Why You Wake Up Tired After a Full Night’s Sleep
Do you miss out on sleep during the week and sleep in during the weekend only to wake up tired and with a foggy brain?
Do you sleep for 7-9 hours each night, wake up still tired and keep hitting the snooze button?
Do you sometimes feel that getting your sleep right is a puzzle where a few pieces are always missing?
Let’s try to put it all together by looking at the reasons why restful sleep has been elusive and how to make it happen.
Your circadian rhythm
Our bodies have internal clocks called the circadian rhythm, which is a roughly 24-hour cycle common in all living organisms. Humans need an average of 5 sleep cycles each night, each lasting around 90 minutes, totalling 7.5 hours of sleep. To feel fresh, you need to wake up at the end of the sleep cycle. Waking up in the middle of it will make you feel groggy.
Solution: determine your ideal wake-up time, count back 7.5 hours and add another 10-20 minutes that it usually takes to fall asleep. Keep your bed and wake-up times consistent.
Sleeping in on weekends
If you cut your sleep short during the week in hopes of sleeping in during the weekend and waking up feeling full of energy, your plan may not work as well as intended. Continued sleep deprivation during the week can leave you feeling tired and sleepy during the day. Then it’s Friday, you go out late and wake up at noon on Saturday feeling sluggish. This is because your brain is feeling confused: it’s midday and normally you would have been awake for a few hours.
Solution: Firstly, we recommend that you get enough sleep during weeknights. On weekends, try to get out of bed no later than 1 or 2 hours from your usual wake-up time. If this means you’ve missed out on sleep, catch up by going to bed early the following night or take a nap during the day.
Your chronotype
What if you keep your timings consistent and still wake up tired? This may be because you are following the rhythm that is not right for you.
Solution: Take this Chronotype Quiz by the renowned sleep doctor Dr Michael Breus, PhD and find out if you are Bear, Lion, Wolf or Dolphin. Then reorganise your day in harmony with your nature and see how you feel in terms of your energy levels, productivity and the time it takes you to wind down. Tweak your timings by 15 minutes until you get it right and remain consistent.
Your time to unwind
Have you ever gone to bed tired, just to find out you can’t fall asleep? Are you tossing and turning, with your mind buzzing like a beehive? This can happen when you haven’t given yourself some time to transition from feeling alert to relaxed.
Solution: Taking between 30 minutes and 1 hour to prepare for rest can do wonders for the quality of your sleep and your productivity the following day. Head to our ‘Sleep Ritual’ (link to the page) blog post for an easy step-by-step guide on how to make this time special for you.
Staying in bed too long
Are you a repeat snooze button offender? The average snooze period lasts around 7-9 minutes, not giving your brain enough time to fall into a deep restorative sleep. Yup, snooze is not real sleep!
Solution: Set your alarm for when you really need to be up. And if you must have a snooze, limit it to one.
Food and drink
What you eat and drink during the day can impact how well you sleep, with alcohol and caffeine being the biggest deterrents.
Solution: Stop caffeinated drinks after 2pm. With a half-life of 6-8 hours, at least half of the caffeine will be out of your system by 10pm. If you are having alcohol, finish drinking at 3 hours before going to bed, as your body takes around 1 hour to metabolise 1 alcoholic beverage.
Exercise
Exercise is great for sleep, as it improves your blood flow and makes you the right kind of tired.
Solution: Exercising in the evening might leave you overly excited, so aim to work out in the morning or early afternoon to keep yourself energised when you need to be most productive. Adjust accordingly if you work night shifts.
Snoring and sleep apnoea
If your partner snores, you could be losing as much as 1 hour of sleep per night, more if the snoring is unbearably loud. The snorers are affected as well, as it’s likely they are not breathing correctly and may have sleep apnoea. With this sleeping disorder, the breathing passageways become closed for 1 or 2 seconds, interrupting the vital deep sleep stage.
Solution: In the case of sleep apnoea, get a certified sleep doctor to help you. If you are disturbed by snoring, see this article about the types of snoring and the ways to alleviate it.
Other sleep disorders
Narcolepsy – brain’s inability to regulate sleep cycles, resulting in suddenly falling asleep at inappropriate times.
Insomnia – consistent inability to fall and/or stay asleep despite following a routine.
Restless Leg Syndrome – an uncomfortable sensation in the legs or an irresistible urge to move them during rest time such as sitting or lying down.
Solution: If you suspect a sleeping disorder, it’s best to contact a doctor to take your full medical history including other health conditions and any medications and supplements you take, so you can be diagnosed and treated correctly.
The urge to go to the bathroom during the night
With age, our bladders become less able to let us sleep through the night without making us feel the urge to go to the bathroom. Even if you don’t have to get up and go, your brain and bladder are still exchanging messages about the need to urinate even if you don’t wake up. This can result in waking up and feeling tired.
Solution: Don’t drink liquids or eat foods with high liquid content within 3 hours before bedtime and go to the bathroom just before bed.
Hopefully now you feel closer to completing your sleep puzzle. As you can see, a lot of the issues can be resolved by developing a routine that is right for you and sticking to it, so you can sleep well and wake up feeling rested and energetic. If you are still waking up tired after a full night’s sleep, get in touch with a certified sleep doctor. And remember that a quality mattress (link to Amrath Classic Mattress) will go a long way towards helping you get the most enjoyable and restorative sleep.
References
https://thesleepdoctor.com/2018/07/29/6-reasons-you-wake-up-tired-after-a-full-night-of-sleep/
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xw77qn/why-youre-still-tired-after-sleeping-in
https://blog.bulletproof.com/sleep-chronotype-circadian-rhythm/