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Difficulty Sleeping for several weeks
by Asaaaan, Jul 02, 2008 07:11PM
Background: For many years now, I have been on a schedule where I end staying up until around 6 AM and then sleeping until approximately 3 PM. While being an admittedly unusual schedule, I never really suffered any problems from this, so I didn't worry about it.
In general, I have never had the easiest time falling asleep. Occasionally it would take me an hour or two to fall asleep, or I would wake up after 2-3 hours and then lay awake for 1-2 hours before falling back asleep. That said, for the most part I slept fine, for a good 8-9 hours.
In the last year I started suffering from some occasional bouts of insomnia, where I just couldn't sleep at all, and so I'd get little or no sleep for a "night". These episodes were fairly rare, but it started to make me question whether I would be better off on a more normal sleep pattern (though I have no idea whether they were actually caused by sleeping during the day). In that vein I have started to try to go to bed earlier.
With all that background out of the way, during the past 2-3 weeks I've started to suffer from a problem where I fall asleep fine, but wake up too early and cannot fall back asleep. One of two things seems to happen, either I sleep soundly for 5-6 hours (maybe getting up to go to the bathroom once, but easily falling back asleep), and then wake up and cannot fall back asleep, or I sleep a bit more fitfully, waking up several times, but at least manage to sleep for 7 1/2 hours or so, but once again wake up and cannot get back to sleep. I lay there for another 3-4 hours, and cannot get back to sleep (I may possibly doze off briefly, but get no solid deeper sleep). In either case, I know I have not gotten enough sleep because I still feel tired. I can still function, but I more or less feel like ****.
I'm not sure why I started suffering from this problem all of a sudden. I am not stressed or anxious and I'm not depressed. I don't have problems thinking about things in bed, I can lie there and let my mind wander aimlessly, and be totally relaxed, the problem is I simply don't fall back asleep.
I have been getting more sunlight lately, due to it being summer with longer days, and also getting up earlier, and being more active outdoors, so I don't know if that could be effecting things? Perhaps it has to do with changing my sleep cycle and my body still not being used to it? I don't know, but I am getting frustrated from going so long now with only borderline sleep. I would say this is worse than having occasional severe insomnia, since at least then the vast majority of the time I am fully rested.
I have tried various things, like cutting back on caffeine, which I don't think has any effect one way or the other. I sleep no better and no worse, when cutting back on it, than when drinking a soda within an hour of lying down. Melatonin doesn't seem to do anything to help either, although I actually wonder whether taking it to try to help me change my sleep cycle may have somehow contributed to my current problems. I have tried taking an over the counter sleep medication when I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep and likewise it did absolutely nothing.
I'm not sure whether this is something to be concerned about, or whether I should just maintain the same sleep cycle for a while and count on these problems to go away by themselves? Should I try to get less sunlight? Or does anyone have any other suggestions?
In general, I have never had the easiest time falling asleep. Occasionally it would take me an hour or two to fall asleep, or I would wake up after 2-3 hours and then lay awake for 1-2 hours before falling back asleep. That said, for the most part I slept fine, for a good 8-9 hours.
In the last year I started suffering from some occasional bouts of insomnia, where I just couldn't sleep at all, and so I'd get little or no sleep for a "night". These episodes were fairly rare, but it started to make me question whether I would be better off on a more normal sleep pattern (though I have no idea whether they were actually caused by sleeping during the day). In that vein I have started to try to go to bed earlier.
With all that background out of the way, during the past 2-3 weeks I've started to suffer from a problem where I fall asleep fine, but wake up too early and cannot fall back asleep. One of two things seems to happen, either I sleep soundly for 5-6 hours (maybe getting up to go to the bathroom once, but easily falling back asleep), and then wake up and cannot fall back asleep, or I sleep a bit more fitfully, waking up several times, but at least manage to sleep for 7 1/2 hours or so, but once again wake up and cannot get back to sleep. I lay there for another 3-4 hours, and cannot get back to sleep (I may possibly doze off briefly, but get no solid deeper sleep). In either case, I know I have not gotten enough sleep because I still feel tired. I can still function, but I more or less feel like ****.
I'm not sure why I started suffering from this problem all of a sudden. I am not stressed or anxious and I'm not depressed. I don't have problems thinking about things in bed, I can lie there and let my mind wander aimlessly, and be totally relaxed, the problem is I simply don't fall back asleep.
I have been getting more sunlight lately, due to it being summer with longer days, and also getting up earlier, and being more active outdoors, so I don't know if that could be effecting things? Perhaps it has to do with changing my sleep cycle and my body still not being used to it? I don't know, but I am getting frustrated from going so long now with only borderline sleep. I would say this is worse than having occasional severe insomnia, since at least then the vast majority of the time I am fully rested.
I have tried various things, like cutting back on caffeine, which I don't think has any effect one way or the other. I sleep no better and no worse, when cutting back on it, than when drinking a soda within an hour of lying down. Melatonin doesn't seem to do anything to help either, although I actually wonder whether taking it to try to help me change my sleep cycle may have somehow contributed to my current problems. I have tried taking an over the counter sleep medication when I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep and likewise it did absolutely nothing.
I'm not sure whether this is something to be concerned about, or whether I should just maintain the same sleep cycle for a while and count on these problems to go away by themselves? Should I try to get less sunlight? Or does anyone have any other suggestions?
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I am not sure if cutting down on sunlight will help in any way. I would advise you to pick up some form of physical activity which will make you tired enough to get into a deep sleep at night
. Other reason could be may be it is a passing phase and with time it will get better, as you seem to have had irregular sleeping habits in the past. I would also advise you not to give up, go to your bed at your normal usual time and if you wake up and can’t fall asleep, turn on the lights and read a book or something till you feel sleepy again.