You Can't Fall Asleep At Night, Or You Wake Up Super Early - what do you do?

I’m thinking…switch to decaf :grin:

I rarely ever get up in the night to pee and am 90% decaf myself. I have caffeine occasionally, but it often makes my heart race, which makes me anxious, which makes my heart race more, so it’s just easier to not have caffeine. Bonus is I don’t need to pee at night.

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I can so relate. I probably get up at least 3 times on a normal night, and that doesn’t include the time I get up after reading, right before I turn off the iPad.

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It doesn’t help that H gets up more than me. And that wakes me up. In our cases it isn’t as much the caffeine as much as the volume of liquid we drink. I’d estimate 1.5 gallons of fluid a day per person.

And I’m so weird about going to the bathroom. It HAS to be the LAST thing I do before hopping in bed, or I cant sleep until I go again. I can’t even put in ear plugs laying in bed or put on chapstick. So if I wake up and have the slightest urge, I have to get up and go. Otherwise I won’t go back to sleep until I do.

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Sleep stories on the Calm App. They are WONDERFUL— better than a sleeping pill. If I wake up in the middle of the night, which I do often, I put in my AirPods and listen to one of my favorite stories on the app. The only problem is, I never get to hear the end of the stories, because I’ve fallen asleep.

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When I wake up having to pee, I try to get up and do the deed ASAP. I try not to turn on the light, just sit down and do it, and right back to bed. If I go back to sleep, my dreams will get more and more anxious. Better to get it over with.

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Lol, we are all wandering to the bathroom at night with our eyes closed and scaling the walls to the toilet to try and not wake up! :joy: :toilet:

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lol my apartment is pretty big by NYC standards but not much of a walk to the (not ensuite and only) bathroom.

If you take meds that have a diuretic effect, take them earlier in the day (yeah, I know, that’s impossible). If I take Torsemide at 5 pm, the med has worn off by bedtime (2 am). I find when I drink water in the evening instead of caffeine, I’m not getting up in the night as often.

If I can’t sleep, I come here, play Original Snood or sew. Or all three. Or more recently, I watch clips of Say Yes to the Dress. I have no idea why. It’s just mindless?

I’m up at 3am on the dot to pee every night. Most nights I can go right back to sleep. Some nights I don’t. My problem is anxiety and my brain not letting go of things. I’ve found it’s very important for me to resolve issues asap or they will bubble up at night. Same with to do lists, I will wake up worried about something I need to do but have put off. I’m pretty strict with myself about getting things done so the anxiety wake-up doesn’t happen often but when it does forget about going to sleep. My brain will just keep bringing up the issue. Awful!
If I wake up at 3 and can’t sleep after I try to just stay in bed with eyes closed til 4:30 or 5 and then get up and start the day. At 5 I’ll go downstairs, watch the sunrise and write in my journal. Sometimes I find if I have a cup of tea or even coffee I’ll fall back asleep. You’d think the caffeine would work against sleep but I think it’s having something nice and warm in my belly.
At 54 sleep is my very favorite thing. I can’t nap though, I really wish I could take just a little nap some afternoons. But I never fall asleep during the day.

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@poochie21, I find that the need to pee generates anxiety dreams. This morning I woke up at 3, my usual time, then again at 5:30 while I was having a coding dream about one of my many previous careers that ended around 1999. While I was peeing, I reminded myself that I could (did!) walk away from that job. Went back to sleep until 7:30 which was late enough to get out of bed.

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I usually come up with solutions at 4am that I couldn’t come up with during the day. My team generally get nervous whenever I say I was awake at 4 because they know they’ll get additional work. :slight_smile:
I don’t mind waking up at 2 or 3 because I could always fall back asleep. After 4am is a bit more dicey.

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I get up a lot almost every night. (We have a sleep number bed, so I can actually check the app to see the details - often twice and sometimes 3 times up… but that’s because I am retired and can sleep late.)
If I wake up needing to go and it’s only been an hour since last trip to the bathroom, I try another position to see if urge goes away. I have a second pillow, and that can help. Usually I lay on side with it between my knees. But lately I’ve tried putting it under my hips - sometimes it works.

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I know it’s not what’s usually recommended but I never get up and do other things (except use the bathroom), even read. Personally I don’t think I’d go back to sleep ever if I got up. I’m a poor sleeper but an excellent daydreamer so I lie in bed and daydream, or try to return to daydreaming when intrusive thoughts and worries try to break in. I’ll recall a good book I’ve read or the plot of a movie I liked. I’ve also found it sometimes works to put my pillows at the foot of the bed and lie that way with just a separate sheet or light blanket. As others have said, it was a breakthrough to me when my kids were young and I realized I could make it through the day anyway after a night of poor or little sleep. I’ve done that many many times. And usually the next night I sleep very soundly.

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I used to do this all the time when I was single! But I don’t want H’s nasty feet near my face, lol. But yes, that used to help me quite a bit in the old days.

For years I was a poor sleeper - I tossed and turned, had debilitating night sweats, and invariably woke less rested than when I went to bed! Following a bout of covid earlier this year,I no longer had the taste for my nightly glass of wine with dinner - I’ve never slept better, no more night sweats and no more tossing and turning. Now, I easily get 7-8 hrs of unbroken sleep most nights - on the rare occasions when I do wake, I turn over and go back to sleep!

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I do a lot of things mentioned upthread (to help fall asleep and also if I wake up at night - (which I do a lot lately):

  1. Open window (it’s cool here in east coast and makes room chilly which is supposed to help sleep).
  2. Use weighted blanket (cheapie from Target works great)
  3. Use sleep mask that has embedded blue tooth
  4. Listen to meditation music (with 10 min timer) via blue tooth mask
  5. If wake up and still can’t get back to sleep will sometimes listen to boring podcast for 20 min!
  6. Take magnesium vitamin before bed
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Was up til 5 am. Couldn’t get to sleep. Too many things whirling in my brain.

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DH is a night owl, I have been an early bird for several years. I learned 20 years ago, if I wake up in the night, just turn on a podcast or audiobook (used to be a CD on a walkman, so much easier on my. phone!) I just need to not let my busy brain engage with what I am going to do that day, focusing on book or podcast does the trick.

If I am awake at 5 and go back to sleep, I often have vivid dreams that are not restful. I try to stay in bed until 6. I’d like to get busy with my day, then, but try to remain quiet until 7-8.

Am I the only one who turns on the tv? Or takes a med?

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