Struggling with an Irregular Sleep Cycle :(

honest1

honest1

Herald
Guys, I’ve been dealing with an irregular sleep cycle for a few years now. It seems to come and go in phases – a few weeks of disruption, then a few days of normalcy, and back again. I never paid much attention to it before, but now I feel it’s time to address it.
Here’s what’s happening:
  • I’m naturally a morning person and prefer to sleep early, typically between 9:30 to 10 PM.
  • I usually wake up around 3 or 4 AM and can’t go back to sleep. However, by 6 AM, I feel sleepy again and end up sleeping for another 2 hours. This second round of sleep is very deep and restful.
  • Falling asleep initially isn’t a problem—it’s the early waking that’s disruptive.
  • Because of this schedule, I’ve struggled to maintain a consistent workout routine.
  • Interestingly, between 4 and 6 AM, when I’m wide awake, I find my productivity skyrockets (3x minimum!), which is a silver lining.
  • On some days, I also end up dozing off on the couch around 8 AM, especially while watching TV.
I know sleep issues can vary for everyone, but in my case, falling asleep is easy—it’s the early wake-ups that throw me off. I’ve also noticed that on nights when I have something planned for the next day, I tend to wake up earlier, possibly due to anticipation. For other days, it feels like it’s just become a habit.

I’d love to hear your thoughts or suggestions on what could help. Anyone else has similar issues ? How do I break this pattern?
 
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Why not between 4am and 6am go for a long walk, or cycling or a gym on daily basis. That way you start your day with a good energy boost.

Sleep (over/ under/ irregular) is affected due to two main reasons - 1) Mental Stress and 2) Lack of Physical activity.

You address these two factors combined and you become healthy as a tank.
 
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honest1 said:
Morning walk/jog - 30 min or so (if I dont sleep at that time).
Try to walk in the evening for 45 min.
Click to expand...
That seems good enough, maybe experiment with increasing it to 1hr and doing it at a consistent time. Being tired helps with sleep in my personal experience. But I haven't had the problem of waking too early (other than due to loud noises) so I can't say too much about that.
 
roadrash99 said:
That seems good enough, maybe experiment with increasing it to 1hr and doing it at a consistent time. Being tired helps with sleep in my personal experience. But I haven't had the problem of waking too early (other than due to loud noises) so I can't say too much about that.
Click to expand...
As I mentioned, I dont struggle to fall sleep !
The problem is waking up in this 4-6 AM window !
 
I was suffered from this same pattern about 3-4 month ago. First it starts with snoring and dry mouth. Around 10-15 days I ignored snoring but then started waking in the morning like 3AM and don't fall in sleep for next 2-3 hour. I was like facing roof for 1-2 hour and just listing ticktock of wall clock. Then around 6-7 AM, I just crash sleep without.

For me it was lack of physical work and processed food. I put around 10kg. I started yoga in the morning and 15 min run and my situation improved a lot.

You can also pinpoint where the root cause is. It can be a combination of few things like temp, age, worry and lack of physical work. Please also check your thyroid level. Try to clear your mind by putting away phone, listen to music, try to discuss your personal issue if any.
 
honest1 said:
Interestingly, between 4 and 6 AM, when I’m wide awake, I find my productivity skyrockets (3x minimum!), which is a silver lining.
Click to expand...
You should learn about brahma muhurtha ;) and how to utilize those precious time for your schedule.
Also, irrelevant of the above, I found this article very interesting:
www.bbc.com

The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps'

For millennia, people slept in two shifts – once in the evening, and once in the morning. But why? And how did the habit disappear?
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

I would say, you need to check your historical stress, age, etc. and adopt holistic practices which can help.
 
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do you keep pending important works for tommrow or may be woke up early to do something important? this thought maybe makes you awake. Perhaps your brain has learnt this and is making you awake even when you have nothing to do.
 
@honest1 avoid to take afternoon nap (if taking any) or lying flat for more than 1 hrs. in afternoon.

Take bucket of hot water, add rock salt (unbranded non iodized raw sea salt), here in Mumbai you can buy for Rs.10-20/- (Per kg) or can add 1-2 peanut size alum (fitkari) in water and soak leg from ankle height or up to knee (ankle height is more than enough).

Take high temperature hot water (if too much hot can add cold water) let your leg feel hot that within 5-10 minutes start sweating but do not remove legs out of water till you feel water is hot, do as many day you want as there is no side effect and from day one feel sound sleep.

Ask someone to massage had with normal or like warm coconut oil.

Add pinch of turmeric in cup of Luke warm milk and drink it
 
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Futureized said:
Meditation helped me fixed such similar disorders.
Click to expand...
Agree, this is something which is long overdue now. Will try to start and keep the consistency ! Thanks.
Pyception said:
I was suffered from this same pattern about 3-4 month ago. First it starts with snoring and dry mouth. Around 10-15 days I ignored snoring but then started waking in the morning like 3AM and don't fall in sleep for next 2-3 hour. I was like facing roof for 1-2 hour and just listing ticktock of wall clock. Then around 6-7 AM, I just crash sleep without.

For me it was lack of physical work and processed food. I put around 10kg. I started yoga in the morning and 15 min run and my situation improved a lot.

You can also pinpoint where the root cause is. It can be a combination of few things like temp, age, worry and lack of physical work. Please also check your thyroid level. Try to clear your mind by putting away phone, listen to music, try to discuss your personal issue if any.
Click to expand...
My condition is for years now and my throid levels are fine. I am pretty active during the day, so I dont think its related to physical thing but yes, there is something else for sure !

psyph3r said:
Try magnesium supplements, I had disturbed sleep as well and it has helped to some extent in the last one month.
Click to expand...
Oh yes, this could be one of the reason. I will surely check on that. Many thanks !

TEUser2K1 said:
You should learn about brahma muhurtha ;) and how to utilize those precious time for your schedule.
Also, irrelevant of the above, I found this article very interesting:
www.bbc.com

The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps'

For millennia, people slept in two shifts – once in the evening, and once in the morning. But why? And how did the habit disappear?
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

I would say, you need to check your historical stress, age, etc. and adopt holistic practices which can help.
Click to expand...
Yes, I mentioned that I am a morning person and whenever I wake up at 4, I really like it. As I told, my productivy level at this time is atleast 3x !
The only problem is if I dont sleep again at 6 AM, the whole day I feel very dull !!


Steelseries said:
do you keep pending important works for tommrow or may be woke up early to do something important? this thought maybe makes you awake. Perhaps your brain has learnt this and is making you awake even when you have nothing to do.
Click to expand...
This could be another physological reason for sure. Work is always pending but there are some intense work, which requires absolute focus and intensity, that kind of work I do in this wake window as I mentioned, with 3x productivity, I am able to complete it!
And yes, my subcounsious mind must have learnt this and it wakes me up and now it has become a habit !
Emperor said:
@honest1 avoid to take afternoon nap (if taking any) or lying flat for more than 1 hrs. in afternoon.

Take bucket of hot water, add rock salt (unbranded non iodized raw sea salt), here in Mumbai you can buy for Rs.10-20/- (Per kg) or can add 1-2 peanut size alum (fitkari) in water and soak leg from ankle height or up to knee (ankle height is more than enough).

Take high temperature hot water (if too much hot can add cold water) let your leg feel hot that within 5-10 minutes start sweating but do not remove legs out of water till you feel water is hot, do as many day you want as there is no side effect and from day one feel sound sleep.

Ask someone to massage had with normal or like warm coconut oil.

Add pinch of turmeric in cup of Luke warm milk and drink it
Click to expand...
Sure, will try that for few days and see how it works !!! Many thanks !!! (I dont sleep in afternoon, just FYI)
 
On the similar line as below:
anmolbhard004 said:
check your HbA1c and vitamin D. Take vit D supplements if inadequate.
Click to expand...
psyph3r said:
Try magnesium supplements, I had disturbed sleep as well and it has helped to some extent in the last one month.
Click to expand...
I can vouch for one thing:
I started having non restful sleep (trouble getting into sleep, sleep interruption, trouble getting back to deep sleep) few months back, resulting in fatigue-full feeling for the entire day; used to get completely discharged by sunset. However, post sunset used to tend towards semi-energetic state.
What I realized is that I was taking multi-vit tablet last year, but stopped taking it this year. I had a hunch that this could be due to lack of some vitamin or mineral.
The symptoms got completely eliminated within 2-3 days of taking the multi vitamin + mineral tablet.
After that I have experimented that whenever I stop taking the tabs for 1-2 weeks, the symptoms start re-appearing (have done this experiment a few times just to make sure that there are no other factors influencing).
Hence in my case, whatever doctors claim about health balanced diet - I have come to conclusion that not everyone is equally adept at extracting the same nutrition from the same food, and hence may require supplementation for these micronutrients.
 
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