body tells you. Not on a pre-determined schedule, or using any alarm clocks, but based on your physical state.

Do this for several days to find out what your body-clock requires without external stimuli. Once you calibrate what your body requires naturally, then adjust your schedule accordingly.

Another more esoteric tip:

A form of self-hypnosis in which you plant sub-conscious commands telling yourself when to wake up each morning may work.

Do this each night before you go to sleep.

"I will wake up at..." repeatedly as a mantra,

You might be surprised at how effective this can be.

 

Have you tried taking everything out of your bedroom and not doing anything else in there except sleeping?

Psychologists have said in the past that you're likely to get better sleep and fall sleep more easily if you do NOTHing else in your bedroom except sleep. So this would involve removing TV's, radios, work desks, computers, books, etc. from the bedroom (or just *never* using them). Your body needs to get used to the idea that once you walk into that room, you're going to sleep. Period.

Just a suggestion in hopes that it helps..

 

Out of curiosity...on days when you don't have to get up for work or anything else, about how long do you sleep naturally before waking up on your own?

 

I think there is something biologically tied to the sun for some people -- I can get 8+ hours of sleep and still feel tired/ have trouble waking up before the sunrise.

 

Count me in w/ Mr. Brightside. The night time is the right time for me. Some mornings I feel so tired/weak that I moan in a half-asleep state to my gf to shake me hard to wake me up. (Ok, ok, let me shut down the obvious punchlines here.) I'll literally try to open my eyes and lean up and start to pass out in an unconscious state w/out any control...it's quite scary actually. And it's not like I've done a marathon the night before or anything.

I haven't found any remedy to the waking up part. I just try my best to get alert as soon as I open my eyes...which includes 5 minutes of video games (so my brain gets chugging) and push-ups (so my blood flow gets chugging).

 

Sounds similar to me. No matter what time I go to bed or even If I stay up all night long, I hate the hours between 5am - 9am. They are the absolute worst for me. I hate getting up during those times and always felt really tired if I had to so I had a sleep study done. Two nights. One without a cpap machine and one with a cpap machine. I did not have sleep apnea but I did have an awful quality of sleep both times. I never stayed in deep sleep for very long. I would move my legs or do something and knock myself back into stage 1 sleep so it was an up and down cycle all night. The interesting thing is that during the hours between 5am - 9am, I stayed in a very very deep sleep - so that tells me that my body, whether it is related to the sun, circadium rythms or whatever gets the most quality sleep during those hours. So when my alarm clock goes off at 7am - I'm in complete deep sleep and it is the best quality of sleep i've gotten all night and my body does everything to try fight it. Like turning off alarm clock, getting angry at people, hell I even wake up mad at my company/boss (which I love) for even having a job. It is crazy so I know what you are going through and to be honest there are really no good solutions that I have found. My sleep specialist is trying different things right now and I'll let you know if anything helps. So far - nothing.

 

Go to a doctor. I used to always have energy problems and had extremely hard time waking up. I never went to the doctor or saw a specialist about it. On a random trip to the doctor they found that I have Thyroid problems and Diabetes both of which contributed to my energy issues. Since taking treatment for those 2 things and changing my diet habits I wake up normally now and don't have as much of an energy problem.

 

I have had the same problem my entire life. I got the sonic boom alarm. I used to shut of alarms in my sleep and never knew it. The sonic boom wakes me without fail. The mornings still suck, but you will adapt over time. This will not be easy or fun for you.

 

Could be thyroid problems. Simple blood test to find out. If you aren't producing enough, you take a thyroid pill.

 

Before making the appointment, get some natural light in your room. Instead of turning off the alarm, open the blinds.

 

how is the actual quality of your rest? do you have problems falling asleep? do you have problems staying asleep? do you dream regularly (fall into a deep sleep)?

if all of the above is normal, then i am inclined to think your problem is just in your head. but i am no doctor.

 

a yes to all of the above... except the deep sleep.. i do dream regularly.. but in a sequence of short sleeps.. with a new dream every new sleeping hour.. i rarely fall into a deep sleep.. not since i was a kid.. and the quality of rest is generally.. awful..

 

Sorry, but you are flat-out wrong.

Don't know if this has been suggested:

1) Get a full physical and especially get your thyroid checked. It can screw up all kinds of things: sleep, sleep-induction, waking in the middle of the night for no reason, attention span, blood lipid levels, mood swings, etc. It can even cause hair loss. It is a simple blood test, but can easily be misdiagnosed without said blood test. Thyroid problems USUALLY don't show up until you're at least in your 30's, just so you know.

or

2) I firmly believe that some people are natural night-owls. I'm one of them. I'm about to start nursing school, and quite literally one of the biggest reasons I want to be an RN (besides meeting lots of chicks) is so that I can work shift work. That means I won't have to be at work until 2pm-3pm. That's PM. As in THE AFTERNOON. A career change isn't the easiest thing to do, but its worth it in the end if for no other reason than to be able to get a good night's sleep.

I had the same issues as you until I was a counselor at an inpatient psych hospital. I worked 3pm-11pm. No sleep issues at all.

Edit:

Glad to see some others mentioned thyroid. I have an appointment with an endocrinologist tomorrow, in the afternoon, of course. ;-)

I'd get the physical and thyroid checked first. Its easier than all that is involved with sleep specialists. I'm not discounting them at all, but though you are young for thyroid problems, I'd do this first. At the hospital, this was always the first thing we'd do for our patients with sleep issues.

 

I'm glad you are getting some medical evaluation. Also, if the breating strips helped, you may be onto something. If that is it, it will take a while for you to feel better. Your body is pretty starved for sleep.

Best of luck to you...and please update us when you find out what is wrong.

 

I am worse than you when it comes to sleep discipline. To those of you that sleep over 8 hours a day, you are sleeping more than a third of your life away.

RESET YOUR SLEEP CYCLE!

Stay up, stay up as long as you can. Add 1-2 hours each day. Continue this until you can finally stay up until 8-10PM. If you usually stay up until 4AM, try to stay awake until 6AM, 8AM the day after, 9-10AM the day after that, and so on.

Some days you might crash a little early, but keep pushing. Eventually you will get there.

I've done it twice. The first time was my freshman year in college. I wanted to get my sleep cycle fixed before finals. I was staying up until 9AM, going to class with no sleep at all. It took me 4 days to reach 8PM, because I made it to 1PM the first day. I was stuck at 10PM for a few days, but finally got to 12AM. My sleep cylce was 12AM-7AM for 2 months until summer started. Before then, the last time I got out of bed before 11AM was in middle school.

 

I got the Sonic Boom this year for college. It is so amazing. Sometimes the vibrating disc would slip and be pushed up against my wall, shaking that wall and waking up my housemate in the next room.

 

Maybe you're a vampire? Are you dating Astros148?

 

Before I got used to it a little, the first couple of mornings I would almost have a heart attack when it went off. I would jump right up.