Reasons for waking up at night. Frequent awakenings at night

Have you noticed that you constantly wake up at night? Perhaps this is a simple inconvenience that can be solved by adjusting your lifestyle. But frequent nighttime awakenings can signal serious problems with health. So, treating the underlying problem will bring back the restorative sleep you crave.

If waking up at 2-3 o'clock in the morning is an infrequent phenomenon for you, there is nothing to worry about. But when you do it constantly and without visible reasons, there is reason to think, as CureJoy warns.

8 reasons why you wake up in the dark.

1. Feeling as if too cold or too hot.

Poor sleep can be explained by such banality as unsuitable temperature in your bedroom. Your body needs to cool down a bit to make it easier for you to fall asleep. But you shouldn't be cold! If you wake up in a sweat and you want to take off the blanket, you should lower the degree in the room.

How to fix the problem: according to the National Sleep Foundation, ideal temperature for a good night's sleep is between 16 and 20 degrees. For infants or toddlers, this is 18 - 22 degrees.

2. Nocturia

Frequent nighttime urination or nocturia can wake you up several times a night. For most people, these processes slow down at night, allowing for 6-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. But if you have nocturia, so long sleep will not work.

Symptoms of nocturia: an immediate urge to urinate when you wake up at night. This happens several times in a row and regularly.

How to solve a problem: do not drink too many liquids in the evening, especially tea or coffee. If this does not help, you should go to the doctor and find out what's wrong. Nocturia is also caused by infection urinary tract, pregnancy, kidney problems, prostate enlargement or even diabetes. Treatment will depend on what is causing your problem.

3. Aging

It's no secret that it gets harder to fall asleep as you get older. For the same reason, you may often wake up at night and get up very early in the morning. As people age, they spend less time in deep sleep. They are easier to wake up. The need to recover, anxiety, or the discomfort of chronic illness make you get out of bed once again.

How to solve a problem: if your problems are related to depression or anxiety, sleeping pills will come to the rescue. But it should be taken only after consulting a doctor. Sleeping pills may interact with other medicines you may be prescribed. In addition, they are addictive.

To sleep better at night, avoid daytime naps.

4. Alcohol

Alcohol quickly sinks into deep dream but it doesn't last long. Under the influence of strong drinks, sleep becomes restless.

How to fix the problem: avoid drinking before bed! Or drink no more than one glass.

5. Sleep apnea.

Obstructive sleep apnea leads to difficulty breathing. The body makes you wake up when the level of oxygen in your blood drops.

It is the body's survival mechanism.

Symptoms sleep apnea: headache, sore throat, dry mouth, or chest pain when you wake up. Mood swings and excessive sleepiness during the day are all signs of sleep apnea.

How to fix the problem: after the doctor establishes the diagnosis, but will help to choose a remedy for treatment. You may need a visit to the dentist, or maybe a diet to reduce excess weight. You will also have to give up smoking and alcohol.

6. Anxiety or depression.

Anxiety or depression leads to panic attacks and nightmares. This is the main cause of unstable sleep and reduced sleep time. The disorder can cause you to feel irrational anxiety or fear that interferes with your daily life.

How to fix the problem: if anxiety or depression interferes with sleep, you need professional help. The specialist recommends cognitive behavioral therapy or other treatment. Relaxation techniques such as meditation or exercise will also ease anxiety and help you get a good night's rest.

7. Restless legs syndrome

If you wake up with an irresistible urge to move your legs, you may have restless legs. This neurological problem. Some people with this disease notice that their legs throb or hurt. Symptoms worse at night.

How to fix the problem: if you have this syndrome stop smoking and drinking alcohol immediately. Foot massage, moderate exercise, warm baths, ice packs or heating pads will provide relief. Some doctors prescribe iron supplements.

8. Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

GERD is a chronic disease that causes acid reflux ». stomach acid enters the esophagus incorrectly. Nearly 80 percent of people with GERD have nocturnal symptoms, and most of them experience interrupted sleep.

Symptoms of GERD: bad smell from the mouth, nausea, pain when swallowing, nocturnal heartburn, chronic cough, wheezing.

How to fix the problem: avoid sleeping after meals and alcohol before bed. Caffeine and nicotine are best avoided 8 hours before bedtime.

I often wake up at night and sleep badly - what are the reasons and what to do? Somnologists listen to such complaints every day at the reception, and as it shows medical statistics- such a phenomenon is not uncommon. There are reasons for this, as well as methods for treating this sleep problem.

I often wake up at night and sleep poorly - the main reasons

Doctors distinguish a lot of internal and external causes that provoke this violation sleep. Therefore, it is worth knowing them, and already starting from this, proceed further.

External causes

So to the external, most common causes of sleep disturbance, nocturnal awakenings, doctors include the following factors:

1. Street noise and noise in the room from working equipment, electronics.
2. Unsuitable for falling asleep temperature in the bedroom - too hot or cold in the room.
3. Noise from pets, a child sleeping next to you, a spouse snoring.
4. Uncomfortable mattress or bedding, accessories, blanket or pillows.

There may be others external factors considered in each individual case.

Internal factors

First of all, the gender of the sleeping person should be included here, as well as age-related changes flowing in the body. In particular, doctors identify certain categories of people who wake up at night more often than others and suffer from short sleep:

1. People old age. In this case, they wake up at night for the reason that they often doze off during the daytime. As a result, the nightly rhythm of sleep gets confused and entails frequent awakenings at night, .
2. Women. In this case, gender should be taken into account not so much as hormonal disorders flowing on certain days menstrual cycle. Gynecologists note that closer to the beginning of menstruation, the quality of sleep worsens, it becomes more sensitive, accompanied by frequent awakenings.
3. Pregnant women who are carrying a baby at night often wake up from night cramps, the urge to urinate in the toilet, due to the movement of the baby in the stomach. All this is considered the norm, therefore it should not cause much unrest.
4. Women in menopause - in effect hormonal changes may be observed at night excessive and a feeling of heat, deterioration of health. Due to such factors, women often wake up at night and cannot fall asleep.

Further, the internal factors of nocturnal awakenings include illness and the intake of a number of medications. In particular, some drugs can lead to sleep disturbance as side effects. Accordingly, either you will have to put up with it for the period of therapy, or replace it with analogues that do not have such side effect. In particular, according to doctors, beta-blockers and diuretics negatively affect sleep.

Diseases that can cause nighttime awakenings:

1. Arthrosis, arthritis, osteochondrosis.
2. Diseases of the thyroid gland.
3. Disease of the cardiovascular system.
4. Pathology of the kidneys and lungs.
5. Neoplasms.
6. Consequences of trauma.
7. Other diseases.

Do not exclude such internal factor, How mental disorders and overvoltage. Stress and depression, constant emotional overstrain at work or anxiety, panic attacks - all this can cause frequent nighttime awakenings.

All these diseases, as well as other deviations, can cause nocturnal awakenings. And if they bother you more than 3 nights a week, you should visit a doctor and get tested.

How to deal with nighttime awakenings

If the cause of this situation was a disease internal organs and systems - it is these diseases that should be treated, thereby eliminating the root cause of nocturnal awakenings.

In addition, to improve the quality of sleep, you need to:

1. The temperature in the bedroom was in the range of 18-20 degrees, so that it was quiet and comfortable, without unnecessary sounds and as dark as possible.
2. Before going to bed, refrain from alcohol, coffee, strong tea, tonic drinks, active physical activity. You should not lie in bed thinking about important things for tomorrow or in the near future.
3. Refrain from daytime sleep, as this will lead to the fact that at night you will not be able to fall asleep for a long time, and the dream itself will be inferior.
4. The optimal duration of sleep is considered to be 7-8 hours, and if you sleep more than this time, it can cause drowsiness.
5. To improve sleep, an hour before departure - turn off the TV and computer, if you want - master the practice of meditation, drink warm milk with honey.
6. A warm bath perfectly relaxes, with the addition of fragrant foam or decoctions of medicinal herbs.

If a person says that I often wake up at night and sleep poorly, you should take this phenomenon seriously, as this may be a symptom serious illnesses. You should consult a doctor for examination and identification exact reason sleep disorders. This will help you get started earlier. proper treatment and avoid potential complications.

Most often, when talking about insomnia, people complain about difficulty falling asleep. Much less often you can hear a complaint: "I feel bad because". But frequent nighttime awakenings are exhausting no less than classic insomnia, and the consequences of such sleep disturbances are irritability, chronic fatigue, decreased performance and the risk of developing cardiovascular and endocrine diseases.

I often wake up at night for no reason

There are many people who say: “I often wake up at night, but I don’t understand why. Everything seems to be fine with me.” However, nothing happens in our body just like that, without a reason. It's just that we may not understand or notice the reason.

If you often wake up at night and feel overwhelmed and sleepy in the morning, start by reviewing your lifestyle. Are you moving enough? Maybe you are a big fan or fan of coffee, smoke a lot or love computer games? But these are not too good habits adversely affect sleep.

Abuse of coffee and energy drinks, sedentary image life and excessive passion computer games lead to many backfire including sleep problems. Sleep disorders almost always suffer heavy smokers, people who abuse alcohol and those who long years works on shift schedule. Sleep problems can also occur as a side effect of taking some medicines.

If your lifestyle does not have any of the above factors, and, nevertheless, you have begun to experience difficulty sleeping, or someone from your loved ones has begun to complain: “I have been for some time now,” it is worth considering a visit to the doctor. The fact is that sleep disturbance is one of the symptoms of about five dozen various diseases including hypertension, angina pectoris, peptic ulcer stomach and duodenum, neurosis, depression and a number of other ailments.

Those people who, in addition to sleep disturbances, have a decrease in general immunity, fatigue, severe headaches and frequent dizziness, and a recurring feeling of "cotton" limbs should rush to the doctor. After all, such symptoms occur when a brain tumor begins to develop. If the above is accompanied by a decrease in hearing and vision, as well as a violation of coordination of movements, then you should consult a doctor as soon as possible. The sooner a tumor is detected and treated, the better prognosis and more chances of recovery.

I often wake up at night due to overexertion

Most people normal sleep violated at nervous tension. People often wake up at night before some upcoming event. important event: first-graders - before their first day of school, students - before important exam, the bride - on the night before the wedding or the athlete - before his first serious start. We sleep badly on the eve of the exit new job or if we decide - and we can’t solve some difficult task. People sleep badly after a major conflict, while waiting for a decision on whether they will be hired, because of anxiety about a sick child, and for a variety of other reasons that cause nervous strain.

It's absolutely normal reaction organism, rare person able to sleep sound sleep before the fateful day of your life. However, if you are very impressionable, then even minor events and changes can make you toss and turn restlessly in bed and often wake up at night. If you know this feature behind you, try to take an active walk or swim in the pool on the eve of important events for you - this will help relieve stress. Do not drink tea in the evening and even more so coffee, do not watch TV. Read something for the coming dream and drink milk with honey. And if you are in difficult circumstances for the psyche for a long time, for example, in the event of a divorce or dismissal, you can drink a course of drugs with a slight sedative effect such as Novopassit, Tenoten or Afabazol. Just do not prescribe a medicine for yourself - consult a doctor.

I often wake up at night with nightmares

Night terrors are another cause of sleep problems. " I often wake up at night in a cold sweat because of nightmares and then I can not sleep for a long time. I barely fall asleep - and I again have another nightmare, ”- a person in such a situation is really not to be envied. Nightmares can torment people suffering from post-traumatic disorders. Most often, these are people who have been in a war zone and experienced the loss of loved ones, as well as violence, natural disasters or severe surgical operation. With sleep disorders in the situation post-traumatic disorders alone without help a good psychologist, very difficult to handle.

People often suffer from nightmares, anxious and overly impressionable, as well as representatives creative professions. In this case, experts usually advise to observe the daily regimen, take courses of light sedatives and work with a psychologist.

Nightmares can provoke excessively big dinner consisting of heavy meals and taking certain medications. Therefore, it is not recommended to eat heavy, hard-to-digest food for dinner and eat immediately before bedtime. As for medications, read the annotation to them and watch your body after you start taking any new drug for you. In case of occurrence side effects contact the prescribing physician immediately.

A panic attack at night occurs in patients of any age and may not go away for several years. Panic attacks occur at night during sleep, which indicates psychological disorder requiring serious drug therapy.

What are panic attacks and how they affect the patient's life

Panic attacks are sudden anxiety episodes. They tend to attack unexpectedly and for no good reason. The severity and duration of panic attacks in a patient can vary. The duration of the attacks varies from 1 minute to 1 hour. normal state can also vary greatly, the number of panic attacks per week is 2-3, but it happens that the patient may not experience them for a long time, and then panic attacks return and then happen more than three times a week.

deadly danger this disease does not bear, but it is the cause of much suffering of the patient. With another nocturnal panic, when the disease has been going on for quite some time, patients become more and more anxious and may experience further phobias in the places where they were caught panic attacks. How longer period such attacks, more likely development in the patient of self-doubt, in the future, in a successful trip, etc. This causes restrictions in family life and social activities.

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The etiology of the disease and to whom it is characteristic

Panic attacks are common in no more than 5% of the population, and women experience them much more often than men. The age spectrum is very wide, but most often they occur in the young population between the ages of 20 and 30 years. Of all patients, about 5% experience panic attacks at night.

To date, vegetative crises (panic attacks) are not shared, since there is no evidence that the symptoms of these disorders are associated only with hyperactivity of the vagoinsular or sympathoadrenal link of the autonomic nervous system.

Factors in the development of panic attacks:

• psychogenic (parental divorce, death loved one or his illness, abstract factors);
• physiological (alcoholism, physical overload);
• biological changes in the body (pregnancy, onset of sexual activity, menstrual cycle disorders, abortions, childbirth, etc.).

The etiology of nocturnal panic attacks is largely unclear; in the state of this type of disorder, there is an interaction of various biological and psychological mechanisms.

In addition to the anxiety caused by psychological trauma genetic predisposition to this disease is very high.

Women are more susceptible to this disease than men. Their seizures are expressed in the form of a demonstration character, the need to attract attention to themselves.

Men are different. They experience the hypochondria of health. How does it manifest itself?

A man becomes overly concerned about his health. The main need for this type of people is constant health improvement and constant excellent health.

A lot develops due to experiences in childhood negative emotions.

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Panic attacks inherent in a person from childhood

The main ones with an outcome in the form of panic attacks (including at night) include the following factors:

1. If one or both parents often drank, made scandals, fought or created situations dangerous for each other and the child, up to the threat of murder. Such a state of fear can be fixed in a child at a psychological level, and in a more adult state, when such situations arise, the first panic attack with pronounced vegetative signs may appear.
2. Emotional isolation. Often such disorders in a child develop under circumstances in which one parent is forced to raise the child on his own, or both parents focus not on the child, but on work and other concerns. Sometimes he doesn't get the attention he deserves. forced reasons: let's say there are seriously ill patients in the family or elderly people that require constant care. Excessively demanding parents can also contribute to the development of panic attacks in a child. Children, growing up, suffer from insomnia, become unstable to stressful situations and constantly in need of approval.
3. Overprotective or overprotective anxious behavior parents in the form of constant guardianship and control of the studies, actions or health of the child may Negative influence on psychological condition child. Children of such parents rarely succeed.
4. The predominance of conflict situations in the family due to various factors(difficult financial situation, psychological incompatibility of parents, etc.). The child is not able to resolve the situation, which eventually forms in him a feeling of helplessness. Growing up, he in any difficult situation gives up, and his stress resistance becomes extremely low.

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Clinical signs

The main one is repeated unpredictable anxiety attacks with a combination of different kind somatic signs. A night panic attack is diagnosed with paroxysmal fears. The patient experiences excessive fear for his life, sometimes there is an internal tension with symptoms characteristic of panic. In a panic attack, the patient experiences many of the following symptoms:

• tremor, chills, or a feeling of internal trembling;
• increased heart rate;
• uncomfortable or pain on the left side of the chest;
• increased sweating;
• intestinal disorders;
• unsteadiness while walking, a feeling of dizziness, lightness in the head, pre-fainting, and so on.

Clinical signs develop rapidly, and after an attack appears general weakness and brokenness. Often a panic attack occurs at night, paroxysmal anxiety appears suddenly before bedtime or during sleep.

In this case, the patient cannot fall asleep for a long time. The more he experiences similar states the more likely to develop insomnia. This is due constant feeling threats to his life - the patient thinks that he can die in his sleep. Sometimes he can stay awake at night and during this period also experience panic attack. Sometimes it happens that the patient, having just fallen asleep, instantly wakes up from an attack. The patient immediately begins to think that all this is connected with an ordinary nightmare, not allowing the thought that this is not a dream, but a panic effect on the body, which is a physiological response to stressful situations.

Qualitative night sleep- guarantee of high performance and good mood throughout the day. But in Lately the problem of insomnia is becoming very common. Many people complain of difficulty falling asleep. And sometimes they come with an even more serious problem: “I wake up at the same time at night and then I can’t fall asleep for a long time.” About what good rest can you speak in a situation like this? If it recurs frequently, action should be taken immediately.

Causes of night awakenings

The reasons for nighttime awakenings can be different. Unfortunately, quite rarely they are caused only by physiology. More often, regular interruption of sleep at the same time signals that something is wrong with the body. Sometimes this is due to psychological problems, but more often it indicates pathologies of internal organs that work according to genetically programmed biological clocks.

Physiological

Physiological causes are more likely to create problems with falling asleep or sleep quality. It is difficult to get enough sleep in a stuffy room or fall asleep when the light, the feeling of hunger or the snoring of a neighbor interferes with you. At severe fatigue a person turns off even with intense exposure external stimuli. But after 1-2 cycles of REM sleep, when we sleep especially lightly, it can wake up.

Regularly wake up at night those who cannot fall asleep without a night light or TV turned on. Approximately 3-4 hours after falling asleep, light and sound begin to interfere, sleep is interrupted. But it is worth turning off their source, it returns and then the night passes quietly. If this is repeated regularly, a conditioned reflex will develop, and the person begins to wake up at night.

Another common cause of constant nighttime awakenings around the same time is lack of oxygen.

Even if you ventilate the room before going to bed, but there are heating devices in it or there are many flowers that absorb oxygen at night, then after a few hours there will be a shortage fresh air will make you wake up.

At the same time, mothers of babies who are accustomed to a certain routine often wake up. The body remembers for a long time that it is necessary to feed the child or check if he is wet. Conditioned reflex, including on awakening, is produced in about a month. But it takes a lot longer to break a habit.

TO physiological factors also include age-related changes in the structure of sleep. Scientists have established that young people during the night are dominated by slow phase, that is - a person sleeps soundly.

But gradually the structure of the cycles changes, and in the elderly fast phase sleep begins to dominate from about the middle of the night. Therefore, the slightest noise wakes them up. And since the concentration of melatonin in the blood decreases markedly by morning, it is not always possible to fall asleep again. This is where the myth was born that older people need less sleep.

Psychological

Some psychological problems directly affect the quality of our sleep. Somnologists even have special term, which unites them - "intrasomnic disorders". Most often, nighttime awakenings provoke stress. Reveal it chronic condition it can be quite difficult and sometimes cope with it without help an experienced specialist fails.

For stress, the most typical complaints are in the style of: "I wake up every night at 3 o'clock with a feeling of anxiety." Sometimes such people are tormented by nightmares or severe depressive dreams, the plots of which they may not remember.

Uncontrolled use sleeping pills only exacerbates the problem and provokes the development of depressive conditions.

Emotional disorder is any hypertrophied emotions that a person cannot control. In this case, he is clearly aware of what exactly does not let him sleep: anger, fear, falling in love, envy, etc. But it is not possible to cope with these conditions. A qualified psychologist can help in such a situation.

Pathological

But in most cases, they complain that they wake up at 3 am and people with serious pathologies cannot fall asleep. By the way, it is this time (plus or minus half an hour) that is most often noted by people suffering from this form of insomnia. The people called it the "witch's hour", and not without reason. Healthy man at this time he is fast asleep, which means that he is defenseless and easily suggestible. Come and do whatever.

Scientists are interested in what processes occur in our body during the night. Here is what their research results showed:

Naturally, these are generalized data, each organism is individual. But constant awakenings at the same time - one of the symptoms of the pathologies of those organs that are active during this period.

Diagnosis and treatment

If physiological causes regular night rises are excluded, you need to seek help from specialists. There is nothing wrong with going to the doctor and asking him the question: “I don’t sleep well at night and wake up often - what should I do?”

This problem is common, and usually a person really needs qualified help. Anxiety should be caused by the presence of the following symptoms:

Most likely you will be asked to undergo an examination to identify pathologies of the internal organs. Do not refuse it - the earlier the disease is detected, the greater the likelihood complete cure. When the disease recedes, sleep quickly returns to normal.

vegetovascular dystonia and emotional disorders treated with auto-training and breathing exercises. Usually it is possible to solve the problem without the use of drugs. But with difficulty falling asleep, mild sedatives may be prescribed.

If insomnia is caused by severe or chronic stress You need to consult a psychologist. The suppression of such conditions leads to serious neurological disorders and cardiovascular diseases.

Sometimes sleeping pills or antidepressants are prescribed for a short period. But it is important to remember that such drugs are quickly addictive. Therefore, if you are able to do without them, look for other ways to relieve stress.

Possible problems

Being ashamed to seek advice, you exacerbate the problem every day. Night sleep deprivation negatively affects the work of the whole organism:

• performance is sharply reduced;
• there is rapid fatigue;
• attention is scattered;
• there are failures in the hormonal system;
• drowsiness is constantly present;
• dry skin and mucous membranes;
• deep wrinkles appear;
• loss of appetite;
• there is anxiety and fear of the night.

The longer unwanted nightly rises continue, the worse for the body.. In addition, a person subconsciously begins to wait for them and thus involuntarily sets his “internal alarm clock” on this watch. And sometimes, to turn it off, you have to resort to neuro-linguistic therapy or hypnosis.

What to do?

Since the psychological state directly affects our sleep, do not panic. Often you can normalize it, even if you just pay attention to the mood with which you go to bed.

First of all, try to calmly analyze why you wake up at night. Perhaps you are being tormented anxious thoughts about an unresolved issue or conflict situation. Or maybe you just feel uncomfortable sleeping, so:

• check if there is enough air in the room, and make it a habit to ventilate the bedroom;
• create a calm environment for yourself - you need to sleep in darkness and silence;
• master the elementary techniques of psychotherapy: auto-training, meditation;
• come up with a pleasant ritual that precedes falling asleep: a bath, a foot or head massage, aromatherapy;
• learn to let go of bad and disturbing thoughts before going to bed - better dream about something pleasant;
• try to master relaxing yoga exercises and relaxing breathing;
• if you can't sleep without a night light, buy a model with a timer so that it turns off some time after falling asleep.

But the main thing - do not start the problem! If night awakenings occur more often than 2-3 times a month, this is already a cause for concern and consultation with specialists.

There are no unsolvable problems, and even if there are chronic diseases sleep can be improved. The result will not be only if you do not take any action to protect own body and nervous system from gradual destruction due to regular sleep deprivation.