Why do I wake up after 2 hours of sleep
Frequent awakenings at night disturb the quality of sleep and affect during the day 2 hours of sleep.
That is why it is important not to let them rest.
If counseling is recommended, good sleep hygiene measures should also be considered.
open your eyes Tell yourself it must be time to get up and start the day. Except it’s only 3 or 4 in the morning and the alarm doesn’t go off for quite a while.
Every night when you wake up when you should be sleeping soundly without knowing why or how to prevent it. But what to do when that nocturnal awakening – the promise of a sleepy day – happens every night?
What can be the causes of this unexpected awakening? Should we worry about this? And how do you sleep well again? 20 Minutes seeks to unravel the mysteries of Morpheus.
Multiple causes
We all had a bad night. Meals that are too greasy or too watery, a heat wave, or the day before you leave for the holidays are all causes that can occasionally wake you up in the middle of the night. But for some, these nocturnal awakenings happen every night.
“In most cases, the cause is physiological”, We wake up at the end of each sleep cycle, often without realizing it.
Because “sleep is not a block: it is made up of small bricks, cycles of about 1:30 that follow each other during the night”, explains doctor CHU Henri Mondor.
Each cycle consists of several phases. There is slow sleep – which can be light or deep – during which the brain moves in slow motion, and paradoxical sleep.
Also a royal word
During which the brain works at 100 per hour, and where we are dreaming, it continues. In the early part of the night, we produce deeper, slower sleep and do not see the reduction in sleep at each end of the cycle.
The second part of the night consists of alternating phases between slow, light sleep and paradoxical sleep. There is a much greater risk of waking up from sleep.
”And as we get older,“ the more we become aware of these nocturnal awakenings, which can last anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, sometimes longer.
It also happens that these frequent nocturnal awakenings are “reactive, related to stressors, lifestyle or a specific event such as a move or a new job”, lists Dr. Beaulieu on.
These events create tension, alertness, accelerating the day and maintaining a form of nocturnal hypervigilance that degrades sleep “. Sometimes the causes of this split sleep are physical.
“You may be awakened by difficulty breathing or, for example, during menopause, night sweats and a feeling of a rise in temperature can disturb sleep.” Finally, “waking up very early can be a sign of depression,” stresses the sleep specialist.
Don’t think and consult
But what to do in practice? There is no doubt that it feeds stress, which further disrupts his sleep.
“If these disturbances are affecting your day, if you are less fit, sleepy, irritable and if you notice a drop in morale you need to ask for advice, because sleep is associated with all of this.
It’s a cross-cutting factor, Dr. Beaulieu. However, it is such a part of daily life that people don’t think they consult – only 20% of insomniacs do it specifically for this problem.
While we wait for an appointment with a specialist, we try to keep our minds ready when we wake up at night. “You must try not to feed your thoughts, not to think”.
When you enter this cycle of dwelling on your workday or errands, falling asleep becomes even more complicated. If you feel good and relaxed, you can stay in bed until you fall asleep again.
However, if after 30 minutes you are still not asleep and are too worried, “You better get up, go to the living room relaxed and read a few pages in the light.
gently while you wait for sleep signals to return,” recommends Dr. Beaulieu. Preparing herbal teas or trying out relaxation techniques can also help.
“Take care of your sleep hygiene”
Multiply the nocturnal awakening, it is also difficult to get up in the morning or not to be in a hurry during the day. And “You shouldn’t even change your bedtime,” adds Dr. Beaulieu.
Going to bed at 8pm when you usually go to bed later won’t work, but it could also aggravate and increase the stress associated with poor sleep. Here we must be careful not to fall into psychophysiological insomnia caused by stage fright.
You also have to “pay attention to your sleep hygiene,” says Dr. Beaulieu.
We know the detrimental effects of screens on sleep, but many people take them into the bedroom, check their work email even in bed, and use their smartphone at night—all of which contribute to hypervigilance insomnia.
It is important to have a real physical and psychological decompression time at least 1 hour and 30 minutes before bed.
Finally, sleep hygiene also includes not drinking too much alcohol, not eating too large meals and sleeping in a well-ventilated and not overheated room.
Waking up every night could be a sign of an underlying health condition
“We wake up at night for all kinds of reasons, but some are pretty common,” says Mark Aloia, leader of behavioral innovation at Philips Healthcare.
These reasons include insomnia (estimated that around 80% of insomniacs wake both early and in the middle of the night) and obstructive sleep apnea, which is characterized by repeated breathing pauses during sleep, leading to nocturnal awakenings.
It is important to consult a doctor to rule out these pathologies in case of frequent awakenings at set times. Not just for the quality of your sleep, but for your overall health.
“They increase the risk of arrhythmias and heart failure and even traffic or work accidents.”
If you don’t have any health problems, it’s probably lifestyle related. It’s the sad truth: the older we get, the less we sleep.
“Adults enjoy less deep sleep (the deepest non-REM sleep cycle) and therefore wake up more often during the night,” says Terry Cralle, a sleep specialist at The Better Sleep Council.
Also, factors such as noise, light (including looking at your phone when you wake up), or what you ate for dinner affect the depth and length of your sleep cycles.
“Alcohol helps you fall asleep, but it systematically interrupts the second half of the night,” says Mark Aloia.
Another element that comes with age? Hormonal status, especially in women.
“During pregnancy, sleep is disrupted by hormonal changes, urinary urgency, anxiety and the discomfort of an expanding belly,” continued Shelby Harris.
Nighttime awakenings at set times are sometimes associated with stress
Although no studies today explain why we wake up at roughly the same time every night, Mark Aloia attributes this phenomenon to a state of hypervigilance or worry.
“Quite often, when we go to sleep busy, we digest problems at some stage of sleep. If they’re still there when you wake up, it’s because they haven’t been fully treated,” he suggests.
That’s why he advises insomniacs to keep a worry diary by the bed to record everything that causes stress and get rid of nighttime thoughts.
Shelby Harris adds that anticipating an event, such as waiting for a baby to cry or wondering if the night will go on without a break, would facilitate sleep and induce greater awakening.
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