Sleep Waking Toolkit
Waking up in the middle of the night is a common yet frustrating issue that affects many people. It can be challenging to fall back asleep once awakened, leading to a restless night and a groggy, unproductive day. There are many reasons why this might happen, ranging from lifestyle habits and dietary choices to underlying health conditions. Understanding the root causes and implementing effective strategies is crucial for improving sleep quality and overall health, however, there are a variety of sleep waking aids you can try along the way.
Remember: If you have a night of poor sleep, avoid believing negative expectations about how you will feel the next day. Staying open to the possibility of having a good day, even with little sleep, can prevent a negative self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, maintain a positive outlook.
Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR)
When you wake up feeling too alert, play your middle-of-the-night playlist. Don’t try to force yourself to sleep; instead, set up optimal conditions for relaxation. Even if you don’t fall asleep, settling into a restful state allows your body and mind to enter a twilight state called Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR), which is scientifically beneficial.
Sleep Waking Aids
Many sleep aids have long half-lives, making it challenging to take them if you wake up in the middle of the night, as they may leave you feeling groggy in the morning. The best sleep aids for middle-of-the-night use are those with short half-lives, reducing the risk of morning grogginess and worsening sleep issues if they don’t induce sleep fully.
Nutraceutical Options
- Magnesium: Helps reduce muscle tension and promote relaxation.
- L-Theanine: Promotes relaxation and improves sleep quality.
For more sleep options, please refer to our “Sleep Onset Toolkit”.
Prescription Options
Tizanidine: A muscle relaxant that targets alpha2-adrenergic receptors, promoting deep sleep and reducing muscle tension.
Sleep Waking Tips
Reduce evening fluids
By reducing fluids in the evening you reduce the chances of waking to use the bathroom. The brain and the kidneys work together to concentrate the urine during sleep, but you can easily overwhelm this system with too much fluid after 6 pm.
Try not to use the bathroom
When you feel urgency to urinate it is not necessarily true that your bladder is full. The bladder can contract creating a sense of urgency even if there is more room available. If you make a trip to the bathroom each time you wake you may be training your bladder to contact long before it needs to. Once the bladder becomes trained the contraction can actually wake you up to use the bathroom needlessly.
You can assess this by waiting for a few seconds and feeling whether the urgency dissipates. A few times falling back asleep without using the bathroom will help your bladder to accept more volume without contraction.
Reduce your alcohol intake
While alcohol may make humans somewhat sleepy or tired it actually inhibits quality sleep. Alcohol is metabolized quickly, usually within hours. As the blood levels drop there is a form of withdrawal that occurs and the brain wakes up with a start leaving people wide-eyed in the middle of the night. Sometimes this can be associated with significant worry and anxiety as well.
If you drink alcohol in the evening and you notice that you often wake in the middle of your sleep period, it is worth a trial without your evening alcohol.
Summary
Waking up in the middle of the night can be frustrating and lead to a restless night and an unproductive day. Various factors such as lifestyle habits, diet, and health conditions can contribute to this issue. It’s important to understand these root causes and implement strategies to improve sleep quality. Adopting a positive mindset, practicing Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR), and using sleep aids with short half-lives, like magnesium, L-Theanine, or Tizanidine, can help. Additional tips include reducing evening fluid intake, avoiding immediate bathroom trips to train your bladder, and minimizing alcohol consumption, as it disrupts sleep quality.
