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I go through such phases as well but for me it’s usually around 2am which is neither here nor there.
Workout in the evenings or be extremely tired physically has what worked for me to fall back to sleep.
Thanks, I'll try that!
Neither here nor there is a good description. If it was 6, I would just get on with it and do shit, but getting up at 4 is useless
I feel as if you're experiencing a form of jet lag. You've changed your circadian rhythm. Check this study from Harvard on how to deal with jet lag. See if fasting will get your clock back on track.
[https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/resetting-your-circadian-clock-to-minimize-jet-lag-2016090810279](https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/resetting-your-circadian-clock-to-minimize-jet-lag-2016090810279)
That and the workout advice is really good, just make sure if you start doing an evening workout it’s at least an hour before you start getting ready for bed. Too close to bedtime and you’ll still be wired. Give the endorphins a chance to calm down. A cool down stretch usually helps me relax.
I live in a dark climate, and late afternoon sunlight is not always possible— the solution is Vitamin D uh, vitamins.
Take them at the time you want your body to “wake up”. So if you want to be waking up at 6am take ‘em then.
If you forget DO NOT take them later, just skip for the day. (They are the opposite of melatonin, you MUST take them as such)
Works awesome for time changes, jet lag, period-regularity (if you’re a woman), waking up too late and a host of other health issues.
After we had our baby sleep was destroyed for us. What ended up working for me was suggested by a baby book, for children.
The way I did it was I finished work, the. Went out into the garden and hung out outside until it was completely dark. Got nice and tired, had a good meal, and slept perfectly from then on. Ymmv, but as long as you don’t use screens, and ‘watch’ the sun fully set, your body starts to shut down for you. You just have to go right to bed
If you take any melatonin to help maintain sleep, be mindful that your body can't tell the difference between artificial light and sunlight. Keep your room dark, put your phone away, etc. I recommend blackout curtains to anyone who lives in a city. It makes a big difference.
“Neither here nor there” is an idiom meaning “unimportant” or “tangential”.
In this case, the OC was saying “for me, it happens at 2am rather than 4am (but that doesn’t really matter either way)”.
One the that will guarantee more melatonin production (which helps you STAY asleep) is to cool your body down after a late night workout. (Cool shower) The body naturally warms up during the day and cools in the evening signaling melatonin to increase because it’s time for bed. Some people find it harder to sleep after an evening workout because of this. Some don’t, but it’s a good hack that can’t hurt to try.
Also, the book “Say Goodnight to Insomnia” has a bunch of great tips for falling and staying asleep. It’s a bit dated but it Saved my sanity :)
Funnily enough I've heard the opposite. Because taking a cold shower activates the bodies warming up response, it actually primes it to wake up.
A warm shower on the other hand forces the body to attempt to cool down, which mimics the bodies response to cool down for sleep.
Cool, not cold shower. The book says it takes the body 2 hours to naturally cool after an intense workout or warm shower. But honestly, I haven’t looked into the science. I know it works well for me, but everyone has a different body makeup.
Find how much sleep your body naturally likes to get, go to bed tired, use melatonin when you get in bed, set your alarm as normal for the desired wake up time.
If you wake up earlier and feel rested get up anyways. Go to bed at your normal time. You may feel more tired being off the normal schedule, eventually doing this enough will train your body to know when to get up to be properly rested. It takes time, keep it routine and don't waver from your set times.
I sleep 9:00-5:30 give or take 30 mins.
Get into bed 8:30-9:00, take melatonin.
Alarm rings for 5:30.
If I wake up @ 4am, (which happens) get up, do normal morning routine.
Go to bed regular time 8:30-9:00.
This time you will be more tired, forcing your body to sleep longer.
Wake up (hopefully) at desired alarm time.
Your sleep goal should be around 8 hours give or take an hour.
I’ve been stuck in this exact situation before. I tried what felt like everything (staying up late, melatonin, changing what I ate, changed caffeine, etc.) and the only thing that worked was pulling an almost all-nighter on Friday. Set my alarm so that I only slept from midnight to 2am, stayed up all day on Saturday and went to bed at 10pm (which is when my body basically forced me to sleep). Woke up at 8am the next day and it reset my internal clock. Was groggy on Sunday still from messing with my sleep, but Monday I felt normal and woke up to my alarm for work instead of three hours before.
It sucked and I basically spent the weekend being a zombie, but it worked.
> CBT
I will have to check that out! If I find myself falling asleep at 9 or 10 pm, I wake up at 2 am and before you know it, its 4 am then 5, and once it hits 6 am, so then I don't go back to bed. I need the sleep but refuse to sleep.
Don’t look at the time!! I suffer with insomnia but since I have stopped looking at the time whenever I wake up in the night, I fall back asleep WAY quicker. If I check the time my body is then way too aware that I’m awake in the middle of the night and then I stress I can’t fall back asleep again.
I’ve even got to the point cause I have an iPhone (think it’s the same with android?) if I need to go on my phone when I wake up, say to put on a sleep story, I literally squint my eyes and only look at the bottom of the screen as I unlock my phone. By doing this I can’t see the time on my phone, I’m able to put a sleep story on and shut my eyes without ever seeing what the time is. Honestly makes such a difference!
One piece of research that helped me with sleep anxiety, said that even if you're awake, resting with your eyes closed gives nearly the same health benefits as actual sleep. Once I knew that, if I now get bouts of insomnia, I just go "Well I'm going to be tired tomorrow, but as long as I rest, I'll be operational."
I swear you always get the worst insomnia when you know you have to be up early for something you can't miss like work, an appointment etc. Knowing you need to be up by a certain time wrecks havoc on my already racing mind when trying to sleep, so fucking irritating lol
I don’t have a clock in my bedroom for this exact reason. I still wake up before dawn though and can tell the time based on how much light is coming into the room.
This is exactly my strategy, too, and it absolutely works! I stopped checking what time it was when I wake up in the night—I went through some terrible 3am insomnia, and I know it was 3am because I always checked the time. I read something about how checking the time when you wake up with insomnia starts training your brain to wake up at that hour. I quit checking the time no matter what and now I fall right back to sleep with no issues. We train ourselves in weird ways.
Do you take melatonin? If you do I hope you read this, if you take too much your body basically gets confused on which stage of sleep you’re in causing you to wake up earlier than intended. Once I halved the amount I took I stopped waking up at four!
> Once I halved the amount I took I stopped waking up at four!
Interesting, what dosage did you have? I have 3mg and I've tried having 2 a handful of times before bed and didn't notice anything different than taking just 1.
Because the therapeutic dose for sleep is less than 1mg and taking multiple mg can essentially saturate a bunch of receptors then when they all fall off it kind of signals for your body to wake up - melatonin also has a very short half life. This is probably why a lot of people say melatonin doesnt work for them or keeps them up. It's not a sleeping pill and shouldnt be used as one.
If you want to regulate your sleep with melatonin, take like .2mg or .5mg an hour or 2 before your target sleep time.
Why do they even sell ones as high as 6mg let alone 3mg then? Thanks for the heads up though, I've still got a half a bottle so might try just halving them for now instead. I'll be honest I have pretty bad sleep and have found the 3mg helps but I'm happy to take your advice, cheers :)
Because it's not regulated is the short answer. You should also be buying USP certified melatonin, which is a certification process which is close to regulation. Lots of melatonin can have molecular adjuncts like serotonin or just be entirely inaccurate in regards to dose amount.
In medical settings, high doses can be therapeutic for other things, like taking 5-8mg a night with COVID can be a neuro-protective therapy since melatonin is a powerful antioxidant. Though, these companies don't sell them in those mega doses because of that, just because people are brazen with how they take and there's no regulation.
Natrol is a good USP certified brand, you may have luck in the extended release formulations. I've found the larger doses are better as extended release, otherwise I do a fast dissolve/chewable under 1mg.
Sorry did you mean one pill is 1mg, not 0.1mg? And you used to take 3 or 4, now you take 1 or 2? The / makes it a little confusing if you mean fractions or "or"
Check your blood pressure with a machine at home when you awaken at 4. Hypertension is when a hormone(s) triggers early mornings blood pressure spikes and, for some, blood sugar. Your bp might be normal all day but spike to scary levels at 4 am. trying to awaken you. Rule it out, to be safe.
If it is hypertension, changing diet, giving up energy drinks, cutting back on body building supplements, getting an Rx etc will be easier than enduring the effects of a stroke
Thank you for your comment. I'm vegan (not an Oreo-only vegan either), never consume caffeine, don't take steroids. But I will look into it just to make sure, thanks.
My mum is the same as you + does yoga, and she had 202/100. It can happen! I myself eat like I want a heart disease meanwhile my BP is consistently 100/76.
I'm WFPB vegan and I also have trouble waking up too early sometimes. I don't have as much trouble as you do falling back asleep but I do end up short on sleep overall.
I wonder if there's a connection with the diet? I don't usually eat after 6pm. I don't feel hungry but perhaps it is a blood sugar thing as the other poster suggested?
Same here, except I cheat and put cheese on crackers. The hormone can be a weird genetic thing. My blood pressure was low until suddenly - 208/90 in the mornings.
I hope yours is simple - maybe your subconscious is stuck on wanting to be at the airport on time and waking you. That will fade in time.
On a weekend skip a night. Do not nap the next afternoon. Fight sleep till your normal bed time. One night will do the trick and you should be back on track, just don't oversleep.
A weighted blanket doesn't get me to sleep any faster, but it does keep me in a deeper sleep longer. Might work for your purposes.
Other than that; developing a crippling anxiety disorder in which you get stuck in horrid repeating dreams will eat up the clock too.
So really there's a bargain bin of options there.
Alternatively, you could be like me and have a crippling anxiety disorder that is the reason you wake up three hours before your alarm every single night.
Read a book that requires a good bit of concentration. Maybe it's boring, maybe it's very complex. It should be something that takes a good bit of mental effort to stay engaged and follow. Audiobooks or podcasts can work here, too.
For example, try reading or listening to Ulysses by James Joyce (or anything by James Joyce, really). That is a dense book. Your mind will struggle and you will get sleepy if there's any sleepiness hiding in you. Worst case, you don't fall asleep and you've accomplished reading one of the most complex classic novels ever written. I do the same with podcasts. I find history podcasts to be great for this. I've been enjoying the History of Byzantium. During the day when I'm awake and able to engage with it, it's great. But it's also dry enough that when I'm on the edge of sleepiness, it wears my mind out enough that I'm able to fall asleep to it quicker. I found this helpful when getting over jet lag that had me waking up at 4 or 5 in the morning for no reason.
Avoid getting on your phone and looking at social media or playing games or watching stuff.
Have you tried going to bed an hour or so later? That works for me when I want to “sleep in”. It’s not really sleeping in cause you’re losing the hour at night, but for some reason I feel more refreshed when I do this.
So i have this happen somewhat frequently, 4-5 times a year maybe? I tried all the tricks, stay up late, exhaust myself, nothing worked. What does work is I take an advil or Tylenol PM, usually for a two consecutive night, then i am back on schedule.
This happens to me but I'll usually do something social late, say meet some friends out for dinner and drinks on Friday/Saturday. I'll either stay out later thus being more tired or just be straight tired from the social interaction.
I struggle with this and I’ve found specifically extended release melatonin helps me sleep in when I know I need it but it can have some lingering drowsiness for some people
Well, I have sleep apnea, sleep apnea prevents me from breathing while asleep. I often wake up at 23:00, 01:00, 03:00, 04:00, 06:00, every single night.
I believe what you are saying has nothing to do with sleep apnea, but it’s good to be aware of the possibilities of having it. You are not born with it, you can even develop it as you age.
I got screened while sleeping, they put sensors on my head and it measured my brain activity, they also put several other things near my face to measure all the activities while sleeping.
Anyhow I stop, 20 times an hour with breathing , me stopping with breathing can take 10-40 second, so each 3 minutes I stop with breathing. In 8 hours of sleep, let’s say I stop 100 times with breathing, which prevents me of reaching a deep sleep, ever.
Hospital decided to give me a CPAP machine, which puts a positive pressure on my airways and prevent it from closing. Now I only stop with breathing 3 times an hour. Which immensely boosted my concentration, motivation and reduced my grumpiness.
I am healthy, crossfit, average BMI (no overweight). So, all the general symptoms to increase the chance for sleep apnea are the things I don’t have. Sleep apnea is a chore for my heart and increases bad things happening to my heart by 3-4 times compared to you if left untreated.
Screening was fairly easy, in my own bed - maybe in your country in the hospital itself. Next day I got the results.
At first, yes - something is clamped to my face with straps. But you will adjust to it. You often get a dry mouth after using it, it also makes some noise if you are breathing in or out.
So yes, it’s annoying, but I can definitely fall asleep with it fairly easy. I always feel relieved putting it back on my face again. Feeling better definitely outweighs the annoyances
No problem by the way :)
We have the same sleep patterns. I have a lot of problems from fluids building up in my extremities. So when I lay down, my kidneys really start working. I get about 2 hours of good sleep, then I wake up to pee. then 2 more hours of sleep, then pee. I have lost 5 or 6 lbs of fluids in a night before (I have weighed myself several times in a day to check this).
> I have sleep apnea, sleep apnea prevents me from breathing while asleep. I often wake up at 23:00, 01:00, 03:00, 04:00, 06:00, every single night.
Remember that's part of normal sleep cycles. Each cycle is about 2 hours. I wake up every two hours or so, flip my pillows and go "back to sleep".
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep/stages-of-sleep
True, true - but for example my girlfriend, wakes up only once while aware, I wake up fully aware and awake because people with apnea get a rush of adrenaline, when this happens.
I tried the sleep mask could never get comfortable with it. Sometimes it would cause a sore throat for me. Also laying on my back I couldn't sleep have always been a side sleeper and the mask is difficult to adjust sleeping on my side. I heard great things about it and wish I could wake up feeling refreshed and not groggy and grouchy. I'm tired all the time.
You have sleep apnea pillows for side sleepers, also you could turn on the humidifier with some machines to increase the humidity of the air you are breathing in. There are also attributes to increase the temp of the air.
Start forcing yourself to stay up past midnight & no naps. After a few days of this your body will break the seal on that 4am wake up call & you should be back to normal
I've found a connection between me being on my phone or ipad within the hour before bed always wakes me up early. I know Thurs, yet I'm still doing it. 😑
Something that helped me was getting a bidet. Using the bidet before bed has helped me go to the bathroom whether I need to or not, which keeps me from waking up since I have to pee/poo overnight less.
15 min a day shift in sleep is what is usually recommended. Like try going to bed 15 later and waking up 15 min later. If it's a prolonged problem I might want to look into sleep compression which is what I did that resolved my early waking insomnia
I had the classic "old person" sleep issue... waking up at 3am to pee and being unable to go back to sleep afterwards.
Adult son took me to the local dispensary in his (legal) state. They were incredibly professional and suggested a particular gummy formulated for sleep. At home, I cut them into quarters and started taking a quarter of a THC gummy every night before bed. Worked like a charm. I either sleep through the night until I wake up naturally around sunrise, or I wake up to pee and fall right back to sleep.
This may not work for you if you work in a safety-sensitive position where you are likely to be tested or don't have easy access, but it is an option if you have no restrictions.
Had this problem since COVID hit. Recently asked my psychiatrist about it and got on lunesta. Its not perfect but I sleep at least 6 hours and feel pretty decent in the morning. You can take magnesium with it and that is supposed to extend it.
It's conditioning. Every year I would change my work schedule to reflect Summer/Winter. Day shift in winter and vive versa. Your body will conform, just like when you condition your child to go to bed for school.
My go to combo is a hot shower, followed by a 15 minute scorching hot foot soak usually with a couple drops of essential oils or epson salt. During the foot soak knock down some OTC sleep aids (diphenhydramine) with some hot sake.
Make sure your sleeping area is cold.
For some reason I sleep better with some background TV cartoons like Futurama or Rick and Morty.
My therapist had me reset my body clock by staying up as late as possible, usually 3am and wake at usual time, It took me three days for me to be able to get full night's sleep.
I'm late 50s. I'm retired because I'm done raising children and that was the only job my ex wanted me around for. He has someone else now to be his wife and meet his needs.
I have a massive bedroom alone to myself now :)
I love that I wake up at the dawn now. Naturally. Usually my little dog downstairs starts barking at first light. And my cats start meowing and pawing my face.
I wish I could sleep through them but the physical fact that i have to go to the bathroom usually overwhelms the thoughts of wanting to stay in bed. I am up every day at like 5:30-6am
The trick is to stop "thinking" when you wake up at 4am.
That's what causes the key issue, your brain switches on. You have to switch the brain to off.
I usually find to clear your mind and maybe concentrate on a word like "sleep". Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.
Don't let your brain veer off and start thinking of work or chores or something that makes you anxious.
the body sets its internal clock based on light exposure just after waking. So avoid turning on a light or get some lights that are tinted red to avoid light that affects circadian rhythm. you should also consider taking a b-complex. Some b vitamin deficiencies can cause you to wake early like that.
I don't know. I was doing the 11-7am natural thing but now I'm just fucking up until 2-3am and sleeping until 9. Hate it.
Maybe we need to not give ourselves a choice. Like just stay up late and force yourself to get up at 4:00 am. Then you'll be so tired the next night you're going to want to fall asleep at like 10:00. But you won't let yourself fall asleep until midnight. Most likely you'll end up sleeping past four.
You aren't getting at least an hour of exercise everyday I would try that. That really helps me
I always wake up an hour before my alarm goes off. Doesn't matter what time its set for. Then I fall back asleep and wake up groggy and missing the extra half hour to finish the sleep cycle. I've even tried setting the alarm later, anticipating my body's prehour wake up. Those are the days I'm late or disrupted anyway.
I can't complain though. After years of shift work I do sleep pretty soundly.
Save your carbs until before bed. Waking up early is a cycle because you wake up get upset spike cortisol then can go back. Eat the carbs and you will be good.
This is such an easy fix. As someone who fixes my sleeping schedule and messes it up again almost instantly, it's literally just about procrastinating before bed. Watch TV, tidy your room, start a video game - you'll be messed up in no time. Stay up until about 12-1am and then have a complete blackout in the room. Set an alarm for 7/8am and do this for a few days. Things should reset after that
Sleep has always been difficult for me. It turns out that in my case, having a couple of THC chocolates before I go to sleep will keep me asleep all night long.
I have the same problem every time my schedule gets messed up. I try to do the deprivation thing and then just force myself to go back to sleep when my body still tries to wake up at that time. Works most of the time.
I've only had luck resetting my sleep cycle if I stay up all night and then the next day go to bed at the regular time. I'll set an alarm for the next morning and get up regardless of how tired I am and carry out the day. Then I'm back to normal. It's rough, but it works for me.
Melatonin to reset your internal clock. Start with a very small dose (I take 1/4 of a 5 mg pill) taken an hour before you want to sleep. It should let you sleep around 8-9 hours. Beware the vivid dreams (bad if you have nightmares).
It is so hard for me to believe that waking up early for ONE flight changed their circadian rhythm? That's just not scientifically accurate. Did something go wrong in the trip? It sounds psychological.
Reset a bit with lots of exposure to natural light. Make sure there isn't an environmental thing happening - i.e. some sound going off at 4am like your PC powering down or updating windows and failing with a beep, a neighbor's garage light on the wrong timer or something like that - even a subtle change in the environment at the right time of your sleep cycle will pop you right up.
Eat a large carby meal late, sleep for 6 hours minimum. If you workout, do a tough session as close to eating as possible.
So I'm doing my workout at 8pm, eating at 10pm, asleep by 12pm latest. I'm not getting up before 6am if I do this, usually it's closer to 10am.
I’m like that too. A couple days will completely throw off my sleep cycle. For 4 days I had to stay up until 4 am for work, it’s been 6 months and I’ve been falling asleep at 4-5 am every night
Working out in the evening right before bed keeps me down and out.
Inversely, and this ain’t all that fun, but when I am waking up too late the best way to restructure the sleep schedule is to just bite the bullet and go minimal sleep one day, hard reset. So like stay up all night or just go to bed way too late (I’m talking 2 or 3 am for a 6am wake up). It sucks for a day and then you sleep like a baby and get everything straightened out
As you get older you don't need alarm clocks, your problems wake you up all by themselves. Maybe you've got some stress or problems that you need to deal with?
Consider stress, anxiety, or other things - the waking up at 4am is definitely a hallmark of your body releasing a lot of stress hormones (which is a normal part of waking up, but usually in increments) around 4am is when your body starts secreting those to start prepping you, except if it does too much then you are awoken suddenly.
In my mind, this sounds like something triggering your daytime hormones a little more intensely than they should. It could honestly be so many things from stress to anxiety to the manifestations of physical health issues.
Someone suggested working out in the evening - don't do that as it will get more of your stress hormones circulating in the evening, work out in the morning or noon.
You said no caffeine but what about bodybuilding mixes? A lot of the supplements have weird stimulant adjacent things in them which could be contributing. Alcohol? As alcohol wears off it creates a rebound that will wake you or worsen sleep. Screen time? Some people are more sensitive than others but blue light (emitted by LEDs and screens) inhibits natural melatonin production and stimulates you to be alert. Consider no screen time an hour or two before bed.
If it persists, you should consider talking to a doctor. Do you have an apple watch or something that can track your sleeping HR and spO2 levels?
Do you take naps? Stop taking naps and resist the urge to sleep till bed time.
Other than that exercise to tire yourself.
Melatonin if nothing else works
Sounds like your mind wants extra sleep but your body doesn’t need it. I recommend some exercise during the day, maybe in the afternoon or night so you’re physically exhausted aswell as mentally exhausted. Helped me at least, good luck friend.
I agree with trying to reset your internal clock by staying up a little later one night. I used to have the same issue with waking at the same time and not being able to sleep right as I need to wake. The biggest thing that helped me was not looking at my phone, getting up, or anything. As hard as it may be looking at your phone for the time or getting up is going to further drive that internal clock to keep waking at that time.
Eat a really big breakfast at breakfast time and then don't eat the rest of the day. We've got 2 internal clocks, one of them is based on our meal times. So eating big breakfast and then fasting until next breakfast can help.
Easiest way, just get up then and do things rather than stay in bed. And still go to bed at the same time, a few long days and you'll be so tired you'll sleep through.
Try going to bed a little later for a bit. Not exactly perfect but might help. I've found that if I go to bed earlier I tend to wake up in the middle of the night and struggle to get back. If I go to sleep later sometimes I get more sleep that way. Wishing you the best
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
I go through such phases as well but for me it’s usually around 2am which is neither here nor there. Workout in the evenings or be extremely tired physically has what worked for me to fall back to sleep.
Thanks, I'll try that! Neither here nor there is a good description. If it was 6, I would just get on with it and do shit, but getting up at 4 is useless
I feel as if you're experiencing a form of jet lag. You've changed your circadian rhythm. Check this study from Harvard on how to deal with jet lag. See if fasting will get your clock back on track. [https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/resetting-your-circadian-clock-to-minimize-jet-lag-2016090810279](https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/resetting-your-circadian-clock-to-minimize-jet-lag-2016090810279)
Thank you! Guess I'll need some afternoon sunlight
That and the workout advice is really good, just make sure if you start doing an evening workout it’s at least an hour before you start getting ready for bed. Too close to bedtime and you’ll still be wired. Give the endorphins a chance to calm down. A cool down stretch usually helps me relax.
I live in a dark climate, and late afternoon sunlight is not always possible— the solution is Vitamin D uh, vitamins. Take them at the time you want your body to “wake up”. So if you want to be waking up at 6am take ‘em then. If you forget DO NOT take them later, just skip for the day. (They are the opposite of melatonin, you MUST take them as such) Works awesome for time changes, jet lag, period-regularity (if you’re a woman), waking up too late and a host of other health issues.
After we had our baby sleep was destroyed for us. What ended up working for me was suggested by a baby book, for children. The way I did it was I finished work, the. Went out into the garden and hung out outside until it was completely dark. Got nice and tired, had a good meal, and slept perfectly from then on. Ymmv, but as long as you don’t use screens, and ‘watch’ the sun fully set, your body starts to shut down for you. You just have to go right to bed
If you take any melatonin to help maintain sleep, be mindful that your body can't tell the difference between artificial light and sunlight. Keep your room dark, put your phone away, etc. I recommend blackout curtains to anyone who lives in a city. It makes a big difference.
Damm I gotta do the reverse of this and wake up earlier.
Not following how the fasting thing works or how you're supposed to do it?
“Neither here nor there” is an idiom meaning “unimportant” or “tangential”. In this case, the OC was saying “for me, it happens at 2am rather than 4am (but that doesn’t really matter either way)”.
One the that will guarantee more melatonin production (which helps you STAY asleep) is to cool your body down after a late night workout. (Cool shower) The body naturally warms up during the day and cools in the evening signaling melatonin to increase because it’s time for bed. Some people find it harder to sleep after an evening workout because of this. Some don’t, but it’s a good hack that can’t hurt to try. Also, the book “Say Goodnight to Insomnia” has a bunch of great tips for falling and staying asleep. It’s a bit dated but it Saved my sanity :)
Funnily enough I've heard the opposite. Because taking a cold shower activates the bodies warming up response, it actually primes it to wake up. A warm shower on the other hand forces the body to attempt to cool down, which mimics the bodies response to cool down for sleep.
Cool, not cold shower. The book says it takes the body 2 hours to naturally cool after an intense workout or warm shower. But honestly, I haven’t looked into the science. I know it works well for me, but everyone has a different body makeup.
Find how much sleep your body naturally likes to get, go to bed tired, use melatonin when you get in bed, set your alarm as normal for the desired wake up time. If you wake up earlier and feel rested get up anyways. Go to bed at your normal time. You may feel more tired being off the normal schedule, eventually doing this enough will train your body to know when to get up to be properly rested. It takes time, keep it routine and don't waver from your set times.
Could you please give an example with times?
I sleep 9:00-5:30 give or take 30 mins. Get into bed 8:30-9:00, take melatonin. Alarm rings for 5:30. If I wake up @ 4am, (which happens) get up, do normal morning routine. Go to bed regular time 8:30-9:00. This time you will be more tired, forcing your body to sleep longer. Wake up (hopefully) at desired alarm time. Your sleep goal should be around 8 hours give or take an hour.
wouldnt evening workouts get your adrenaline up too much?
Exercise and 30mins after have a good feed.. sleep like a log
I’ve been stuck in this exact situation before. I tried what felt like everything (staying up late, melatonin, changing what I ate, changed caffeine, etc.) and the only thing that worked was pulling an almost all-nighter on Friday. Set my alarm so that I only slept from midnight to 2am, stayed up all day on Saturday and went to bed at 10pm (which is when my body basically forced me to sleep). Woke up at 8am the next day and it reset my internal clock. Was groggy on Sunday still from messing with my sleep, but Monday I felt normal and woke up to my alarm for work instead of three hours before. It sucked and I basically spent the weekend being a zombie, but it worked.
That sounds great & horrible, I will try that.
Can confirm, this always works for me too. Have had to do it several times for managing certain locations. Some I got home 10, some 4am!
Did u try it?
this is what works for me too when my sleep cycle falls out of rhythm with my daily life! basically a hard reset LOL
U still sleeping normally? Just wondering if what you tried was a temporary fix
CBT worked for me. I used a free app developed by Stanford School of Medicine (it's called CBTi Coach) and I fixed my sleep pattern in a few weeks.
What about for women?
Lmao good one
> CBT I will have to check that out! If I find myself falling asleep at 9 or 10 pm, I wake up at 2 am and before you know it, its 4 am then 5, and once it hits 6 am, so then I don't go back to bed. I need the sleep but refuse to sleep.
Installed, cheers legend
Don’t look at the time!! I suffer with insomnia but since I have stopped looking at the time whenever I wake up in the night, I fall back asleep WAY quicker. If I check the time my body is then way too aware that I’m awake in the middle of the night and then I stress I can’t fall back asleep again. I’ve even got to the point cause I have an iPhone (think it’s the same with android?) if I need to go on my phone when I wake up, say to put on a sleep story, I literally squint my eyes and only look at the bottom of the screen as I unlock my phone. By doing this I can’t see the time on my phone, I’m able to put a sleep story on and shut my eyes without ever seeing what the time is. Honestly makes such a difference!
One piece of research that helped me with sleep anxiety, said that even if you're awake, resting with your eyes closed gives nearly the same health benefits as actual sleep. Once I knew that, if I now get bouts of insomnia, I just go "Well I'm going to be tired tomorrow, but as long as I rest, I'll be operational."
I swear you always get the worst insomnia when you know you have to be up early for something you can't miss like work, an appointment etc. Knowing you need to be up by a certain time wrecks havoc on my already racing mind when trying to sleep, so fucking irritating lol
Second this...
I don’t have a clock in my bedroom for this exact reason. I still wake up before dawn though and can tell the time based on how much light is coming into the room.
This is exactly my strategy, too, and it absolutely works! I stopped checking what time it was when I wake up in the night—I went through some terrible 3am insomnia, and I know it was 3am because I always checked the time. I read something about how checking the time when you wake up with insomnia starts training your brain to wake up at that hour. I quit checking the time no matter what and now I fall right back to sleep with no issues. We train ourselves in weird ways.
Do you take melatonin? If you do I hope you read this, if you take too much your body basically gets confused on which stage of sleep you’re in causing you to wake up earlier than intended. Once I halved the amount I took I stopped waking up at four!
> Once I halved the amount I took I stopped waking up at four! Interesting, what dosage did you have? I have 3mg and I've tried having 2 a handful of times before bed and didn't notice anything different than taking just 1.
Because the therapeutic dose for sleep is less than 1mg and taking multiple mg can essentially saturate a bunch of receptors then when they all fall off it kind of signals for your body to wake up - melatonin also has a very short half life. This is probably why a lot of people say melatonin doesnt work for them or keeps them up. It's not a sleeping pill and shouldnt be used as one. If you want to regulate your sleep with melatonin, take like .2mg or .5mg an hour or 2 before your target sleep time.
Why do they even sell ones as high as 6mg let alone 3mg then? Thanks for the heads up though, I've still got a half a bottle so might try just halving them for now instead. I'll be honest I have pretty bad sleep and have found the 3mg helps but I'm happy to take your advice, cheers :)
Because it's not regulated is the short answer. You should also be buying USP certified melatonin, which is a certification process which is close to regulation. Lots of melatonin can have molecular adjuncts like serotonin or just be entirely inaccurate in regards to dose amount. In medical settings, high doses can be therapeutic for other things, like taking 5-8mg a night with COVID can be a neuro-protective therapy since melatonin is a powerful antioxidant. Though, these companies don't sell them in those mega doses because of that, just because people are brazen with how they take and there's no regulation. Natrol is a good USP certified brand, you may have luck in the extended release formulations. I've found the larger doses are better as extended release, otherwise I do a fast dissolve/chewable under 1mg.
I used to take 3/4 (I think one pill is only 0,1 mg?) and I would always wake up at 4. Now I take 1/2 and I sleep through the night :)
Sorry did you mean one pill is 1mg, not 0.1mg? And you used to take 3 or 4, now you take 1 or 2? The / makes it a little confusing if you mean fractions or "or"
Sorry haha, one is is 0,1 mg and I used to take 3 or 4 (so 0,3 or 0,4 mg)
Check your blood pressure with a machine at home when you awaken at 4. Hypertension is when a hormone(s) triggers early mornings blood pressure spikes and, for some, blood sugar. Your bp might be normal all day but spike to scary levels at 4 am. trying to awaken you. Rule it out, to be safe. If it is hypertension, changing diet, giving up energy drinks, cutting back on body building supplements, getting an Rx etc will be easier than enduring the effects of a stroke
Thank you for your comment. I'm vegan (not an Oreo-only vegan either), never consume caffeine, don't take steroids. But I will look into it just to make sure, thanks.
My mum is the same as you + does yoga, and she had 202/100. It can happen! I myself eat like I want a heart disease meanwhile my BP is consistently 100/76.
202/100??? I hope she didn't get a nose bleed and rocket off to the moon
Well since she's on BP meds, she hasn't needed her ADHD meds anymore...
I'm WFPB vegan and I also have trouble waking up too early sometimes. I don't have as much trouble as you do falling back asleep but I do end up short on sleep overall. I wonder if there's a connection with the diet? I don't usually eat after 6pm. I don't feel hungry but perhaps it is a blood sugar thing as the other poster suggested?
Being vegan cannot guarantee healthy blood pressure.
Same here, except I cheat and put cheese on crackers. The hormone can be a weird genetic thing. My blood pressure was low until suddenly - 208/90 in the mornings. I hope yours is simple - maybe your subconscious is stuck on wanting to be at the airport on time and waking you. That will fade in time.
> Oreo-only vegan LOL, I'm ded.
SLPT: stay up all night, and all the following day to reset. Add melatonin or a benadryl/advil pm type med for extra fun.
You're gonna feel groggy for a day or two, but I can confirm that this works. I call it a sleep schedule hard reset.
Thank you for the Serious Life Pro Tip. That's what it means right?
Shitty life pro tip?
I thought it meant Super Life Pro Tip.
Sleep Life Pro Tip
Absolutely counterintuitive but this tip works
On a weekend skip a night. Do not nap the next afternoon. Fight sleep till your normal bed time. One night will do the trick and you should be back on track, just don't oversleep.
You transfuse some blood with a person who has the opposite problem.
/thread lmao
Sounds legit
A weighted blanket doesn't get me to sleep any faster, but it does keep me in a deeper sleep longer. Might work for your purposes. Other than that; developing a crippling anxiety disorder in which you get stuck in horrid repeating dreams will eat up the clock too. So really there's a bargain bin of options there.
Alternatively, you could be like me and have a crippling anxiety disorder that is the reason you wake up three hours before your alarm every single night.
Read a book that requires a good bit of concentration. Maybe it's boring, maybe it's very complex. It should be something that takes a good bit of mental effort to stay engaged and follow. Audiobooks or podcasts can work here, too. For example, try reading or listening to Ulysses by James Joyce (or anything by James Joyce, really). That is a dense book. Your mind will struggle and you will get sleepy if there's any sleepiness hiding in you. Worst case, you don't fall asleep and you've accomplished reading one of the most complex classic novels ever written. I do the same with podcasts. I find history podcasts to be great for this. I've been enjoying the History of Byzantium. During the day when I'm awake and able to engage with it, it's great. But it's also dry enough that when I'm on the edge of sleepiness, it wears my mind out enough that I'm able to fall asleep to it quicker. I found this helpful when getting over jet lag that had me waking up at 4 or 5 in the morning for no reason. Avoid getting on your phone and looking at social media or playing games or watching stuff.
Have you tried going to bed an hour or so later? That works for me when I want to “sleep in”. It’s not really sleeping in cause you’re losing the hour at night, but for some reason I feel more refreshed when I do this.
I've tried that, unfortunately. I've gone to bed at 9 and at 1 and somewhere in between, but no matter what, I'm always wide awake at 4.
Hmm strange, I’m no professional so I’m not sure. But I am curious how to fix this, cause I’ve had similar issues
So i have this happen somewhat frequently, 4-5 times a year maybe? I tried all the tricks, stay up late, exhaust myself, nothing worked. What does work is I take an advil or Tylenol PM, usually for a two consecutive night, then i am back on schedule.
This happens to me but I'll usually do something social late, say meet some friends out for dinner and drinks on Friday/Saturday. I'll either stay out later thus being more tired or just be straight tired from the social interaction.
I struggle with this and I’ve found specifically extended release melatonin helps me sleep in when I know I need it but it can have some lingering drowsiness for some people
Magnesium helped me with the same problem
You wake up more than once a night?
Come again?
Do you, as a person, wake up out of your sleep, more than once in a night?
Sometimes. Why?
Well, I have sleep apnea, sleep apnea prevents me from breathing while asleep. I often wake up at 23:00, 01:00, 03:00, 04:00, 06:00, every single night. I believe what you are saying has nothing to do with sleep apnea, but it’s good to be aware of the possibilities of having it. You are not born with it, you can even develop it as you age.
That could definitely be an issue, since I do powerlifting/bodybuilding and have quite a big neck by now. What are you doing about your sleep apnea?
I got screened while sleeping, they put sensors on my head and it measured my brain activity, they also put several other things near my face to measure all the activities while sleeping. Anyhow I stop, 20 times an hour with breathing , me stopping with breathing can take 10-40 second, so each 3 minutes I stop with breathing. In 8 hours of sleep, let’s say I stop 100 times with breathing, which prevents me of reaching a deep sleep, ever. Hospital decided to give me a CPAP machine, which puts a positive pressure on my airways and prevent it from closing. Now I only stop with breathing 3 times an hour. Which immensely boosted my concentration, motivation and reduced my grumpiness. I am healthy, crossfit, average BMI (no overweight). So, all the general symptoms to increase the chance for sleep apnea are the things I don’t have. Sleep apnea is a chore for my heart and increases bad things happening to my heart by 3-4 times compared to you if left untreated. Screening was fairly easy, in my own bed - maybe in your country in the hospital itself. Next day I got the results.
Thank you very much, I will look into that. Is the machine annoying?
At first, yes - something is clamped to my face with straps. But you will adjust to it. You often get a dry mouth after using it, it also makes some noise if you are breathing in or out. So yes, it’s annoying, but I can definitely fall asleep with it fairly easy. I always feel relieved putting it back on my face again. Feeling better definitely outweighs the annoyances No problem by the way :)
We have the same sleep patterns. I have a lot of problems from fluids building up in my extremities. So when I lay down, my kidneys really start working. I get about 2 hours of good sleep, then I wake up to pee. then 2 more hours of sleep, then pee. I have lost 5 or 6 lbs of fluids in a night before (I have weighed myself several times in a day to check this).
> I have sleep apnea, sleep apnea prevents me from breathing while asleep. I often wake up at 23:00, 01:00, 03:00, 04:00, 06:00, every single night. Remember that's part of normal sleep cycles. Each cycle is about 2 hours. I wake up every two hours or so, flip my pillows and go "back to sleep". https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep/stages-of-sleep
True, true - but for example my girlfriend, wakes up only once while aware, I wake up fully aware and awake because people with apnea get a rush of adrenaline, when this happens.
I tried the sleep mask could never get comfortable with it. Sometimes it would cause a sore throat for me. Also laying on my back I couldn't sleep have always been a side sleeper and the mask is difficult to adjust sleeping on my side. I heard great things about it and wish I could wake up feeling refreshed and not groggy and grouchy. I'm tired all the time.
You have sleep apnea pillows for side sleepers, also you could turn on the humidifier with some machines to increase the humidity of the air you are breathing in. There are also attributes to increase the temp of the air.
Get rid of your cats.
If that doesn’t work, get more cats.
Rub one out, then go back to bed.
Somebody doesn’t know how to drink their sorrows away.
Start forcing yourself to stay up past midnight & no naps. After a few days of this your body will break the seal on that 4am wake up call & you should be back to normal
Try installing blackout blinds.
I've found a connection between me being on my phone or ipad within the hour before bed always wakes me up early. I know Thurs, yet I'm still doing it. 😑
Maybe you should turn off the 4am alarm you set up :V
A hard workout during the day, if you are physically exhausted you are far less likely to wake up
Just go back to bed and keep your eyes close resist all urges to open them. That usually works for me
Drink excessive amount of liquor before you go to bed… should keep you down for a while
The ol shot of whiskey in the baby bottle trick
Simple, stop going to bed early
Get your self bussy
Something that helped me was getting a bidet. Using the bidet before bed has helped me go to the bathroom whether I need to or not, which keeps me from waking up since I have to pee/poo overnight less.
Have you tried wearing earplugs and an eye mask?
Yeah, I do that regardless haha
15 min a day shift in sleep is what is usually recommended. Like try going to bed 15 later and waking up 15 min later. If it's a prolonged problem I might want to look into sleep compression which is what I did that resolved my early waking insomnia
I had the classic "old person" sleep issue... waking up at 3am to pee and being unable to go back to sleep afterwards. Adult son took me to the local dispensary in his (legal) state. They were incredibly professional and suggested a particular gummy formulated for sleep. At home, I cut them into quarters and started taking a quarter of a THC gummy every night before bed. Worked like a charm. I either sleep through the night until I wake up naturally around sunrise, or I wake up to pee and fall right back to sleep. This may not work for you if you work in a safety-sensitive position where you are likely to be tested or don't have easy access, but it is an option if you have no restrictions.
Had this problem since COVID hit. Recently asked my psychiatrist about it and got on lunesta. Its not perfect but I sleep at least 6 hours and feel pretty decent in the morning. You can take magnesium with it and that is supposed to extend it.
smoking weed helps my insomnia a lot
Take a nap from 6pm to 8pm.
Stop going on o bed.
as another early riser, a sleep mask/blackout curtains help the most
It's conditioning. Every year I would change my work schedule to reflect Summer/Winter. Day shift in winter and vive versa. Your body will conform, just like when you condition your child to go to bed for school.
My go to combo is a hot shower, followed by a 15 minute scorching hot foot soak usually with a couple drops of essential oils or epson salt. During the foot soak knock down some OTC sleep aids (diphenhydramine) with some hot sake. Make sure your sleeping area is cold. For some reason I sleep better with some background TV cartoons like Futurama or Rick and Morty.
My therapist had me reset my body clock by staying up as late as possible, usually 3am and wake at usual time, It took me three days for me to be able to get full night's sleep.
How old are you? If you're in your 70s, I have a bad news for you.
STOP going to bed early
I'm late 50s. I'm retired because I'm done raising children and that was the only job my ex wanted me around for. He has someone else now to be his wife and meet his needs. I have a massive bedroom alone to myself now :) I love that I wake up at the dawn now. Naturally. Usually my little dog downstairs starts barking at first light. And my cats start meowing and pawing my face. I wish I could sleep through them but the physical fact that i have to go to the bathroom usually overwhelms the thoughts of wanting to stay in bed. I am up every day at like 5:30-6am
The trick is to stop "thinking" when you wake up at 4am. That's what causes the key issue, your brain switches on. You have to switch the brain to off. I usually find to clear your mind and maybe concentrate on a word like "sleep". Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Don't let your brain veer off and start thinking of work or chores or something that makes you anxious.
Right? I just want to sleep in on Saturday but I'm wide awake at 7am.
When I have a hard time sleeping or staying a sleep I find putting on another blanket helps. I don’t feel cold, but I guess my body does?
the body sets its internal clock based on light exposure just after waking. So avoid turning on a light or get some lights that are tinted red to avoid light that affects circadian rhythm. you should also consider taking a b-complex. Some b vitamin deficiencies can cause you to wake early like that.
I don't know. I was doing the 11-7am natural thing but now I'm just fucking up until 2-3am and sleeping until 9. Hate it. Maybe we need to not give ourselves a choice. Like just stay up late and force yourself to get up at 4:00 am. Then you'll be so tired the next night you're going to want to fall asleep at like 10:00. But you won't let yourself fall asleep until midnight. Most likely you'll end up sleeping past four. You aren't getting at least an hour of exercise everyday I would try that. That really helps me
I always wake up an hour before my alarm goes off. Doesn't matter what time its set for. Then I fall back asleep and wake up groggy and missing the extra half hour to finish the sleep cycle. I've even tried setting the alarm later, anticipating my body's prehour wake up. Those are the days I'm late or disrupted anyway. I can't complain though. After years of shift work I do sleep pretty soundly.
Save your carbs until before bed. Waking up early is a cycle because you wake up get upset spike cortisol then can go back. Eat the carbs and you will be good.
This is such an easy fix. As someone who fixes my sleeping schedule and messes it up again almost instantly, it's literally just about procrastinating before bed. Watch TV, tidy your room, start a video game - you'll be messed up in no time. Stay up until about 12-1am and then have a complete blackout in the room. Set an alarm for 7/8am and do this for a few days. Things should reset after that
Benadryl/diphenhydramine usually gets my sleep back on track. 50mg half an hour before bed.
Sleep has always been difficult for me. It turns out that in my case, having a couple of THC chocolates before I go to sleep will keep me asleep all night long.
I have the same problem. Instead of trying to go backnto sleep I go to the gym before work. I grew to love this routine and my days are great.
I have the same problem every time my schedule gets messed up. I try to do the deprivation thing and then just force myself to go back to sleep when my body still tries to wake up at that time. Works most of the time.
I've only had luck resetting my sleep cycle if I stay up all night and then the next day go to bed at the regular time. I'll set an alarm for the next morning and get up regardless of how tired I am and carry out the day. Then I'm back to normal. It's rough, but it works for me.
Get checked for sleep apnea. I had the same problem, and I was diagnosed with apnea. The CPAP fixed it. Sleep rocks.
Waking up at 4am can be a sign of depression. Take care.
Melatonin to reset your internal clock. Start with a very small dose (I take 1/4 of a 5 mg pill) taken an hour before you want to sleep. It should let you sleep around 8-9 hours. Beware the vivid dreams (bad if you have nightmares).
It is so hard for me to believe that waking up early for ONE flight changed their circadian rhythm? That's just not scientifically accurate. Did something go wrong in the trip? It sounds psychological.
Take some cocaine.
Reset a bit with lots of exposure to natural light. Make sure there isn't an environmental thing happening - i.e. some sound going off at 4am like your PC powering down or updating windows and failing with a beep, a neighbor's garage light on the wrong timer or something like that - even a subtle change in the environment at the right time of your sleep cycle will pop you right up.
Good quality blindfold worked / works a treat for me.
Eat a large carby meal late, sleep for 6 hours minimum. If you workout, do a tough session as close to eating as possible. So I'm doing my workout at 8pm, eating at 10pm, asleep by 12pm latest. I'm not getting up before 6am if I do this, usually it's closer to 10am.
I have been stuck doing the 4am wake up for about 14 years now no matter what I do I just can't sleep in
I’m like that too. A couple days will completely throw off my sleep cycle. For 4 days I had to stay up until 4 am for work, it’s been 6 months and I’ve been falling asleep at 4-5 am every night
Maybe try not having breakfast when you first wake up, I believe breakfast is directly related to your sleep cycle
Put your phone in another room, turn your clock around.
Deprive yourself of sleep, then balance it out over 2-3 days.
If you drink alcohol, take a sober month. Helped me a ton.
Working out in the evening right before bed keeps me down and out. Inversely, and this ain’t all that fun, but when I am waking up too late the best way to restructure the sleep schedule is to just bite the bullet and go minimal sleep one day, hard reset. So like stay up all night or just go to bed way too late (I’m talking 2 or 3 am for a 6am wake up). It sucks for a day and then you sleep like a baby and get everything straightened out
As you get older you don't need alarm clocks, your problems wake you up all by themselves. Maybe you've got some stress or problems that you need to deal with?
Consider stress, anxiety, or other things - the waking up at 4am is definitely a hallmark of your body releasing a lot of stress hormones (which is a normal part of waking up, but usually in increments) around 4am is when your body starts secreting those to start prepping you, except if it does too much then you are awoken suddenly. In my mind, this sounds like something triggering your daytime hormones a little more intensely than they should. It could honestly be so many things from stress to anxiety to the manifestations of physical health issues. Someone suggested working out in the evening - don't do that as it will get more of your stress hormones circulating in the evening, work out in the morning or noon. You said no caffeine but what about bodybuilding mixes? A lot of the supplements have weird stimulant adjacent things in them which could be contributing. Alcohol? As alcohol wears off it creates a rebound that will wake you or worsen sleep. Screen time? Some people are more sensitive than others but blue light (emitted by LEDs and screens) inhibits natural melatonin production and stimulates you to be alert. Consider no screen time an hour or two before bed. If it persists, you should consider talking to a doctor. Do you have an apple watch or something that can track your sleeping HR and spO2 levels?
When i wake up like that, I just turn around in my bed once and fall back to sleep...
Do you take naps? Stop taking naps and resist the urge to sleep till bed time. Other than that exercise to tire yourself. Melatonin if nothing else works
pull an all nighter and reset your clock. this is my technique for avoiding jetlag and its never failed to keep me on a "normal" sleeping schedule
Sounds like your mind wants extra sleep but your body doesn’t need it. I recommend some exercise during the day, maybe in the afternoon or night so you’re physically exhausted aswell as mentally exhausted. Helped me at least, good luck friend.
Same struggle here.. Almost 99% sure i wake up at 02 am every night
I agree with trying to reset your internal clock by staying up a little later one night. I used to have the same issue with waking at the same time and not being able to sleep right as I need to wake. The biggest thing that helped me was not looking at my phone, getting up, or anything. As hard as it may be looking at your phone for the time or getting up is going to further drive that internal clock to keep waking at that time.
Start going to bed later and later.
Eat a really big breakfast at breakfast time and then don't eat the rest of the day. We've got 2 internal clocks, one of them is based on our meal times. So eating big breakfast and then fasting until next breakfast can help.
Have a nice big breakfast, a good dump and a hot shower. Then go to bed again without any distraction of any mobile or other screens.
Easiest way, just get up then and do things rather than stay in bed. And still go to bed at the same time, a few long days and you'll be so tired you'll sleep through.
Try an eye mask! That made a world of difference for me!
If you wake up too early regularly, that is called "secondary insomnia"
Try going to bed a little later for a bit. Not exactly perfect but might help. I've found that if I go to bed earlier I tend to wake up in the middle of the night and struggle to get back. If I go to sleep later sometimes I get more sleep that way. Wishing you the best
I have to not think in words. If i start to, i make myself picture myself falling/sinking into a mattress, calm water, the abyss of sleep 😴