See full version: When You Have Trouble Waking Up
Move your bedtime back by 15 minutes every three to four days. On these days, also wake up 15 minutes earlier. Adhere to this plan seven days a week (not just weekdays) until you're falling asleep at -- or close to -- the desired hour. more
If these methods don't work, speak to a sleep specialist. Night owls, like shift workers, might have increased risk of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and certain cancers. One option you can ask your doctor about is light therapy. This treatment allows you to get light from a small light box to help reset your body clock, without medication. [links]
Joyce Walsleban, PhD, RN, associate professor of medicine, New York University School of Medicine.
The reason Shives' job is so difficult might lie in our genes. Two sleep disorders -- advanced sleep phase syndrome, which causes bedtimes of between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., and delayed sleep phase, where patients fall asleep between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. -- are both often inherited. Advanced sleep phase is less common, affecting less than 1% of middle-aged and older adults. As for delayed sleep phase syndrome, researchers don't know how many people have it, but (to name one group of people) 7% to 16% of young adults do, according to the International Classification of Sleep Disorders.
You're all set for a good night's sleep. You lie down, get comfortable, and soon you are far away in dreamland. But, after a couple hours, you suddenly wake up, feeling like you are being suffocated. You sit up to try and breathe and after a few minutes you start to feel better. This condition is known as paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea and is a sign of heart failure or a heart condition. more
When you lie down, as a result of gravity, the fluid in your body redistributes, so that there is less fluid in the legs and more fluid in the lungs. If your heart is functioning normally, this shouldn't be a problem. However, if you have a heart problem, your heart may not be able to cope with the extra load placed on it when you lie down. The additional volume of blood in the blood vessels of lungs creates a lot of pressure and pushes fluid through the walls of the blood vessels and into the lung tissue. This fluid clogs up the alveoli, or tiny air sacs, in the lungs, preventing oxygen transfer from taking place. Therefore, you suddenly wake up feeling like you are suffocating, which essentially is true. These symptoms are relieved by sitting up, since gravity helps the heart to pump the fluid out of the lungs. [links]
Some other symptoms that you may experience with paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, which also indicate congestive heart failure, are swollen ankles, exercise intolerance, rapid weight gain, excessive sweating and an irregular heartbeat. Heart failure is usually treated using a variety of medications and by adopting lifestyle changes, such as a healthy, salt-free diet, reducing alcohol intake, quitting smoking and doing light exercise on a regular basis. You may also need to be on a fluid restriction, since reducing the volume of fluid circulating through your body reduces the workload of your heart.
When I was training to be a nurse, I lived in halls of residence. One of my friends there had a problem waking up. Alarm clocks couldn’t wake her and she would get into trouble for being late for class and placements at the hospital. Once, the fire alarms were set off and she slept right through them . The fire alarms were very loud, and most people were relieved to evacuate the building and be away from the sound. Yet my friend kept sleeping. When the firemen arrived , they went door to door be make sure everyone was safely outside. Much to my friend ’ s embarrassment, when she finally woke up , it was because there were 3 firemen in her room trying to wake her up. [links]
2. Falling asleep and 4. Waking up. more
Last week , we talked about the 4 common ADHD sleep issues.
3. You have a negative association with sleeping in your bed. Your bed has become such a battleground for sleep, it makes it difficult to fall asleep there. However , if you are on a plane, train or at friend ’ s house , you can fall asleep within minutes. here
While some people only have 1 of those issues, many people have 2 or 3. There are some common combinations, including:
Not everyone with ADHD sleeps this soundly. Some ADHDers are very light sleepers, and will wake up frequently throughout the night regardless of how tired they are.
Whether or not you want to take a supplement, establishing a sleep hygiene routine is important. It's all about having a solid bedtime routine that allows you to wind down before going to bed by indulging in your favorite form of self-care. Take a bath, practice yoga or meditation, spray lavender on your pillow, and unplug from electronics at least 30 minutes before going to bed. Dr. Dow suggests putting down the coffee mug around 2 p.m. and trying to avoid alcohol and sugar before bed, which can both disturb your sleeping cycle. [links]
What you might know as "I haven't had coffee don't talk to me," researchers call sleep inertia, which is that time period after you wake up where you're not really awake yet. For some, sleep inertia can last around four hours, while others (those "morning people," you say with spite) don't really experience it at all. If you're still dreaming of your bed hours after leaving it, Dr. Dow recommends 30 seconds in the coldest water you can handle as a wake-up strategy. more
If you're not a morning person, waking up is hard to do. Maybe you hit snooze eleventy million times before eventually stumbling to the kitchen for coffee. You might even curse in the general direction of people who seem to have no problem bouncing out of bed to greet the day, like Anna trying to get Elsa to build a snowman with her. If you're more of an Elsa when the sun starts rising, you probably wonder (every single day) why it's so hard for you to wake up in the morning.
There are ways to help you set that consistent schedule, Dr. Dow tells Bustle. "Someone who is naturally a night owl but needs to be productive in the morning can dim the lights around 8 p.m. and take melatonin before the target bedtime," he suggests. Time-release melatonin can help if you have trouble staying asleep, while fast-dissolve melatonin can help when you have trouble falling to sleep in the first place, he says. Melatonin can help preserve your quality of sleep, which also plays a role in whether or not you have a hard time waking up in the morning. here
For morning haters, there are a few reasons why it takes you so long to get going. "Being a morning person or night owl is a combination of your genes and your environment," says psychotherapist Dr. Mike Dow, Psy.D., Ph.D., author of Heal Your Drained Brain. "If you have one of the many genes for being a 'morning person,' your melatonin (sleep hormone) levels are likely to rise earlier in the evening and fall earlier in the morning than someone with 'night owl' genes."
Blue light from your devices can be a huge factor in keeping you up later (and keeping you sleepy longer). If you're bringing work spreadsheets and the latest episode of Stumptown to bed with you, Dr. Dow tells Bustle that your brain won't be able to make the melatonin it needs, and it will start associating your bedroom with being awake.