A quality night's sleep is the key to high performance and excellent mood throughout the day. But in Lately the problem of insomnia is becoming very common. Many people complain of difficulty falling asleep. And sometimes they come with an even more serious problem: “I wake up at the same time at night and then I can’t fall asleep for a long time.” What kind of good rest can we talk about in such a situation?! If it recurs frequently, action should be taken immediately.
Causes of night awakenings
The reasons for nighttime awakenings can be different. Unfortunately, quite rarely they are caused only by physiology. More often, regular interruption of sleep at the same time signals that something is wrong with the body. Sometimes this is associated with psychological problems, but more often indicates pathologies. internal organs that work according to a genetically programmed biological clock.
Physiological
Physiological causes are more likely to create problems with falling asleep or sleep quality. It is difficult to get enough sleep in a stuffy room or fall asleep when the light, the feeling of hunger or the snoring of a neighbor interferes with you. With severe fatigue, a person turns off even with intense exposure to external stimuli. But after 1-2 cycles of REM sleep, when we sleep especially lightly, it can wake up.
Regularly wake up at night those who cannot fall asleep without a night light or TV turned on. Approximately 3-4 hours after falling asleep, light and sound begin to interfere, sleep is interrupted. But it is worth turning off their source, it returns and then the night passes quietly. If this is repeated regularly, a conditioned reflex will develop, and the person begins to wake up at night.
Another common cause of constant nighttime awakenings around the same time is lack of oxygen.
Even if you ventilate the room before going to bed, but there are heating devices in it or there are many flowers that absorb oxygen at night, then after a few hours the lack of fresh air will make you wake up.
At the same time, mothers of babies who are accustomed to a certain routine often wake up. The body remembers for a long time that it is necessary to feed the child or check if he is wet. A conditioned reflex, including awakening, is developed in about a month. But it takes a lot longer to break a habit.
Physiological factors also include age-related changes sleep structures. Scientists have found that young people during the night are dominated by a slow phase, that is, a person sleeps soundly.
But gradually the structure of the cycles changes, and in the elderly, the fast phase of sleep begins to dominate from about the middle of the night. Therefore, the slightest noise wakes them up. And since the concentration of melatonin in the blood decreases markedly by morning, it is not always possible to fall asleep again. This is where the myth was born that older people need less sleep.
Psychological
Some psychological problems directly affect the quality of our sleep. Somnologists even have a special term that unites them - "intrasomnic disorders." Most often, nighttime awakenings provoke stress. It can be quite difficult to identify his chronic condition and sometimes it is not possible to cope with this without the help of an experienced specialist.
For stress, the most typical complaints are in the style of: "I wake up every night at 3 o'clock with a feeling of anxiety." Sometimes such people are tormented by nightmares or severe depressive dreams, the plots of which they may not remember.
Uncontrolled use of sleeping pills only exacerbates the problem and provokes the development of depressive conditions.
Emotional disorder is any hypertrophied emotions that a person cannot control. In this case, he is clearly aware of what exactly does not let him sleep: anger, fear, falling in love, envy, etc. But it is not possible to cope with these conditions. A qualified psychologist can help in such a situation.
Pathological
But in most cases, they complain that they wake up at 3 am and people with serious pathologies cannot fall asleep. By the way, it is this time (plus or minus half an hour) that is most often noted by people suffering from this form of insomnia. The people called it the "witch's hour", and not without reason. A healthy person at this time is fast asleep, which means that he is defenseless and easily suggestible. Come and do whatever.
Scientists are interested in what processes occur in our body during the night. Here is what their research results showed:
Naturally, these are generalized data, each organism is individual. But constant awakenings at the same time is one of the symptoms of the pathologies of those organs that are active during this period.
Diagnosis and treatment
If the physiological causes of regular nighttime rises are excluded, you need to seek help from specialists. There is nothing wrong with going to the doctor and asking him the question: “I don’t sleep well at night and wake up often - what should I do?”
This problem is common, and usually a person really needs qualified help. Anxiety should be caused by the presence of the following symptoms:
Most likely you will be asked to undergo an examination to identify pathologies of the internal organs. Do not give up on it - the sooner the disease is detected, the greater the likelihood of a complete cure. When the disease recedes, sleep quickly returns to normal.
Vegetovascular dystonia and emotional disorders are treated with auto-training and breathing exercises. You can usually solve the problem without using medicines. But with difficulty falling asleep, mild sedatives may be prescribed.
If insomnia is caused by severe or chronic stress, a psychologist should be consulted. The suppression of such conditions leads to serious neurological disorders and cardiovascular diseases.
Sometimes sleeping pills or antidepressants are prescribed for a short period. But it is important to remember that such drugs are quickly addictive. Therefore, if you are able to do without them, look for other ways to relieve stress.
Possible problems
Being ashamed to seek advice, you exacerbate the problem every day. Night sleep deprivation affects the work of the whole organism:
- performance is sharply reduced;
- there is rapid fatigue;
- attention is scattered;
- there are failures in the hormonal system;
- drowsiness is constantly present;
- dry skin and mucous membranes;
- deep wrinkles appear;
- loss of appetite;
- there is anxiety and fear of the night.
The longer unwanted nightly rises continue, the worse for the body.. In addition, a person subconsciously begins to wait for them and thus involuntarily sets his “internal alarm clock” on this clock. And sometimes, to turn it off, you have to resort to neuro-linguistic therapy or hypnosis.
What to do?
Since the psychological state directly affects our sleep, do not panic. Often you can normalize it, even if you just pay attention to the mood with which you go to bed.
First of all, try to calmly analyze why you wake up at night. Perhaps you are tormented by anxious thoughts about an unresolved problem or conflict situation. Or maybe you just feel uncomfortable sleeping, so:
- check if there is enough air in the room, and make it a habit to ventilate the bedroom;
- create a calm environment for yourself - you need to sleep in darkness and silence;
- master the elementary techniques of psychotherapy: auto-training, meditation;
- come up with a pleasant ritual that precedes falling asleep: a bath, a foot or head massage, aromatherapy;
- learn to let go of bad and disturbing thoughts before going to bed - better dream about something pleasant;
- try to master relaxing yoga exercises and relaxing breathing;
- if you can't sleep without a night light, buy a model with a timer so that it turns off some time after falling asleep.
But the main thing - do not start the problem! If night awakenings occur more often than 2-3 times a month, this is already a cause for concern and consultation with specialists.
There are no unsolvable problems, and even if there are chronic diseases sleep can be improved. There will be no result only if you do not take any action to protect your own body and nervous system from gradual destruction due to regular lack of sleep.
There are many reasons why a person wakes up in the middle of the night. In particular difficult situations you need to consult a doctor who treats sleep disorders. But this is not always necessary, because the reason may lie in the psychological characteristics of a person.
If there are certain problems, then interruptions in sleep can occur periodically, which negatively affects general condition and human performance in the daytime. After a sleepless night, there is a need to “cheer up”. The methods of shaking the body, recommended, of course, help, but their constant use can adversely affect health.
To solve the “sleepy problem”, first of all, you should learn to negotiate with your body. Not every person tries to realize such a task. Many strive to communicate with other people, and communication with oneself is more like complaining of the category “Well, why am I doing this?”. But this is destructive, because all bad behaviors are reinforced. In psychology, there is such a thing as secondary benefit. It consists in the following. A person tells others how bad he is, they pity him, pat him on the head.
And this attention is addictive. After all, everyone needs attention. Such an attitude is very captivating, and therefore they are addicted to it, like a drug. And then everything ends badly. So the fact that a person wakes up in the middle of the night is also a topic for conversation, which becomes just a salvation for a person. So what should you do to stop waking up in the middle of the night?
1. Take a sedative. Moreover, if sleep problems are systematic, then it is better to drink a course of sedatives.
2. Learn to hear the body. Very often a person does not pay attention to the moment when the body is set to go to bed. And when a person tries to sleep, it's already too late. It is necessary not to miss this moment of light drowsiness, and then the person will be immersed in correct dreams.
3. Get tired. Just be careful - severe fatigue makes sleep even more difficult.
4. Go to bed and get up always at the same time. Nobody canceled biorhythms yet.
5. Program yourself for a certain number of hours of sleep. So mentally and say that you will wake up yourself in 8 hours. Quite an effective technique.
6. Go to bed on a full stomach and drink enough water. Then everything you need for sleep will already be there.
7. Go to bed in a good mood. Serotonin is the basis for the production of the sleep hormone.
8. Go in for sports. Physical activity leads nervous system in tone and increase the amount of the same serotonin.
9. Let the thought fly freely. You don't have to think about your life. Let it think for itself. It is this principle that dreams have.
10. Don't think about sleep. Interesting fact the less you try to fall asleep by getting up in the middle of the night, the faster it happens.
These ten recommendations will help you forget about sleep problems forever if you follow them. It seems to be simple, but in practice this is not always the case. However, I would like to wish you pleasant dreams. What if you try to put the tips in this article into practice right after reading this article?
The usual story - you haven't had enough sleep for three days and this time you decided to go to bed early. You go to bed at ten o'clock in the evening, hoping to get a good night's sleep, but suddenly you wake up at two in the morning. not in one eye, you lie and stare at the ceiling, trying to fall asleep again. It takes two hours before you fall asleep again, and then almost immediately the alarm goes off and you're sleep deprived again and feel disgusting.
Causes of night awakenings
There are many reasons, both external and internal, for which a person may suffer from sudden nocturnal awakenings.
Common external causes include street noise, too much light in the bedroom, inappropriate temperatures (too warm or too cold), pets nestling in your bed, an uncomfortable mattress, or a baby who wakes up and comes into your room.
The internal causes of sleep are also varied and depend on many parameters.
Gender and age
The older a person gets, the more often he suffers from interrupted night sleep. Elderly people often take a nap during the day and wake up in the middle of the night.
Young women experience nocturnal awakenings associated with the menstrual cycle: just before the onset of menstruation.
Pregnant women wake up at night for a variety of reasons: swollen legs, back pain, frequent urination, heartburn, and fetal movements.
2. Don't take a nap. If you sleep during the day, it takes hours away from your nighttime sleep. But if you really want to, you can take a nap no more than 20 minutes before 14:00 - this time is quite enough to relax and gain strength.
3. Limit your intake of alcohol and nicotine, fluids and heavy foods, and avoid physical activity at least three hours before bedtime. All this can provoke a sudden nighttime awakening.
4. Don't Caffeine Eight Hours Before Bed. not only prevents you from falling asleep, but can also cause you to wake up at night.
5. Don't lie in bed if you can't sleep. Get up, walk around the rooms, do something quiet and calm in dim lighting (do not turn on your smartphone or computer). Here are things to do if you can't sleep. Return to bed only when you feel sleepy.
When you count how many hours are left before the alarm goes off, you get nervous and worried, which, in turn, makes it even more difficult for you to fall asleep.
Susan/flickr.com 7. Learn to control stress and anxiety. Try some relaxation exercises before heading to bed. For example, take up meditation. Avoid stressful conversations and situations a few hours before bedtime.
8. Keep your bedroom dark, quiet and cool. Make sure nothing wakes you up in the middle of the night. If noise can bother you, buy earplugs or find a quiet, monotonous noise source. If the light interferes, the good ones will help blackout curtains or an eye patch.
How do you deal with nighttime awakenings?
Frequent nocturnal awakenings are as much a sleep disorder as insomnia. Especially, this problem is often found, and can also be present with neurological, mental and general somatic abnormalities. Frequent, two or more awakenings per night are considered.
Types of sleep disorders
There are several types of sleep disorders. It is difficult for someone to fall asleep, others have frequent awakenings at night, and still others like to sleep a lot. Doctors distinguish such violations:
- Hypersomnia - the desire to sleep an excessive number of hours;
- Insomnia - lack of sleep, nocturnal awakenings, difficulty falling asleep;
- Parasomnia is a sleep disorder.
Of these pathologies, insomnia is the most common.
Why do nighttime awakenings occur?
“I often wake up at night and then I can’t sleep” is one of the most common complaints in the somnologist’s office. The reasons can be both external and internal. There are many more internal causes, intermittent sleep. They can be both physiological and pathological. For example, sleep with frequent awakenings is more typical for older people. With age, a person tends to take more naps during the day, which affects the quality of sleep at night.
From external causes, partner snoring, street noise, excess light, high or low air temperature, and noise from pets are distinguished. An uncomfortable mattress or pillow can interfere with sleep. In addition, if the child began to wake up at night, it will interfere with the sleep of parents.
In addition, nocturnal awakenings are typical for young women just before menstruation. Intermittent sleep is also present among the problems of pregnant women. Here are a few reasons why this happens:
- backache;
- swelling in the legs;
- heartburn;
- violent movements of the fetus;
- frequent urination and other reasons.
Finally, frequent nocturnal awakenings begin to torment women in menopause. Patients experience excessive sweating, anxiety, stress, tachycardia, fever, etc.
Diseases and medications as a factor in sleep disturbance
If you often wake up at night, this may be due to the presence of some kind of pathology or taking a number of medications. It is recommended to consult with your doctor to find out if you have apnea. It is sudden that leads to awakening. This is a serious enough problem that needs to be treated.
Also interferes healthy sleep chronic pain from arthritis, fibromyalgia and other diseases. But intermittent sleep in infants may be associated with the growth of teeth or other processes in the body.
Many periodically wake up at night due to the urge to go to the toilet. But if they are too frequent, this indicates some kind of pathology, for the elimination of which it is necessary to consult a doctor. It could be kidney disease diabetes, diseases of the thyroid gland, problems of the heart, lungs, etc.
As for drugs, diuretics, as well as beta-blockers, significantly worsen sleep.
Mental causes of poor sleep
If the patient experiences depression, anxiety, stress, this is accompanied by insomnia. In a milder form, there are sudden awakenings at night. At first, this does not cause alarm, but there comes a time when you need to see a doctor.
To understand exactly when this should be done, it is recommended to apply the so-called rule of three. So, it is imperative to visit a doctor if awakenings at night are observed at least three times a week, they last for half an hour or more, and this problem does not go anywhere for a month.
How to deal with night awakenings
The problem of intermittent sleep must be addressed comprehensively. General therapy includes taking medications, using traditional recipes, as well as non-drug approaches. Let's start with the latter. It is recommended that you follow the following tips to beat nighttime awakenings on your own:
- Spend limited time in bed. There is an opinion that the more time a person is in bed, the less he sleeps. But in fact, the body redistributes its forces and begins to wake up in the middle of the night. Therefore, you need to sleep a normal number of hours. Start going to bed an hour later or waking up an hour earlier.
- Eliminate sleep during the day. Those hours that are spent in napping during the day are then taken away from a healthy night's rest.
- Eliminate smoking and drinking alcohol. In addition, it is recommended not to eat heavy meals and various liquids at least 3 hours before bedtime. The intake of these products in the body often causes interrupted sleep at night.
- Eliminate the use of coffee in the next 8 hours before bedtime. The caffeine it contains prevents falling asleep and can also cause awakenings at night.
- Do not lie down for a long time without sleep at night. It is better to walk around the room, do a quiet thing (but not sit on the phone or computer, because the blue rays of light have an invigorating effect on the human body) until drowsiness occurs in the body again.
- Don't watch the time if you can't sleep. If at night the patient counts how many hours are left before the alarm goes off, this can cause him nervous strain. Instead, it’s better to relax and try to fall asleep instantly, this is where the quick fall asleep technique will help you.
- You need to deal with anxiety and stress. It is recommended to do relaxing exercises before going to bed, avoid watching movies, tense conversations, so that the mind is completely calm and prepared for sleep.
- Prepare your bedroom. This room should be moderately cool, quiet, dark. All must be avoided external factors that can wake you up at night. This could be a noise source (such as a loud clock) or a light.
In pharmacy chains, you can buy a lot of drugs for insomnia. They are sold in tablets, capsules, drops, solutions. So, the following medications improve sleep:
- Novo-passit. This is a combination herbal remedy. It has a calming effect, eliminates anxiety, nervous condition, making it easier for the patient to fall asleep. Novo-Passit is one of the drugs of choice for the treatment of this form of insomnia.
- Phytosed is another herbal sedative that has a mild hypnotic effect.
- Valocordin, Corvalol - drops that, although they do not have a hypnotic effect, but they eliminate anxiety, which increases the likelihood of falling asleep faster.
- Motherwort Forte. These tablets contain a plant extract enriched with vitamin B6 and magnesium. Thanks to this, a person becomes less irritable, calm, peaceful, which makes falling asleep an easier task. Motherwort also reduces the problem of light sleep.
- Donormil - tablets that increase the duration of sleep.
- Melatonin is a hormone-like agent needed to restore normal sleep regulation. As you know, melatonin is produced by the body and regulates the sleep-wake cycle. With its shortage, a synthetic drug is used that restores the normal rhythm of life.
herbal recipes for insomnia
If sleep problems are mild, some herbs can help with them. They make infusions, decoctions and others folk recipes. So, for the treatment of intermittent sleep, the following plants are used:
- motherwort;
- valerian;
- Melissa;
- mint;
- oregano;
- lavender.
Fees of these plants can be prepared by yourself or bought ready-made in a pharmacy. To prepare the infusion take 2 tbsp. spoons of raw materials and insist in a glass of boiling water in a water bath for 15-30 minutes. After that, cool for about 45 minutes. Before use, the product is filtered. You need to drink it three times a day, making the last dose 40 minutes before bedtime. Such infusions will not only remove the problem of waking up at night, but will also make sleep deeper and less sensitive. Be sure to read the instructions for use in case of contraindications.
Friends, good afternoon. How is your sleep? Strong, do not wake up? So I wake up at four o'clock in the morning, and God forbid, if I have a pokemar for an hour before the alarm clock.
I'm starting a little educational program on the topic of sleep. Today it will be the first part: “Awakening in the middle of sleep, part one: causes”, the second part will be: “Phases of sleep, or about sleep in a scientific way”, and the final part of my “trilogy”: “Night awakenings - how to deal with it”. To whom the topic of sleep is interesting, please read it with a subsequent discussion. For people like me “lack of sleep”, dedicated.
CAUSES OF NIGHT WAKEUP
There are several sleep disorders, but they can definitely be divided into four types:
- Long time falling asleep;
- Woke up at night and can't fall asleep for a long time;
- Superficial sleep, lacking deep sleep phases;
- Mixed sleep disorder (i.e. any combination of the top items).
I will write about the theories of sleep, the phases of dreams and night chemistry next time, but today I will simply list the main reasons that cause problems with sleep and falling asleep.
Such a genetic type or such a deformed
I have two little sons, weather. And they are so different - both in appearance and in character, and they even sleep differently. The eldest, Yaroslav, goes to bed early and sleeps soundly, and the youngest, Makar, falls asleep hard and sleeps restlessly. One family, one parents, but our children are different.
And this is how every parent of two or more children will answer you, and, in my opinion, it's not just about genes.
I am firmly convinced that each person comes into this world already with his own character, with his own set of preferences, temperament and his own imprint of personality. This “personal set” also includes a predisposition to sleep, which, if it is not disturbed (by illness, stress, lifestyle or other factors), will continue to favor the type of sleep that was received at birth.
It looks like a predisposition to be overweight. And if it is, then usually for life.
For example, I have always, as far as I can remember, slept badly and sensitively. For me, waking up in the middle of the night is a common thing, and falling asleep for a long time is also not a wonder, but all because I was born so “sensitive”.
Yes, maybe genes decide a lot, but I also know such cases when calm, and even phlegmatic parents had a child “with an awl in the pope”. On the other hand, a “powerful gene” can also be inherited from a distant ancestor, however, this is another story.
CONCLUSION - EVERYONE IS BORN WITH A PREDISPOSITION TO A CERTAIN TYPE OF FALLING AND SLEEP, AND IT IS USUALLY RETAINED FOR ALL LIFE
.Violated biorhythms
This is especially true for people who work different shifts. The beat of the human biorhythm has been developed over many centuries. Ideally, we should go to bed and get up in the sun, in practice the situation is different.
Artificial lighting, different daily shifts at work, changing time zones - all this confuses our internal clock.
Melatonin, the sleep hormone, is produced only in the dark, but complete darkness is difficult to achieve in today's world. The light of lanterns, the light of power indicators, the headlights of passing cars - all this interferes with the production of melatonin and knocks down sleep phases.
INTERESTING:
“Experiments on laboratory animals showed that with a lack of melatonin caused by the removal of receptors, animals began to age faster: menopause began earlier, free radical cell damage accumulated, insulin sensitivity decreased, obesity and cancer developed.”
Stress, nervousness, phobia and other panic conditions
All this is familiar to everyone. Nervous - you sleep badly, got scared - stopped sleeping altogether. By the way, not everyone knows, but violent experiences of joy are also akin to stress and can also prevent you from falling asleep.
Modern man is not like the ancient one - he worries about every reason. The war in Syria, the neighbor looked not kindly, where to buy the latest iPhone model - what a dream, when there is a cocktail of information and experiences in my head.
By the way, an overabundance of information is the next item in my “nightmare”.
The less you know - you sleep better or a lot of information at night is dangerous
This proverb can be taken in two ways. On the one hand, those who know less secrets will not be pestered by unnecessary questions, on the other hand, the less information at night, the stronger and calmer the sleep will be. In any case, absolutely true.
Yes, something, something, and information pours on each of us like water from a tub.
Advertising, dissertation, studies, politics, music - there is a lot of any information, especially at night.
Did you have this? You listen to songs until late, and then, like a fool, you sing them to yourself until the morning? Was? This is information overload.
The most detrimental to normal sleep is watching TV and working on a computer.
Alcohol, drugs, coffee and other, other, other ...
Everything that stimulates and aggressively affects the nerves, psyche and brain - all this, directly and negatively, affects the quantity and quality of sleep.
And if coffee or a tablet of Ginseng simply disturbs sleep, then a hangover or withdrawal is, at best, a torn dream with elements of a nightmare, and at worst, delirium tremens or chronic insomnia.
Stuffy, hot and the blanket biting
Try to sleep in a cool room, and preferably in a sleeping bag in the fresh air - you will definitely sleep soundly.
Conversely, heat, stale air, or simply an uncomfortable mattress can disrupt sleep and increase the time it takes to fall asleep.
Thyrotoxicosis, restless leg syndrome, reflux, and other diseases or health problems
It is no secret that many diseases affect the course of sleep. However, they do not always cause insomnia, sometimes they cause drowsiness.
If you suddenly have insomnia, and you don’t see any particular causes of insomnia, consult a doctor, because there are many hormonal disorders or diseases that are accompanied by sleep disturbance.
Inner chatter is the most common enemy of deep sleep.
However, not only falling asleep, but also night awakenings. I myself noticed that there are times when in the evening you just fall into a deep sleep, and at night you wake up from an internal dialogue and cannot fall asleep for a long time.
FROM PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS
The internal dialogue definitely intensifies against the background of internal experiences or informational overexcitation, but it also happens that internal chatter is activated out of the blue.
As a tip, turn your attention to the surrounding space, for example, listen to the ticking of the clock and the AT will subside.
Two theories of nocturnal awakenings - esoteric and Chinese
Believe it or not, it's up to everyone to decide, but I'm writing just in case.
Esoteric Theory of Awakenings
Some esotericists argue that night awakenings are a sign that higher powers want to tell you something.
Chinese teaching
According to centuries-old Chinese medicine, each human organ is activated at a certain time of the day.
Depending on the time of waking up, you can find out which meridian (organ) is activated at that time, and thanks to this you can find out that a “malfunction” is hidden in this organ.
Full bladder and harsh sound. Waking up from this is normal.
This is a normal motive to wake up in order to empty your bladder. It’s another matter if after such a trip to the toilet you can’t fall asleep for a long time, but that’s another story.
Hypodynamia and sleep
Everything is a good standard. Lack of physical activity, however, as well as its excess, especially in the evening, cause a person to have difficulty falling asleep.
Age
Age changes are normal. With age, both the structure of sleep and the timing of the phases change. That is why insomnia most of all torments people at a respectable age.
RESULTS OF THE FIRST PART
There are many reasons for sleep disorders. Some of them are natural, others are episodic, but there are also those that indicate serious disorders in the psyche, health, or indicate an incorrect lifestyle.
Next time I will talk about the nature and chemistry of sleep.
See you again in the heading "".
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