I keep waking up at 5am every morning!

[LadySparksWitch]

It’s doing my head in. I’m so tired. I wake up at 5 and can’t get back to sleep.
Went to bed about 10:30pm. What’s going on?! Is there any way I can change this? It’s really making me miserable. My DH’s alarm goes off at 6 so I’m just lying awake waiting for it to go off.

Yeah, me too. I'm sure its perimenopause. I just get up and get a head start on my day.

Go and look at the sky! It’s a beautiful time of day ☺️

Me too
and I love it
unload dishwasher, listen to radio, have coffee and mumsnet for a bit. All in peace. Lovely

Me too, though mostly because of my 3 year old 😂

That’s 60 minutes to yourself - have your tea/coffee in peace and enjoy the extra time!

I feel your pain. I wake at 3am every morning. Occasionally able to doze but normally thats it, im awake.
Constantly tired, tried everything including sleep therapy and sleep courses. Oh, and sleeping pills. Still wake at 3am. After 8 yrs of this my body actually copes pretty well....it almost adjusts to less sleep. But I'd still kill for 8 hours of sleep 😴

It black and cloudy, not much to look at in December 😅

Also an early riser, I make the most of a quiet tea and read of my book before the crazy starts.

Quoted the wrong person 🤣

There is something bothering you or it might be hormonal.
It happens to me too.

Same except for me it’s 3am. I lie in bed trying to sleep for a bit then doing a body scan meditation then give in and get up around 5. I do actually love getting up before everyone else now and sitting in quiet with my cup of tea but 3am can fuck off. Sometimes I think I’ve successfully gone back to sleep but actually only ten minutes have passed!

Same. It's irritating.

I do because I’m peri. Any time from 3 onwards. I struggled with it for ages but now embrace it, I’m in bed by ten at the latest and go to the gym three times a week.

You could come and look after my toddler if you like, he appears to have the same issue 😂

I would say make sure you are in bed lights out by 10pm every single day and also do some exercise every day if you don't already. Those are the two things that help me the most to not wake up at 5.

I’m a 4am waker. Also peri. It’s driving me mad. I lie there for ages before giving up and scroll on my phone before going downstairs. Occasionally I might get back to sleep but only about 20 mins before I need to get up at 6am.

HRT and ashwagandha have helped me but only so much. I go to bed early and have afternoon naps. Tend to wake up early no matter how late a night I have had. I try not to pick up the phone and sometimes do fall back to sleep.

Me too.

I've tried most things to drop back off, but nothing works.

Solidarity.

I'm another 3 am waker, so 5 am would seem like luxury! But it isn't nice if it's getting you down.

Can you use the time productively rather than hating it because unfortunately it might be with you for a long while.
Strangely I am less tired if I've done a task or two.

Get to bed earlier, I know it sounds shit to say that but we have done this in our house. Dh is now out of the house at 5.55am so he gets up at 5.30am and is quiet as a mouse but I have a light alarm come on at 5.45 to rouse me. We have shifted our dinner to half an hour earlier and are strict with coming up to bed and lights out before 10.

Sleep is massively important, see if coming to bed a bit earlier helps with the quantity of sleep. If you are naturally waking at 5am it might also be noise from outside your house. To get more sleep you need to try to get to bed earlier.

I don’t know where you are at, but it’s dark. Sunrise isn’t until nearly 8am at the moment.

At the moment I am grateful when I don’t wake up until 5am as sometimes I can wake at 2am and don’t go back to sleep. Other times I wake at a more normal time. I am post meno on HRT and I have had a decade of rubbish sleep.

I now tend to get up and settle down on the sofa and just go with the flow, I normally end up resting even if I don’t go back to sleep which is better than tossing and turning and getting frustrated.

We figured out the heating was coming on around 5 and waking us.

I’ve had it in different times of the year and it was stress related insomnia. I’m also naturally an early bird so if I fall asleep at 9 Im naturally up for the day at 5.

@TelephoneWires have you tried cutting the naps out?

I sleep better if I don’t nap, although sometimes napping is unavoidable.

I put my radio on - usually Radio 4 Extra as I find the speech stops my brain from whirring and sometimes soothes me back to sleep for a bit.
One ear bud is usually enough; less compelling than two so more likely to drift off.

I don’t think I’m in peri or menopause as I’m 36.
I do have ADHD and Autism. I’ve always struggled with my sleep but this recent waking at 5 and not getting back to sleep is doing me in.

So do I. I just get up though.