

Ask HN: I've got a sleep problem, I always wake up at night - snitko

Hi, I hope someone here will really help me with a hack or a tip from their own experience. My problem is, that I can't sleep through the night and it ruins my whole next day. Say, I go to bed at midnight: then I sleep 3, maybe 4 hours at best and wake up feeling thirsty and what's worse - hungry. I obviously can't fall asleep again with that (I tried), so I have to go make some food and then it's really hard to force yourself to sleep again and I only go to bed at 8-9am and sleep through the whole day then, because I simply can't get myself to wake up. Then the next day I manage myself to go to bed at midnight again and then I wake up at 4-5am and can live the next day normally, because I had enough sleep the day before. But then the cycle continues.<p>I work at home on my own projects. I do my runs almost everyday on my treadmill for 25 mins and go to the gym. Recently I discovered how exercising positively influences the brain, the ability to learn and the mood, I've even written about it: http://romansnitko.posterous.com/how-exercise-makes-you-smarter
This book I'm talking about in the post also suggested that exercises should normalize the sleep process, but I guess that's the only effect I haven't managed to achieve so far. I also tried to google it, but only found a list of well known advices that don't work for me and posts about such problems in infants.<p>I've also ordered this book http://www.amazon.com/Promise-Sleep-Medicine-Connection-Happiness/dp/0440509017/ but it would take time to read it, so I decided to ask if someone had similar problems with sleep here and how they managed to defeat them.<p>Would highly appreciate the advices.
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frankus
I've had this problem in the past and continue to have it occasionally. I'm
not usually thirsty and/or hungry, but usually my mind will wander and I'll
start getting excited about some project I'm working on or (worse) start
worrying about something that at 3 in the morning I can't begin to do anything
about.

Here are a couple of obvious things to try (granted, they were only obvious to
me in retrospect):

\- No caffeine (not even tea/soda) after 3 in the afternoon. Better yet, no
caffeine at all is best. Counterintuitively, your body will totally wake you
up when it wants a caffeine fix.

\- No alcohol if you have to get up at any particular time the next day. It
will put you to sleep, but meanwhile your body is trying regulate itself and
will release adrenaline, which will wake you up once the alcohol wears off.

\- Likewise, no sweetened or starchy foods in the evening. This is basically
the same effect as alcohol, except that it's the sugar/starch crash that's
putting you to sleep.

\- (Never done this, but) keep a journal of when you eat, drink, caffeinate,
and sleep and see if you notice a pattern. You might find that, say, eating a
late dinner screws with your sleep.

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JimboOmega
I don't know about your weight/diet, but if I wake up hungry, it's because I
really skimped on dinner. Maybe your meal isn't big enough?

When I used to wake up early, the general reason was because of medication I
was taking - ironically to sleep (Ambien in this case). What medicines do you
take? Do you

It's also possible, as other posters have noted, that you might have any
number of conditions. Sleep apnea was a factor in my problems, but can only be
diagnosed/treated by a doctor.

And finally - though it doesn't sound like your case - it's possible you might
be trying to get more sleep than you need. Now 3-4 hours is almost certainly
not enough, but if you sleep 8+ hours some days - and you always shoot for 8 -
that might be more than you need. Try reducing your "goal" sleep time, until
your "sleep efficiency" increases (this is a classic treatment for insomnia)

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Scott_MacGregor
When you work out your burning energy (calories) and losing water through
sweat.

    
    
      1. Try eating an extra healthy snack like a cup of yogurt and a piece of fruit before you go to bed every day, like a ritual even if you’re not hungry.
    
    
      2. Your body seems to need more water to replenish what you sweat out, that’s why you’re thirsty. Try hydrating yourself more by drinking "a lot" of water starting when you get up in the morning and sipping all day long like bodybuilders do.
    

Maybe that will help.

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crocowhile
You wake up thirsty and hungry in the middle of the night? Sorry for the silly
question but are you having proper dinner at the proper time?

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gaius
It is well known that you can't sleep if your blood sugar drops too low - this
is why a mug of hot chocolate and a biscuit before bedtime works (the casein
in the milk slows the digestion of the carbs in the chocolate lowering the
GI). Athletes trying to make weight only having a protein shake before bed
often report insomnia.

The key to sleep I found is to always wake up at the same time, but only go to
sleep when tired. It takes about a week to rebalance yourself. Just don't
throw it away by partying too hard at the weekend ;-)

~~~
crocowhile
Yes clear but if the guy is having dinner at 6pm and a bunch of salty popcorns
before going to be bed, no wonder he'd wake up thirsty and hungry.

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DanielStraight
Go to a doctor. Not the most exciting answer, but there's any number of sleep
conditions you may have that a doctor can diagnose and treat.

~~~
snitko
I'm certainly considering this, but I would also like to hear from anyone who
also experienced it. Besides, It's been times, when I managed to wake up at
8am and go to bed at midnight for almost 2 months. So, I guess, there should
be something I haven't noticed yet, that influences me most and feeds the
abnormal condition.

~~~
icey
A) Go to a doctor

B) It sounds like you're chronically dehydrated. How much water do you drink a
day? Tea, coffee and soda don't count.

