Waking up in the middle of the night

[zzzz1]

Does any else have this behavior? Ever since high school, a long time ago since I'm 66 now I often wake up in the middle of the night and predominately at 3AM in the morning. Sometimes I can go back to sleep after a few minutes but often it is an hour or two before I get back to sleep. It does not matter when I go to sleep. Typically, I try to go to bed at the same time every evening. No remedy has any affect, I have tried them all.

[WavyDavey]

Hi @zzzz1,

Do you have any sense of what it causing you to wake up? Is it to go to the bathroom? Do you work out in the evening ever? Do you find your mind doesn't want to stop once you're awake?

I belong to a strength training community that has a lot of 40+ year old lifters. And waking up in the night or early morning is a fairly common issue reported. So you're hardly alone in this regard.

[zzzz1]

Waking up does not correlate to any cause. I just wake up. Wish I knew why. The worse part is getting back to sleep.

[propita]

You’re not overly hot or cold? Don’t have to go to the bathroom (not just pee)?

Have you thought about getting out of bed for that hour or so and doing either something relaxing or very light chores (like washing dishes or getting laundry started)?  Then go back to bed and see if you can sleep.  I’ve done this when I’ve wakened in the night.  An hour or so later and I sleep again.

[st8_oftheHeart]

but it doesn't matter if you wake in the night i do that too on a fairly regular basis, try not to let it bother you then it's not an issue - i just get up take a pee go make a cup of tea read my book for half an hour and then easily go back to sleep - if it doesn't affect your day then all is well

[baldan]

I wake up in the middle of the night because of i need to go to the bathroom, it happen almost every night, i am not so old, i am just in the early 30s.

I can go back to sleep as long as I do not make some mistake to check the phone, if i check the phone, then automatically my eyes cannot shut because maybe my brain already attracted to read the notification, the feeling to feel sleepy is gone.

Then what i do, (i need to sleep because of need to go to work in the early morning), i will try to some light exercise, something like require some energy to do that, i don't know maybe a few sit up, or get up to clean the room or whatsoever, then the feeling of tired kicks in, then i fall asleep again.

[MaynardGKrebs]

I wake up because of an age-related neurological disorder.

This has been the bane of my life for more than 10 years,

but I think I've finally solved it.

When I wake up, I reach for the night stand, open my bottle,

and take a half-dropper of CBD under my tongue.

I've only been doing this for a few days, but it's helped so far.

[lizzymac123]

Hi There

I feel for you, I waken about a dozen times during the night, as Iam a very restless sleeper.

Have been for a number of years now.

This can be very annoying sometimes. I try stay up as late as I can  usually just until after 12pm

I have found I get very tired about 6/7 pm at night and sometimes start dozing around 9 sometimes it helps.

Liz 

[WavyDavey]

---

@MaynardGKrebs wrote:

I wake up because of an age-related neurological disorder.

This has been the bane of my life for more than 10 years,

but I think I've finally solved it.

When I wake up, I reach for the night stand, open my bottle,

and take a half-dropper of CBD under my tongue.

I've only been doing this for a few days, but it's helped so far.

---

I'm curious, have you noticed any change in your deep sleep starting this?

[Carolina4]

This happened to me sometimes. When I see bad dreams I ultimately wake up and can't sleep the rest of the night. 

[MaynardGKrebs]

My deep sleep is more continuous, and even when I get the same amount of total sleep I feel more rested.

[MaynardGKrebs]

If you want some tips on how to get better sleep, including night awakenings, I've put together a web page of the stuff I've learned:

        https://www.thusness.com/sleep.html

[tahfit]

When I was younger I slept straight through the night and never seemed to move.  As an older adult (I am now 80), I never, ever have trouble falling asleep but do go through periods of time when I awaken in the middle of the night and have difficulty going back to sleep.  I just do not try to.  I get up, drink some water and sometimes eat something light.  If this does not work, I put on one my tapes from The Teaching Company.  It ALWAYs works.  Within a few sentences, I am asleep and do not awaken until my regular wake up time.  I do not know why this works.  Perhaps, I stay awake because too many thoughts are racing through my mind and listening to these tapes drown them out.

[tahfit]

Read your sleep suggestions.  They are very practical and should help.  Read Reply 13 of 13 for something not on your list which works for me.  Why it works, I do not know.  But I do offer a suggestion for its usefulness, at least to me.

[SunsetRunner]

How much do you eat for dinner and how much time do you leave after eating dinner before going to sleep? I always wake up in the middle of the night but can generally get back to sleep fairly quickly. But I find that if I eat too much for dinner or too close to bed time (less than 3 hours), it takes me 2-3 hours to get back to sleep after waking up. Bit counter-intuitive because one does feel a bit sleepy after a big meal, but if your body is busy digesting it will impact your sleep.

[alyceclover]

I am 70. I have been waking at 3AM for many years. When that happens I can not fall back to sleep. It was a horror when I was working, watching that clock move to 4, 5, 6 knowing I had to get up soon to get ready for work. 

I would get out of bed, turn on computer, have a cup of coffee, then was able to fall back to sleep.

It has been less years when I wake several times a night to empty bladder; but do not have trouble drifting back off to sleep for those wake ups. 

I know other people who wake at 3AM, causing me to wonder what it is about that time that causes people to wake up.