Why do I always wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning wide awake?

Question

I'm tired as hell, I know I am. I usually go to bed around 9 since I have to get up early, wake up again around 12, then again at 2, and at 4...but when I wake up at 4, I'm awake for a good couple hours before I finally go back to sleep, (usually around 6). Why does my body keep doing this? I could be getting hte best night's sleep but still have to permanently wake up at 4.

Tonight I went to bed around 10 and here I am, awake at 4. I mean, I wake up on average 5-6 times a night but for some reason I just can't stay asleep around this time. Help?

Answer 1

You have to reset your internal body biological clock to go to bed early and wake up early at that scheduled time. Another reason for disrupted sleep might be that you are worried about something. If you wake up during the night, do not look at the clock.

Try the following techniques for a quality sleep : leaving you feeling refreshed and alert the following day.

Tips for getting back to sleep
-Try visualization. Focus all your attention on your toes or visualize walking down an endless stairwell. Thinking about repetitive or mindless things will help your brain to shut down and adjust to sleep.
-Get out of bed if unable to sleep. Don’t lie in bed awake. Go into another room and do something relaxing until you feel sleepy.
- Worrying about falling asleep actually keeps many people awake.
-Don't do anything stimulating. Don't read anything job-related or watch a stimulating TV program (commercials and news shows tend to be alerting).
-Don't expose yourself to bright light. The light gives cues to your brain that it is time to wake up.
-Get up and eat some turkey. Turkey contains tryptophan, a major building block for making serotonin, a neurotransmitter, which sends messages between nerve cells and causes feelings of sleepiness. Note that L-tryptophan doesn't act on the brain unless you eat it on an empty stomach with no protein present, so keep some turkey in the refrigerator for 3am.
-Consider changing your bedtime. If you are experiencing sleeplessness or insomnia consistently, think about going to bed later so that the time you spend in bed is spent sleeping. If you are only getting five hours of sleep at night, figure out what time you need to get up and subtract five hours (for example, if you want to get up at 6:00 am, go to bed at 1:00 am). This may seem counterproductive and, at first, you may be depriving yourself of some sleep, but it can help train your body to sleep consistently while in bed. When you are spending all of your time in bed sleeping, you can gradually sleep more, by adding 15 minutes at a time.

Answer 2

How long has this been going on? Have you had any unusual emotional/physical stresses recently? It sounds like you have some symptoms of insomnia- difficulty maintaining a prolonged period of sleep as well as difficulty falling asleep (prolonged sleep latency). These both cut seriously into your total sleep time and have a big effect on whether your sleep is restorative or not.

I am currently doing research on insomnia and which treatment options that are available to you work best.

I have reviewed several studies published comparing pharmacotherapy (prescription sleeping drugs), cognitive behavioral therapy (changing your habits and mental associations with sleep or where you sleep, whether you exercise sufficiently, etc), a combination of these two, and placebo (taking a 'fake' pill that resembles a sleeping pill and is 'prescribed' but is actually no more than sugar).

For your knowledge, placebo is found to have been least effective among all available options (as you could expect). Drug therapy has positive effects in the short term, but if problems persist following cessation of medication, this option is obviously not suggested and can become very expensive as a long-term treatment. Not to mention that side-effects associated with sleeping aid medications are generally adverse and can be very undesirable. Cognitive behavioral therapy has shown great success in dealing with insomnia in the short term, and as a long-term treatment, is the most effective. However, it can be expensive at first as it requires that you visit a specialist for an instructional meeting at least once or twice and requires discipline on your part; you need to make sure you follow what is suggested to you. Surprisingly a combination of CBT and pharmacotherapy is not most effective in either the short or long-term. The benefit of CBT is great short and long-term effectiveness, not having to take drugs, no adverse side effects (and depending on your course of prescribed action, can actually have positive side effects), and improved general health.

You should see your doctor about this problem if it persists and has significant impact on your life (which it seems to). Ask your physician about these courses of treatment (except placebo, this is a baseline used in studies to determine whether the drugs have any effect whatsoever via psychologically making a patient think they are on the drug and observing outcomes. Your knowing that you're taking a placebo is worthless- besides, they're not prescribed!)

Hope this helped!

PS thanks for your answer on my nail biting question ; )

Answer 3

Don't ever take the sleeping pills route!!

1. They will damage your liver big time and you can get into serious health problems.

2. You will get hooked up on them and you won't be able to have a normal life any more if you don't take your pills everyday.

The sleeping pills industry is damaging our health by capitalizing on our ignorance, and by distracting people from effective and natural ways to deal with this problem. I had been taking prescription sleep medications [Ambien] for over 5 years. It stopped working and I simply took more. Still did not work. Nights were very difficult - medication put me to sleep but I would wake up after 2–3 hours with a strong sympathetic response (fast pulse, pounding heartbeat, wide awake alert). It was a very difficult cycle to break. I was really in bad shape due to lack of sleep.

After years of struggling I was able to cure my insomnia naturally and pretty fast. I followed the Sleep Tracks sleep optimization program, here is their official web -site if you want to take a look: http://www.insomniacure.net

Ohhh..and Good Luck!

Answer 4

Well, how are you in general? How long has it been going on? How do you feel when you wake up early: tired, alert, anxious, sad? It could be an adjustment problem: maybe something is going on in your life now that is making it hard for you to deal with stuff; or maybe it's some deep underlying thing. It's not something you can figure out without talking to a professional counselor personally.

Answer 5

I'm the same way!
You should go to the doctor, you could probably get some sleeping medication.
I would get it, but I'm sick of medicine and I dont mind being awake.

Also try more exercise during the day. Dont eat before bed either.

Answer 6

its just your internal clock saying that your body has had enough sleep to last you te day, being tired can just be a result of over sleep. that can drain your energy and make you tired. talk to you doctor about this if it's bothering you that much, but i wouldnt be worried about it, if you wake up at 4 then get yourself dressed and go out and do something like exercise or go for a walk, then come home take a shower and get yourself ready for the day. =)

Answer 7

yikes 4's tough. i usually cant ever sleep past 7 no matter what time i go to bed, or even more often i wake up exactly when my alarm clock would go off at 6:20, even tho i dont set it. you could just have a very strict body clock, try going to bed earlier, hope you get some sleep :)

Answer 8

It's your body clock saying "hello, like I've had sufficient sleep for 7 hours, lets get going!"
Why not try going to bed at 10.30 and waking 7 hours later?

Answer 9

just your natural alarm clock... get out of bed when you wake up at four, get dressed, put your shoes on and exercise for an hour. shower, then go back to bed... if you dont fall right to sleep, start your day. you'll be out by 8 or 9... and up again at 4 the next day!

Answer 10

sounds like a 420 diagnosis is needed