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middle of the night insomnia

923 views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  feelinghopelessandstuck 
#1 ·
For almost 4 months now I've been experiencing on going night time symptoms where I'll wake up anywhere from 130am - 530am.
Around 6am I can fall asleep again for another couple of hours. I've been recording all my waking up times and how I feel.

Last few nights I've woken up between at like 230am - 330am and can't get back to sleep, this is seriously frustrating. I don't feel hungry or having any cravings as such but I'll wake up feeling like I've just slept 7-8 hours! During the day time and waking hours I'm mostly fine despite the lack of sleep. Now I did hear that imbalanced blood sugar levels can cause these kind of erratic sleeping patterns and middle of the night insomnia but I'm not diabetic as far as I'm concerned.

Now I realise there are many reasons why I would have this "middle of the night" insomnia. Stress, anxiety is the most common cause, however I am sceptical of this as the things I'm presently worried and troubled about are issues that have always been troubling me for years, so it's nothing new. There haven't been any major, drastic changes in my life that would cause me to wake up like this.

I have been to the doctor recently and he just mentioned to cut out all the caffeine before bed which I'm trying to do. However I read that chamomile tea can help with sleep. Tried it last night, hasn't worked as I'm up, wide awake again at 330am. Occasionally I'll feel the slight need to pee upon waking (wondering if that's what wakes me up) but strangely, it lessens the longer I'm up.

Have any of you experienced something similar? I've never had an issue with sleep before.
 
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#2 ·
I thought I'd update this thread.
So since I last posted, from around the end of March my sleep improved. I was sleeping through more nights than not and this waking up in the middle of the night seemed to end. I didn't really change my diet or anything, if anything I have and am still trying to decrease my overall sugar intake. So that's almost two months of much better sleep patterns, at least they were less erratic.

But now for the past 4/5 nights it's back! On Monday I woke up at 2am, the next night again at 230am, last night at 215am and so on after just an hour or two of sleep. And it's that wide awake feeling where I cannot get back to sleep. Eventually I do get back to sleep around 5am and manage to sleep for a few hours so thankfully I'm not too sleep deprived and still feel largely well rested.

Anyway this is frustrating. I do have alot of worries and frustrations at the moment but like I said before I've had these for many years. Also although I do have a fairly large tea/coffee intake every day, I haven't changed this intake so it can't be my diet.

So why am I sleeping well for weeks and then suddenly not sleeping well again with the middle of the night insomnia returning?
 
#3 ·
Nothing to worry about, it comes and goes in cycles. Sometimes it is steady for weeks, sometimes your body does not need that much sleep and other times when you are sick or just tired you can sleep for 12 hours straight. Caffeine is a big one, exercise during the day can help; taking a shower and spending the next hour relaxing and not looking at any electronic screen before you go to bed will help put you in the sleep mood.
 
#4 ·
It's the last 8 nights now where I'm waking up between 2 and 3am after just a couple of hours. I notice the first emotion/feeling I have is one of slight panic as I check the time to figure "oh not again." Then I would worry why this is happening and stress about the long term implications if this continues, worry about how long this will continue etc. It's now more than an hour since I've been up, trying my best to go back to sleep and it's just not happening as I do not feel sleepy/tired at all.

I'm sceptical about any caffeine link because when I was sleeping fine just a few weeks ago, I was having my usual coffee/tea intake during the day and even a cup of tea before bed and having no issues. Now I've even cut out the green tea and just having red bush and peppermint tea (which has no caffeine) and still waking up after a couple of hours.

I do have some things on my mind that is bothering me but these are more or less the same issues that have been effecting me for a long time, like years (the erratic sleeping patterns have only been an issue for the last 6-7 months now).

I guess why I'm confused though is why this would be happening now when I've had the same anxieties and worries for many years and never had an issue with my sleep until these past 6-7 months. I've got a sleep app and I've just been listening to my sleep sounds. There's quite a bit of snoring there so it indicates that I'm sleeping deeply during the 2 hours of sleep that I am getting but then something is obviously waking up for me to be wide awake and not be able to go back to sleep for a long time.

Just wondering if any of you are or have had similar issues?
 
#5 ·
I never have insomnia anymore. I used to be just incapable of going to sleep at will. I mean it was a massive problem for me when I was young because I couldn't just lay down and go to sleep and then get up at the same time every day. I'd just lay there awake all night and finally fall asleep half an hour before I had to be awake.

One day about 15 years ago, that just stopped and I'd fall asleep as soon as I laid down. I should have known that was too drastic of a change to be normal. I think it was a sign that things were starting to go wrong with my health. The major thing was diabetes. There are probably other issues I don't know about because I don't look for them. Any kind of sleeping issues are probably a sign of something deeper going on.

Talk to another doctor.
 
#6 ·
I never have insomnia anymore. I used to be just incapable of going to sleep at will. I mean it was a massive problem for me when I was young because I couldn't just lay down and go to sleep and then get up at the same time every day. I'd just lay there awake all night and finally fall asleep half an hour before I had to be awake.

One day about 15 years ago, that just stopped and I'd fall asleep as soon as I laid down. I should have known that was too drastic of a change to be normal. I think it was a sign that things were starting to go wrong with my health. The major thing was diabetes. There are probably other issues I don't know about because I don't look for them. Any kind of sleeping issues are probably a sign of something deeper going on.

Talk to another doctor.
So your health deteriorated when you started sleeping better?
 
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