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It is normal to wake up several times during the night as the brain goes through various stages of deeper and lighter sleep. Older people also often have to get out of bed to use the bathroom once or twice during the night. Waking up at night is usually harmless. Most people have no trouble falling back asleep and may not even remember waking up at night the next morning.
But if you often wake up in the middle of the night and find yourself having trouble falling asleep again, there may be an underlying problem. D., a sleep medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and former president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. If this happens at least three times a week for a period of at least three months, it could be chronic insomnia, Kannan Ramar said. .
The two main causes of insomnia are stress and anxiety. If you wake up and look at the clock and start worrying about resting for work the next day, paying your bills, or other life stressors, it can activate your sympathetic nervous system, which controls what’s known as war or-. flight response. Levels of adrenaline, the so-called stress hormone, will rise, increasing your heart rate and leading to a state of high arousal, making it particularly difficult to get back to sleep.
“You ask yourself, ‘Is it the same time I woke up last night? Why does this always happen?’” said Dr. ram “These thoughts don’t help with falling asleep.”
If you find you’ve been awake for 25 minutes or longer, experts recommend getting out of bed and doing some quiet activity that calms your mind — anything to suppress the stressful thoughts that are keeping you awake. Gentle stretching or breathing exercises can help, as can meditation. demonstrated in studies to help combat chronic insomnia. You can sit on the sofa and knit or read a book or magazine in dim light. Experts recommend avoiding reading on your smartphone because of the blue light emitted by these devices. May suppress melatonin production, the hormone that makes us sleepy. However, you can take out your phone to use a soothing app like below. Do not or top spaceDesigned to aid sleep and meditation.
Finally, when you start to feel tired, go back to bed and try to sleep. Then, the next day, practice the following sleep hygiene habits to increase your chances of sleeping soundly through the night.
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Limit your evening alcohol intake. Small amounts of alcohol can act as a sedative, causing you to fall asleep faster. But it can also cause you to wake up in the middle of the night as your body metabolizes it. Studies show Did you know that consuming alcohol before bed can lead to poor quality sleep?
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Avoid consuming caffeine after 2 pm because it can stay in your system until evening. If you drink a cup of coffee at 3:30 p.m., about a quarter of the caffeine may still be in your system 12 hours later.
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Avoid taking a nap late in the day as it can make it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep at night. Napping late will reduce what scientists call your homeostatic sleep drive, which is essentially your body’s pressure to fall asleep in the evening. If you want to take a nap during the day, do it early in the morning or afternoon and keep it short, no longer than 30 minutes. D., associate professor of sleep medicine neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “The closer you are to bedtime or the longer the nap, the more trouble you get,” Sabra Abbott said.
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Keep a strict sleep schedule. Waking up and going to bed at irregular times can disrupt your body’s circadian rhythm, the innate 24-hour cycles that tell our bodies when to wake up and fall asleep, making it difficult to sleep through the night. Try to get up at the same time each morning (aim for at least 15 minutes of sunlight, which helps stop melatonin production) and go to bed at the same time in the evening. Studies show People with irregular bedtimes are more likely to develop insomnia symptoms.
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If you often get up to use the bathroom, try to limit the amount of water or other fluids you drink two to four hours before bedtime.
If these measures don’t help, a sleep specialist can assess whether you have a more important underlying problem, such as sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome, that needs medical treatment. A sleep clinic may also connect you to a cognitive behavioral therapist who can help you identify and address certain behaviors that may be causing your chronic insomnia.
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