Insomnia

knottie9c689fa5ad20650e

I've always had a very light sleep and issues falling back asleep after being woken up, I also work with screens all day.

But now I'm in vacation since 3 weeks, barely use screens, have very relaxed days, but also not lazy - doing 15 000 steps a day, dinner at 7 pm, going to sleep roughly around 10 pm, I don't drink coffee nor tea, just water, in the evening I try to read a book, I meditate and do relaxation exercises. I don't have any annoying pregnancy symptoms like heartburn and back pain, sometimes I wake up because I have to pee and sometimes I just wake up feeling rested. And then can't fall back asleep, I try up to an hour. It used to be 7 am, then 5 am, then 4 am, today it was 2:30 am. Of course I'm not rested during the day afterwards, but I'm unable to nap in general, I rarely could fall asleep during the day, yesterday felt like the worst hangover all day, just because I didn't sleep enough. Today since 3:15 I was reading a book till I get sleepy, I actually finished it now, and it's 7 am.

I'm a bit worried that I should be getting enough sleep but how can I when I keep waking up at weird times? Any ideas why this is? Maybe some insufficiencies? I take folic acid, vitamin D and Omega 3.. trying magnesium since 3 days.. regular advice frustrates me, as I'm already doing all those things I believe..

Ideas appreciated :)

knottie0258499cdbe1c7d1

Oof that’s frustrating. I’m not a sleep expert, but I too and pretty particular about taking care of myself and making sure I get good sleep. We even have amber lightbulbs that we use at night to help avoid stimulating cortisol (and they help, for what it’s worth. We use Hooga Amber Lightbulbs) and turn off wifi at night (seriously a game changer if you haven’t done it). Other things we try to do is eat while the sun is still up (early this time of year) and go to bed even earlier than we normally would. If we wake up to read, we try not to use blue light and have my husband’s weird military red headlamps. Super weird, but at least we’re not wired when using it. 

However, I’ve noticed that pregnancy has really messed with my sleep and it’s not nearly as restorative as it was before, and I’m starting to wonder if that’s hormonal. I might get my thyroid checked just to be sure because I know when that’s off, it’s easy to wake up without feeling rested.

At any rate, I usually associate wake ups in the middle of the night - especially around 1, 2, or 3am - with a spike in cortisol. That COULD be related to food, certainly. What I’ve generally found is that the closer I eat to bedtime, the more I wake up because the body still is digesting the food and it can cause that cortisol spike. We feel better when we go to sleep 3-4 hours after eating…which is a long time, admittedly. Additionally, I’d really look into the lights you use at home. It sounds woo woo but there’s a lot of evidence for the blue light in light bulbs being the same temperature at the sun at noon. Circadian biology is actually super fascinating and a serious rabbit hole to go down if you ever want. I recommend listening to the Quantum Biology Collective if interested.

Hope something in there helps and that it’s a little different than typical advice!

Car1985

I too am having issues sleeping. I used to take 2 hour naps and then still sleep all night. Now, I sleep for maybe 3 hours and wake up for an hour, fall back asleep for maybe an hour and then up for another hour or two. It’s like that all night long.

I haven’t found anything to really help other than trying to go to sleep before my husband and not looking at the clock when I am awake. I find I sleep a little longer when he’s not up there. I think it makes it worse when I’m wide awake and can hear him sleeping. It gives me anxiety knowing I’m missing out on sleep. I also try talk to myself in my head and say things like “you can sleep” or “just relax” because I was told that the repetition helps your mind to focus on that thought rather than your sleep. The last thing I do which helps is go through every part of my body and relax my muscles. It lessens my tension and frustration and that sometimes is all I need to drift off for a bit. 

I hope maybe something I said will help! But just know you aren’t alone.