Waking up during the night – the most common sleep problem that most people don’t even know they have

Do you wake up in the morning feeling more tired than you were when you went to bed? A lot of people do. But why does that happen? I mean after all, isn’t sleep supposed to make us feel better, isn’t it supposed to fill us with energy and prepare us for the challenges the new day will bring?

If your sleep isn’t doing its job, then you could be suffering from a sleep disorder. If you are, you’re probably not even aware of it (most people aren’t). In fact, it was established by the Institute of Medicine that about 1/3 of all Americans experience sleep difficulties, but of them do nothing about them, because most of them are completely unaware of their problem.

Here, we will focus on the most common sleep problem – waking up during the night.

If I wake a couple of times during the night, is this really such a big deal?

Yes, waking up during the night can be very problematic. It’s not easy to explain why this is so without including at last some theory of sleep. So here we go…

You should know that we all sleep in what is called sleep cycles. In these, about 90-minute long intervals, you go through several different stages of sleep (you probably already heard of one of these stages – the REM sleep). Since all the stages of sleep are very important (although some more than others), you should go through a full sleep cycle without interruptions.

I really can’t stress enough how important this is. In fact, waking up people in the middle of their sleep cycle (usually just before entering the REM stage) was at one time used as a form of torture while interrogating prisoners. These days, a lot of people go through the similar experiences each night – and strangely enough, most of them are not even aware of it.

Why are people waking up during the night… and what you can do about it

There are many causes why you might be waking up during the night. Some are really obvious (disturbing noise), others are not (low blood sugar, asthma medication, nutritional deficiencies). Read through the list carefully, to see if any of them apply to you.

Sound

Is different sounds are waking you up during the night, you shouldn’t ignore it. Your sleep is disturbed and you will feel more tired than you should.

Here are a couple of things that you can do.

1. Get a white noise machine – these machines generate a steady noise that drowns out the sounds from outside. Some of them generate a noise that’s similar to listening a radio between two stations, others imitate sounds of rain, ocean waves or rainforest.
2. Get earplugs
3. Talk to your family members and explain to them that you need your sleep

Alcohol

Drinking alcohol in the evening may help you fall asleep, but it will hurt the quality of your sleep. Even if you’re not actually waking up in the night, your sleep cycles will be disturbed.

Allergies

I lot of people don’t know this, but certain allergies are known to disrupt your sleep. One, that I really think should be mentioned here, is the allergy (or intolerance) to cow’s milk. It is very common and a lot of people suffer from such a mild form, that they don’t even know it. Plus, it is a very common thing to have a glass of milk in the evening to help you fall asleep (click here if you’re having problems falling asleep).

In some cases people stop drinking milk and that alone was enough for them to stop waking up during the night. This increased the quality of their sleep and they started waking up refreshed again.

Because this allergy is so common, it wouldn’t hurt you to check if it’s affecting you as well. Stop drinking milk for a couple of days and see if it has any effect.

Medications

Certain medications have been known to cause sleep problems. These include asthma medication, sleeping pills, hormones, antihypertensives, and many others. If you are taking any pills on regular basis, you should consult with your doctor.

Low blood sugar

A lot of people, who suffer from poor sleep, also suffer from low blood sugar or hypoglycemia. If you have low blood sugar this will trigger production of several brain chemicals which then cause secretion of adrenaline and cortisone. This will make you become alert.

If this happens in the night, you will wake up and will not be able to fall back asleep. If you’re waking up at the same time every night, it’s a good idea to go see your doctor – you might be suffering from hypoglycemia.

Nutritional deficiency

The most common nutritional deficiency that could prevent you from getting a good night’s rest is magnesium deficiency. In one study 200 patients suffering from insomnia start taking magnesium supplements and 99 of them reported improvement. That’s almost half of them. So having more magnesium in your diet might help you sleep better. Magnesium is found in tomatoes, spinach, soybeans, almonds, cashews, Brazil nuts, beans, buckwheat flour, barley, artichokes…

Being low in iron will also hurt your sleep. If you think that could be the cause, make sure you see your doctor before starting taking any supplements. You have to be checked first to see if you actually are low in iron!

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid, needed in you body’s production of serotonin, a brain chemical that helps us sleep. If you don’t get enough tryptophan in your diet, your body will not be able to produce it in any other way. So make sure your diet includes enough of cow’s milk, turkey, tuna, poultry meat, fish, beef, eggs, nuts, brown rice, cheese… All of these are rich in tryptophan.

In order for our body to convert tryptophan into serotonin we will also need vitamin B6. You can find it in salmon, bananas, fortified cereal, turkey, chicken, spinach, hazelnuts…

Various sleep disorders

For more information on sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome and narcolepsy follow this link: Sleep Disorders

Other causes of poor sleep are…

Other most common reasons why your sleep isn’t as effective as it might be are

• Stress – if you are living under constant stress, your sleep will be affected
• Bedroom temperature - Sleep experts say that the temperature should be between 60° and 65°F (15°-18°C). For babies, it is better to keep the temperature at 65°F.
• Exercising late in the evening – this would overexcite your body and you won’t be able to fall asleep
• Not exercising at all – it has been proven that inadequate exercise contributes to poor sleep
  

Conclusion

I hope this information will help you to improve your sleep and start waking up more refreshed. If you have troubles falling asleep this link should provide you with the information that you need.