h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm sure there must be a thread on this somewhere but anyway ...

Until six months ago I was always a heavy sleeper. Good, solid 7-8 hours every night.

Since then my sleep has generally been a pattern of about 5 hours of solid sleep, awakening at around 4am, then waking every half hour or so until it is time to get up at about 6:30am.

During the daytime I don't feel tired so it's not a particular issue, although overall I think my concentration is suffering a little. At weekends (when I have no particular reason to get up) I can usually sleep a lot longer until 8 or 9am which I guess makes up any deficit I have.

Any suggestions?

There's what's called "banking sleep":
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0061ycb

But it sounds like you're kinda doing that already.


Other than the obvious stuff about reducing stress levels and caffeine and switching off the computer or TV well in advance of trying to sleep. I can't comment, as I have very disordered sleep myself.

Or why not go with the flow? If you wake up around 4am, you could get up and either do stuff (like cleaning dishes or paying bills or whatever it is that people do when they do stuff) or just read a bit. My experience goes two ways: getting up will actually let me have a pretty good day, not feeling drowsy at any point; or it will soon make me sleepy eough to just go back to some solid sleep afterwards.

Y.

What Yelbakk says makes sense.

If you really feel you should get back to your previous sleeping pattern, try some mild sleeping tablets just once.

But less sleep is a sign you're getting older, and you probably just need less sleep. And your bladder is getting weaker!

Are you menopausal?

4 am is recognised as International Worrying Hour, so as long as you can get back after that you're doing OK.

iPhone has an app that will analyse your sleep patterns for you...

Another Researcher was suffering from severe sleeping problems. She now swears by the Paul McKenna 'I Can Make You Sleep' CD. Despite being a former stage hypnotist, it seems he's not quite the charlatan he might appear. I've heard other good reports.

I can only sleep for 6-7 hours at a stretch these days - and I have to be very physically tired in order to do that ( often waking a few times in the night) but it is definitely an age thing. I just go to bed later, as I hate lying there in the pre-dawn hours.

Go to bed at 2am - wake up at 8am

Same here. I still have get used to the idea that I don't lack sleep if I wake up after just six hours of it.

Yes, sleep patterns are highly individual. But then..so is the issue of whether a given amount of sleep is sufficient. If BBS feels that it's a problem - probably it is.

That said...you could see if simply getting up and living with less sleep solves the problem. (Or going to bed later) Could be preferable to tossing and turning?

normal sleep is like a wave pattern, down into deep sleep then back up to near waking or waking momenteraly, this gets shallower and shallower untill you wake in the morning, sounds like you are getting the sleep you need in the night and are just paddling about for the last 2 hours

That's all true...*but* the problem is still whether someone is happy paddling around, actually needs more sleep or has had enough.

Getting up at 4am is probably not the answer. I wake up then, look at the clock think to myself "Oh 4am" then go straight off back to sleep. Then half an hour later wake up and look again. So I tack on a couple more hours sleep but there's not much quality to it ...

Last night, I tried going to bed earlier. About 9:45pm. I woke up at 3:19, 3:45, 4:05, 5:05 and then was pretty much awake from 5:25 until I got up. Of course when the radio came on at 6:27 I took 10 more minutes to get up!

I've also just remembered something else ... for many years I had problems with broken sleep during January ... I thought may be it was the cold ... then I thought it was the heat from having the heating on overnight ... I had many theories until one year I suddenly realised that I always gave up alcohol for January! Problem solved. I've actually not been drinking a lot recently so perhaps that's a little part of this although I've never been a heavy drinker by any means ...

Could it be the bright mornings that are waking you? I've been having that problem myself.

It could .. especially as I often don't draw my curtains! June's always been a problem month for sleep due to that ...

However sunrise is currently at about 5:30 so waking up at 4am shouldn't be relevant, and certainly shouldn't have been when I was having similar problems back in the winter ...

Even on Monday. I went out and did a 2+ hour run of 18 miles. I still woke up early next day. Really expected my body to need the full 8 hours sleep ...

All in all I think it's stress-related. Like I must tend to worry about getting up for work and having to go there. Can't just relax back to sleep until the radio comes on ...

I don't think it has to be sunrise to wake you up, just more light coming in.

<< Can't just relax back to sleep until the radio comes on ...>>

when you wake up at 04:00 put the radio on, on sleep mode

The dawn chorus starts waaaay before sunrise - could be that which is waking you. (Why don't' you draw the curtains, just for interest)

I can relate so much with your problem because I've been experiencing that. My problem is even worse because I don't get enough sleep. Always sleep at 3am and will wake up 6am.

i am yet to go to bed

i had a good sleep yesterday

sleep by 8am up at 2 pm

been at work all night

Today's stats ... 6 good hours, then a couple of not-so-great to total 8 hours.

Last night went to bed late ... 11pm ... couldn't get off for 5-10mins ... so let's call it 11:10pm. Woke at 5:11am ... back to sleep until 5:23 ... 5:30 ... 6:06 ... 6:32 radio came on ... still dozing until 7am ...

Did all the wrong things ... ate late, drank cup of tea late, used computer until 10:30pm, read book before sleep ...

But I did pull the curtains and shut the door to make it darker. Could be because I pulled the curtains shut the door. My curtains are relatively thin so once dawn rolls around it's going to be a bit brighter although this morning is white cloud. I never slept with curtains closed from about age 6 and my house is not overlooked so it has never been an issue.

Doesn't really explain why I woke at 3:19am / 3:45am yesterday - 2 hours before dawn. Doesn't really explain why I was struggling at 5am in the depths of winter. Doesn't really explain why it's never been an issue, except at the height of summer in the past, but I will continue the experiment ...