Sleeping and then getting up again - anyone else?

[prettygirlincrimsonrose]

Just wondering how normal something is. Quite often I end up waking up after a few hours sleep and then being awake in the middle of the night - this happens every few weeks. Sometimes I feel really tired quite early, I'm tired enough to go to sleep after I put kids to bed (so this is by 8.30/9.00) and then I wake up after a few hours. Other times it happens after a more normal bedtime (so sleeping say 11 - 2 and then being wide awake).

As I can't get back to sleep, I often end up getting up and doing stuff to avoid tossing and turning, ruminating etc. I've tidied/cleaned in the middle of the night, and other times I've watched films at 2.00 in the morning or got a chance to watch a series I'm into, read a book etc. It's useful time, either for getting stuff done or giving me time to do something for me, and I kind of like when it happens, but I end up with way less sleep than I need and that affects the next day.

Tonight I was so tired after reading to kids, I got into bed kidding myself I'd read my own book, dozed, woke up and then got up and I've been tidying (and chatting to DH) for last few hours - this is a bit unusual as usually when this happens I'm up on my own. I know I need more sleep but I feel too awake now. Anyone else do something similar?

Yes it's a thing - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep#:~:text=This%20pattern%20was%20common%20in,sleep%20in%20long%20winter%20nights.

But it's not very good for you not to get enough sleep so do try to get out of the habit and maybe try some sleep podcasts or apps to get back to sleep.

It's 2.40 a.m. and I'm just about to mop the kitchen floor. I live like my cats, sleep a few hours, eat and potter about for a few hours then sleep.

People who go to bed and sleep all night don't realise how lucky they are. I wonder if you're anxious and stressed or maybe this is just the way your brain is wired. I hear you.

Thanks for that @FrodoBiggins - I like the idea I could head out and commit petty crime in the middle of the night 😂

But seriously good point and I know you're right, will explore sleep podcasts

Thank you. And yes to anxious/stressed.

Don't forget to visit neighbours and engage in sexual activity!!

Most of my neighbours are pensioners but I might try the next street. Much better than sleep podcasts.

I often wake in the middle of the night and do Wordle and catch up on jobs rather than tossing and turning in bed. I’m trying to frame it as something positive (ie extra time to get things done) rather than fretting about lack of sleep

That's the right attitude. Hope you manage to get some sleep tonight.

That's the right attitude. Hope you manage to get some sleep tonight.

This phenomenon hit me when I turned 40, and it's very hard to shake off. I'm perpetually exhausted.

Is it perimenopause? If your progesterone has dropped, then you will often randomly wake up at 3am. This is often the first sign and widely ignored

I’ve always done this! Everyone was amazed by how well I coped with night waking babies-it has its benefits!

Yes, if I go to bed too early nowadays I'll be wide awake at 2am. It definitely started in my early 40s so probably hormones.

I don't want to wake anyone so can't do anything useful, I hate it. I purposely go to bed later than I probably need so I'll definitely sleep through, as I figure midnight-6am-ish is better than 9pm-2am and then maybe 5-6am.

This happens before my period. I nibble a tiny bit of a sleeping tablet 2 nights a month but not every month. My brother leaves me a few when he visits and they last me all year. I have a job where I need to be on top so can’t afford to be tired.

Yes. I had terrible sleep it for YEARS before I realised. All the googling about menopause and sleep was about hot flushes causing sleep disruption. As I didn’t suffer from hot flushes I didn’t realise menopause was the culprit.

I'm a lifelong insomniac and my little one waking umpteen times a night didn't faze me at all. It was definitely useful 😁

I used to routinely get up in the early hours, do a couple of hours work, and go back to bed for a couple more hours.

I did this for a while, it turned out I was deficient in iron and vitamin d so once I’d sorted that out it atopped happening. I was in my 30s at the time. I ended up eating whilst I was awake and I really piled the weight on, so really bad for me. I take magnesium now which supports with more efficient sleep, I’m more restless if I stop taking it which I attribute to perimenopause.

Much more recently I have been getting up at 4am and not being able to sleep again. I'm menopausal, I work shifts, and recently I've moved, so no doubt all these things have made it worse. Because I have to take a train to work now, I catnap on the way. Probably not thr best thing for my health, but my mum says she was the same at my age (late 40s).

I came on to ask your age as perimenopause started me with waking in the middle of the night.

I'm quite anxious as a person and would struggle to get to sleep with my worries but usually found I slept through. I then started waking up randomly and not being able to get back to sleep.

I feel more at peace with it now I understand what could be causing it.

I’m often awake at 3:20am. I sometimes go back to sleep around 5/5:30 but, like today, that didn’t happen. I couldn’t imagine getting up in the middle of the night to do things though, it’s too cold!
I look on it as getting a lovely long lie-in.

I fall asleep, wake an hour or so later, then read. Sometimes I fall asleep again, others I read for hours.

It’s anxiety related, so this time, it’s been going on for a year or so. Pretty fed up with it now.

This happens to me. I just listen to a podcast and usually fall back asleep

Def do this. Four or so hours then wide away. I usually get up, make a cup of tea, go back to bed and drink it/read a bit of book. Usually go back off after an hour or two. If I lie there fretting I will never go back off.

Sorry to hear that. I'm going to send out healing, soothing thoughts.

Love some of the suggestions i.e. sex with the neighbours and petty crime. If you live in East Sussex I could come round and hit you hard with my rubber truncheon (free of charge).