How do I cure Early Waking Insomnia?!

[Curtainsdrawn]

I’m desperate!
Every morning like clockwork, I wake at 4:30am. I go to sleep at 10pm, so it’s a decent amount of sleep but not nearly enough for me, and I’m permanently exhausted. I look after two preschool DC all day, and I feel almost panicked; I NEED this extra energy that I’m somehow depriving myself of!
As soon as I start waking up I feel dread, because I just know it’s crazy early yet again.

I don’t drink alcohol or caffeine, or smoke. I don’t take any medication and I do a 30 min HIIT on YouTube every morning before the kids are up. I eat healthily and my weight is fine, so I can’t see a physical reason why this happens.

When I wake early I usually try lying for about an hour to get back to sleep (sometimes listening to calming music) but after that I give in and just read (or browse MN!) until the alarm goes off.

Has anyone cured themselves of this, or found a way to improve it?! I feel like it’s slowly killing me, I’m so so tired and it’s just torturous to wake so early and know it’ll be a tougher day yet again thanks to the fatigue.

I'm going through similar. I think it's stress in my case.

Sorry, no advice but my sympathy. I also regularly wake up before 5am (with my earliest waking up being at 2.45am! ). I try to have a relaxing evening routine and usually drop off fairly well but seem to wake up so early (it was 4.45am when I finally accepted I wasn't going back to sleep today, so probably woke at 4am). I am starting to wonder if this is just when my body wants to wake?

Same here 😭

I’m sorry I have company! Thanks for your replies; I have considered that if my body only wants six hours sleep and I want to get up at 6am, maybe I should try going to bed at midnight and see if I sleep through?! Have either of you tried this? Although I’ve been a solid eight hours for about twenty years (baby phases aside), so refuse to believe it’s suddenly become six! Plus I feel like absolute crap on this much sleep, it doesn’t feel like enough.

Stress is an interesting thought; I don’t think I’m stressed, but maybe the sleep thing stresses me out and it’s a vicious circle?!

Snap!
I’ve been awake since 4.30. I went to bed at 11. It’s not enough sleep, and it’s driving me potty

Me too. I think it's stress and worry about everything.

I'm quite sure it is stress related. I have always considered myself to be pretty laid back so it was tough for me to accept I was stressed/anxious.

I haven't tried going to sleep later - I have felt tired by about 9pm since I was a teen and really don't fancy trying to stay up past 10/10:30pm. I'd probably still wake at 4am and have even less sleep!

I'm awake stupidly (and unnecessarily) early because I forgot (again) to reset the timer on the central heating. The creaking pipes and humming has woken me up. Ditto yesterday.

Last year I was waking up like clockwork every day at 6 (no need to get up until 7 and kids usually wake at 7 too) and couldn't work out why. It went on for months. Then one day on the school run, another mum from my road mentioned her neighbour had nearly come to blows with another neighbour about their adult child. Adult child was leaving for work at 6am every morning and giving their horn a little beep to say goodbye as they left for work 🤨 It turns out it had been waking up a lot of us in the street, and the angry neighbour had already asked nicely for it to stop a number of times. Weirdly I never heard the beep but it must have been it as I started sleeping later after that!

As mentioned by PPs, stress will also do it to me.

You probably have posted to early to find people who have cracked this issue! My children are secondary age now yet I still wake early. Occasionally I can get back to sleep listening to podcasts on topics which interest me but are not gripping- listening to one on history of mathematics for example or science or history. I find that takes away the stress as either I learn something or I fall asleep.

I also take the time to embrace a quiet house. Sometimes I order shopping/ presents. I permanently wfh in a really flexible role which means I can work at 6am if I wish to then if I am tired I can have a siesta after lunch. If your children sleep then have you tried sleeping too?

The cats love to curl up on me as I lounge on the sofa - always have a blanket so you can doze off if your brain lets you. Don't do anything too energetic before you actually want to be awake otherwise your body learns to be primed for action.

Essentially I haven't cured it but I do embrace it now which takes away the stress. Right off to listen to the soporific Marcus du Sautoy as I learn more about the history of maths or grab a few extra minutes sleep.

Me too. Anywhere from 430 onwards.

I had a spell on anti depressants last year and I slept like a log every night. I had to start using an alarm for the first time in years. It made such a difference I’m almost considering going back on them as I’m now back to early waking.

All sleep suggestions seem to focus on getting to sleep which I don’t have trouble with, as I’m always so tired.

Currently trying magnesium spray which I read about on a menopause forum. As I’ve been awake for an hour already, it’s not going well.

I’m also considering a weighted blanket, after reading about them on here.

Me too, around 5am. Agree with PP that most people replying at this time are likely to be similar. Pretty sure mine is stress related, I just lie there with so many thoughts spinning round in my head so turn to my phone for distraction. On a few rare occasions I do manage to go back to sleep but not often,
Hoping some posters will be on in a while with solutions!

Forgot to say I go to bed between 11-12 so definitely not enough hours

Yes, we definitely need to wait for a more decent hour for help to arrive!!

I get this sometimes and its hell! I take a large dose of Nightnurse and knock myself out for the full night, usually does the trick. Feel a bit groggy the next day but it breaks the cycle.

By the way I'm not suggesting doing this every night! I just do it when I'm at breaking point for 1 or 2 nights and then I find I stop waking so early naturally as my body clock shifts.

I wake early. I try to just accept it. Worrying about it makes it worse. I read, watch the news, sometimes make a cup of tea. I quite enjoy the peace and quiet.

That said, I feel even with early waking I get enough sleep. If you’re not maybe an earlier bed time?

at only the insomniacs responding.

I wake regularly anywhere from 3-4.30, it's a thing if you google. Nytol has helped me break the cycle and now I can sometimes go til 6/6.30

One of the crucial things when you wake up is to try not to concentrate on needing to go back to sleep. the more you think about needing to sleep, the more awake you will become because you’ll be stressing (even subconsciously) about not being asleep and not being able to go back there.

There is actually a corallation between looking at your phone and being awake, so if possible try not to look at your phone, although I do find the early hours the best time of day to get shopping delivery slots. wink

If possible do something which has nothing to do with wanting to go back to sleep. Get up for a few minutes and do something completely different, then go back to bed and think about what you’ve just been doing.

And don’t think about what time you’re going to wake up before you go to bed at night. That puts you in a position of already anticipating being stressed and unable to go back to sleep when you do wake up, and not being surprised what time it is.

These don’t always work, FWIW my prime hours are between 2:30 and 5:30 AM, and if I’m awake after that it’s rare for me to go back to sleep, but I have employed all of these methods with varying degrees of success.

Irrespective of success though, the most important thing is to not think about it and not let it get to you. Difficult I know, but IME concentrating on how much sleep you’re not getting just increases the stress for the rest of the day.

I have now just learned to accept that this is the way it goes sometimes.

And I always go to bed early, I can’t not, never have been able to....

Following for any advice! I'm awake at about 430 or 5 every day and exhausted by it. I'm menopausal so maybe that's a theme?

For poor sleep (in perimenopause) magnesium is recommended a lot. I've been taking Floradix liquid magnesium for a couple of weeks and not noticed any difference yet- tho realise it may take time to have an impact.Also baths with Epsom salts (magnesium) recommended. Made no difference yet either... but persevering.

You could look up sleep restriction. It's a technique where you work out how many hours your can sleep. So say 6. Then calculate back from when you want your day to start. Say 6am. So you'd go to sleep 6hrs before your get up time, so bedtime midnight. Stick with that for a couple of weeks. You'll be knackered and bed matchsticks. Then start to bring your bedtime gradually forward by 15mins every couple of nights until you end up where you want to be.

Other thing is considering whether you don't need as much sleep, which happens as you get older. If it's this then perhaps concentrate on quality rather than quantity.

Same here. It’s horrible. I go through phases of it.
I’m out for the count by 9.30pm and have been waking at 5.30am. Yeah it’s 8 hours, but it isn’t enough and I feel like shit.
I physically can’t stay awake any later at night.
I wake with my heart racing so I think it’s stress related.

Sometimes I wake around 1-2 for an hour then am able to sleep until 6.30-7 which seems to suit me far better. Unfortunately I can’t control it!

I’m going to try meditating more and see if that helps.

Me too! 4.30 every morning, sometimes I manage to snooze before getting up, but often not. I'd wondered about the menopause and also general stress. I dont feel massively stressed, but I do wake up with a busy brain and that has got worse since March. I occasionally use night nurse to reset my sleep, makes me unable to function the next day, but seems to break the 4.30 habit for a few nights. I only do this when desperate! Other than that I'm trying to go with it, rather than increase anxiety by letting it get to me. I go to bed around 11.30 and drop off easily. I wonder if those of us less obviously impacted by c19 stress (ie I'm not likely to lose my job, can wfh etc) underestimate how stressful it is for all of us and how many changes weve had to make since March. I'm not used to this level of uncertainty about the next few months, which I think is deeply unsettling and doesnt help sleeping.

@CoffeeChouxBun I was just coming on to say magnesium! I take a liquid oral supplement as I react badly to the skin sprays.

It's been a sleep game changer for me - not perfect and I still have the odd early morning waking (3.30 is my time of choice it seems) but way better quality sleep.

My only caveat is it makes me wee in the night. This may seem counterproductive but I find I usually crash back to bed. I try and take it early and stop drinking before 7 as well.

Good luck as it sucks.