Sleep anxiety issues aren’t uncommon. Some have underlying issues but other times it’s as simple as stressing out over sleep. Especially when the alarm is set for an early hour. There’s some speculation that your body is sending you a message that the amount of sleep you have planned for that night may not be enough, and it’s being counterproductive in sending you an alarm signal for that. I’d suggest talking to your doctor, and keeping a journal of sleep and awake habits and activities to bring to your doctor and also to see if you can notice any emerging patterns, like…
How many nights a week do you set your alarm? When you don’t, how late do you sleep in, and how many hours of sleep do you get?
Can you try going to bed earlier than you do now? Or maybe even 10 minutes later just to break routine?
What are you typically doing the hour before you go to sleep? Are you rushing around trying to get everything ready for the next day, dozing off on the couch watching TV, or something else?
Good luck with this. Lack of sleep even without a heavy training load is never fun.
I’m also a lousy sleeper, I can fall asleep fine but have a hard time staying asleep. My doctor started me on 5-HTP which I don’t think is the same thing as melatonin. I started with 100 mg and recently bumped it up to 200 - I haven’t felt groggy or anything in the mornings. It’s not a perfect cure but I find it does help.
I’ve tried all the things you listed – cool/dark room, lavender, no caffeine after noon, etc. Our next big home purchases be a new mattress and blackout curtains because I am DONE getting lousy sleep. I’m coming up on 40 so I’m sure the hormonal sleep changes are waiting for me… not looking forward to those. Good luck!
I started to notice occasional insomnia in my 40’s as well. Now in my 50’s it’s so much worse and it’s most likely contributed to low estrogen. I think the hardest part is my energy levels wain as the afternoon progresses and thinking about getting in that second discipline scheduled for the day isn’t very appealing especially if I can’t have a bit of caffeine to get the fire under my a$$ because I’ll be staring at the ceiling as punishment for that afternoon pick-me-up.
I suffered from sleep deprivation that was an absolute deal breaker for my early-morning (4 AM first appointment) job as a personal trainer. After bio-identical hormone replacement, life has gotten much better. I now sleep through the night. Progesterone helped with the sleep and estrogen helped with energy.
You will likely need bloodwork for the prescriptions and it’s not cheap or covered by insurance, but it’s a worthwhile expense in my experience. I hope it’s an available option in your area.
I wonder if it’s as expensive as PremPro. Yikes… that is pricey as well. It’s a tier 4 drug with no generic. I didn’t notice much with that so stopped taking it. Not to mention having to pick up the prescription was painful $$$$$ especially since it didn’t really do much. Thanks for the tip on the bio identicals I have an appointment soon and will ask!
I started having a few issues about a year or so ago, and I noticed that it gets worse in the week before my period. I am convinced it’s hormonal because nothing else changed to cause the sudden wake-up-at-night-and-can’t-fall-back-asleep thing. To be fair, it isn’t so bad, as I am able to typically fall back asleep as long as I don’t leave the bed. But for the days leading up to my period I noticed that the following helps.
(Everyone is unique, but here is what works for me)
Food
Increased carb intake during the day
A dinner focused on lean protein and veggies
I drink 20 oz of whey protein before bed on days when my dinner is 2.5-3hs before bed time
Other
I find that if I do not get out of bed when it happens, I am able to fall back asleep. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later. I make that commitment to myself tho, before going to bed- that no matter how long I am awake during the night, I am NOT getting up before it is time to get up, and I am keeping my eyes shut!
For decades I practiced Bikram yoga, so I have the sequence seared in my brain. When I wake in the middle of the night, I start to recite the poses/sequence from start to finish, and usually I fall asleep before finishing it- I know, this is just like counting sheep…
I second the food/eating bit. When I was pregnant I got worse insomnia than normal. Someone suggested eating. I didn’t feel hungry, but a piece of toast and within 15-20min I was back asleep.
Not exactly the same thing as your situation - but I do think that under fueling plays a part.
A friend of mine (early 40’s if it matters), was having this problem for a few years. A year ago she started doing intermittent fasting and has slept through the night since. I don’t know all of her details, but I know that within a week of starting IF, she was sleeping like a baby for the first time in years. She just hit her 1 year mark and is still sleeping through the night.
I, on the other hand, haven’t slept through the night in over 10 years. But it’s because I’ve got a gaggle of kids, the youngest being a 2 year old who moves into our bed every night and I’m too damn tired to kick her out!
Good luck! I hope you can find a solution to better sleep!
I struggle with waking up in the night during the week leading up to my cycle. I have tried Magnesium and Valerian with some success. I also get relief from a local Chiropractor who does a treatment called Nerolink. Good luck, it’s very frustrating!
It sound so familiar to me. It was when I was studying at University. I came to parents’ home for a holidays and was hoping to rest and have fun with friends. I also needed to write at least some chapters of my coursework, but I was sure that I would find a time for this later. And I didn’t know why, but I couldn’t sleep at night, even if I came back from party at 4-5 am, I couldn’t sleep, but I really wanted to and needed to. When I was lucky I felt asleep for 2-3 hours, but laying in bad and praying for sleep was terrible. Without knowing a reason I decided to write a coursework, and I wrote only introduction - but the miracle happened - that night I fall asleep at 8pm, and was sleeping soooo long and soooo good. I want to tell you that the reason might be in your conscious - maybe you are worrying about something or need to do something. Now, as I already graduated and work at services company, my conscious
feels calm, mostly, but from time to time sleep issues coming back, and I’m always try to figure out what is going on in my head Hope this helps you too.
The whole crummy sleep combined with restless leg symptoms can be a sign of overtraining too. This happens when you’re not getting adequate recovery time and your hormones go a bit out of whack and instead of been knackered and sleeping, you’re running hot overnight and waking up after insufficient REM sleep. Make sure you are getting enough magnesium and zinc, and back off training for a few weeks and see if that helps. Also I find listening to a mindfulness meditation/relaxation track (try YouTube or a free app) can give good relaxation even when I can’t sleep… it does good things to your brain waves similar to actual sleep and the more you practice, the better it gets.
I have been really different in my sleeping habits through my life - from situations where I can take a 15 min nap wherever, whenever, to missing 4 nights of sleep in a row. As my sleeping has got worse in recent years - not falling asleep AND getting up too early at the same time - I tried keeping a sleep diary. My sleep quality is definitely linked to my cycle/periods. At the moment I do not even remember which week proved to be the worst, but for me the knowledge that it is temporary helped immensely. I am not so stressed about a few bad nights as I know it will pass.
I know I have sleep issue when I was on the verge of over training, and not recovering properly.
Maybe lowering your volume and making sure you don’t train to close to bedtime!
Hope you find something to help
Once I hit my 40’s I had the same issue. Fall asleep fast, sleep hard for a good couple of hours, wide awake at 2am and couldn’t possibly fall asleep until after 4am. This of course ruined my wakeup time and greatly interferes with workout times. I did notice all of the women that I worked with (over 40) was experiencing the same exact thing and it was occurring in different cities (so not local climate or allergens). It is also happening to the men. A lot of the men in my family have worse sleeping problems than I do. So I don’t think it’s just the female hormones being out of whack that cause it. There is a thread in the other main forum on ST where the men are talking about it here.
With that said, I do have a little restless leg syndrome and magnesium helped a ton. My coach who also is a nurse told me to take it. I do take 3mg of melatonin on the bad nights where I can’t fall asleep. I do believe a lot of it is how to get our minds to stop thinking about so many things when the lights are out. One guy on the other forum shared this and I think it is helpful and interesting… “How to trick your brain into falling asleep.”
I also have this problem – since my teens, so it is clearly not related to caffeine, smartphones, hormones, alcohol, the mattress, allergies, the cats, the time zone, the window coverings, which person I am sharing a bed with, etc. After 30+ years of dealing with it (including taking only jobs with flex hours), it became really life-disruptive in the last few years, and my doctor sent me to the university sleep clinic. The doctor there had me keep a 2-week sleep diary, then put me on a “sleep restriction” trial, which right now means not going to bed before 10pm, getting out of bed at 4am “no matter what,” and no napping unless I have to drive and would be dangerous. Search the internet for sleep restriction/CBT-I for info, and LMK if you want to hear more about my experience.
I use off of amazon an all natural supplement called insta sleep it has 5htp melatonin and Gabba and it helps me soooooo much and is not habit forming because it’s all natural
.
When I was in school life, I wasn’t dozing around evening time in light of the cell phone. At whatever point I felt free, utilized versatile even overlook what time is it. My entire night was gone through with my telephone, chatted with my companions, messed around, watched films and more stuff. Be that as it may, I couldn’t rest even I attempted to rest yet proved unable. Its a huge issue for me since I couldn’t feel crisp and my investigations turned out badly. Try not to be living space anything particularly portable. Presently I’m fine since I take prescription, without drug I couldn’t rest.
Hope this helps you too.