Early awakening is one of the sleep disorders, characterized by its short duration and getting up in the morning earlier than planned.
The clinic’s specialists have been treating various types of sleep disorders for more than 30 years. Our unique techniques help in 98% of cases within a short period.
We are the only ones in Russia who use restorative medicine techniques that are adequately combined with classical methods of treating early awakening and other sleep disorders.
The first group is overwork
Overload, poisoning and inflammatory diseases, malnutrition (less often overeating), lack of vitamins and other important substances (protein, microelements, carbohydrates), stress (especially long-term), disruption of the sleep-wake pattern, sudden climate change, etc.
The external load on the body begins to exceed the protective threshold (each organism has its own), and in this case, a healthy nervous system, under the influence of external factors, reacts with sleep disturbance. Early awakening may be accompanied by difficulty falling asleep, shallow sleep with frequent awakenings, and daytime sleepiness.
Psychological reasons
“This phenomenon of waking up at 2-3 am is very interesting. After all, in fact, people wake up at the same time for no apparent reason. They do not understand what is happening to them and are looking for reasons. Sometimes they even go as far as mythological and mythical options for explaining the problem. In fact, nothing like that happens there - there is no need to look for any hidden meanings; even biological reasons do not always provoke such a situation,” notes Alexey Melekhin.
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The second group is diseases of the nervous system
First of all, these are mental disorders and neurological diseases. Below are the most common nervous system disorders in which early awakenings are a symptom of the disease:
- Depression
- Neurasthenia
- Anxiety disorders (phobias, panic attacks, generalized anxiety disorder)
- Asthenic syndrome
- Osteochondrosis of the cervical spine
- Vegetative-vascular dystonia
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (obsessive-compulsive disorder)
- Depersonalization and derealization
- Psychosis, manic state
- Encephalopathy (consequences of organic damage to the central nervous system, psychoorganic syndrome)
- Dementia
Early awakenings caused by disorders of the nervous system and psyche require the help of a doctor.
Treatment of the illness that caused early awakening will restore normal sleep patterns. In the case of early awakenings caused by fatigue, rest and isolation from traumatic factors are often sufficient to restore normal sleep. If the overload on the nervous system has been prolonged (months or years), then sanatorium treatment may be required, consisting mainly of restorative procedures: massage, physical therapy, physio-diet therapy.
Sleep disturbance
Arthritis
Rheumatism
47966 06 November
IMPORTANT!
The information in this section cannot be used for self-diagnosis and self-treatment.
In case of pain or other exacerbation of the disease, diagnostic tests should be prescribed only by the attending physician. To make a diagnosis and properly prescribe treatment, you should contact your doctor. Sleep disturbance: causes of occurrence, what diseases it occurs with, diagnosis and treatment methods.
Definition
Sleep disturbance, or insomnia (insomnia), is a general term that includes difficulty falling asleep, problems staying asleep, and waking up too early. As a result, during sleep a person cannot fully restore strength and performance, which reduces the quality of life. Sleep disturbance to one degree or another is observed in almost half of the adult population, but only in 9–15% of people does this problem become clinically significant. In older people, chronic insomnia is observed much more often than in young people - more than 55% of cases.
With any sleep disturbances, a person experiences fatigue, decreased attention or memory, depression, depression, and decreased vital activity.
Types of sleep disorders
Depending on the cause of sleep disorders, primary and secondary insomnia are distinguished. When diagnosing primary insomnia, organic, psychiatric, or neurological causes for sleep disturbance are not noted. Secondary insomnia is the result of various diseases, taking stimulants, or any unfavorable external conditions.
Sleep disturbances can be acute (transient), short-term (up to 6 months) and chronic (more than six months). Acute sleep disturbance can occur in any person under the influence of stress, overexcitation, or due to time zone change. Chronic insomnia develops in people predisposed to it. Typically, this condition affects elderly patients, women, people who, for one reason or another, sleep no more than 5 hours a day, as well as those who experience prolonged absence from work, marital divorce, psychological and psychiatric trauma, and patients with chronic diseases.
Possible causes of sleep disorders
Difficulty falling asleep is the most common complaint of patients. The desire to sleep that a person experiences before going to bed, but it disappears under the influence of a variety of factors when the person lies down. These may be unpleasant thoughts and memories, the inability to find a comfortable position due to restlessness in the legs, pain or itching, or extraneous sounds. A light drowsiness is disturbed even by the slightest noise, and sometimes a person who has fallen asleep thinks that “he hasn’t slept for a minute.”
There can be many reasons for such difficulty falling asleep, in particular, lack of fatigue, spending a long time in bed during the day, irregular bedtime, anxiety, illnesses that cause itching or pain.
A common complaint is unpleasant sensations in the lower extremities (pins and needles, trembling, tingling, burning, twitching), which force you to constantly change the position of your legs (restless legs syndrome). Symptoms are significantly weakened or disappear completely with movement. The best effect is often achieved by walking or simply standing. Recently, the proportion of patients who have problems falling asleep due to the consumption of stimulating drinks (tea, coffee, energy drinks) in the evening, as well as the abuse of medications (caffeine, psychostimulants, some antidepressants, antipsychotics, nootropics) has increased.
Problems with maintaining sleep mainly consist of frequent awakenings, after which it is difficult to fall back to sleep, and a feeling of “shallow” sleep. The reasons for awakening can be very different (dreams, fears, nightmares, breathing problems, palpitations, the urge to urinate).
Most often, chronic insomnia is a symptom of neurological and mental diseases.
Complaints of poor sleep are typical for patients with stroke, dementia, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease. Mental illnesses such as depression, schizophrenia, and anxiety-manic states are also accompanied by sleep disturbances.
In many cases, frequent awakenings at night are associated with sleep apnea.
This respiratory disorder occurs during snoring due to the collapse of the tissues of the pharyngeal ring during inspiration and is characterized by a short-term cessation of breathing, which is accompanied by a decrease in blood oxygen levels and interruption of sleep.
Disruption of the circadian rhythm almost always leads to chronic insomnia. This situation occurs during shift work and shift work, as well as among those who sit for a long time in the evening watching TV or a computer. Excess blue light from screens in the evening and night hours causes desynchronosis - a disruption of the circadian biorhythm, which, in turn, leads to sleep disturbances.
Frequent awakenings can be a consequence of cardiovascular (arrhythmias, arterial hypertension), pulmonary (COPD), musculoskeletal (arthritis, rheumatism), genitourinary (prostatitis, urinary incontinence) and endocrine diseases.
Problems with early morning awakening are observed in older people, people suffering from depressive disorders, and panic attacks. As a rule, sleep is interrupted at 4–5 o'clock in the morning and does not resume. Immediately after waking up, patients note a flood of negative thoughts rushing over them. In the morning and during the day they complain of a “broken” state, they have decreased performance, and constant drowsiness.
Which doctors should I contact for sleep disorders?
Initially, you should consult a general practitioner to determine the true cause of insomnia and identify possible concomitant diseases that may lead to sleep disturbances.
If you suspect depressive syndrome, you should consult a psychotherapist or neurologist. With successful treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders, sleep usually returns to normal.
In cases where diagnosing sleep disorders is difficult, the therapist refers the patient to a somnologist.
Diagnosis and examinations for sleep disorders
When diagnosing sleep disorders, the first step is to understand whether insomnia is primary or secondary. It should be borne in mind that about 80% of cases of sleep disorders are caused by various diseases. Along with complaints of poor sleep, the following factors should be taken into account: snoring, excess weight, arterial hypertension, neurological disorders (stroke, traumatic brain injury), the presence of diseases that can cause pain at night (rheumatism, myalgia, arthritis of various etiologies) or itching (psoriasis, herpes, thyroid and liver diseases).
Problem since childhood
The situation can also develop when a person has been exposed to it since childhood. You can ask your parents how he slept when he was little. If some similar difficulties were observed there, then they will carry over into adulthood.
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How to deal with the situation?
To begin with, when it comes to the 3 am phenomenon, you should understand what exactly causes it. “If it is caused by anxious anticipation, that is, such episodes appear on the eve of important things, you need to use this option: remove the labeling of the day as responsible, you should not stick such a label of super-importance of the day on it. After all, when defining a day as very important, the nervous system goes into mobilization mode. Here you should give yourself the reasons why this day does not particularly stand out from the series of ordinary ones, and also give yourself 5 pleasant things that you can enjoy,” notes the psychoanalyst.
Article on the topic
How to overcome drowsiness? Advice from a somnologist on how much and when to sleep If the reason for awakenings lies in sensory overload or overload with problems, then it’s worth paying attention to the technique of small victories. “It’s enough to simply ask yourself at the end of the day: what am I happy with today? And thank the passing day for all this,” says Alexey Melekhin. This will relieve and calm the nervous system. If I am in constant tension that I am not doing something in time, then the quest to solve problems will continue.
Additionally, you should worry about sleep hygiene. “First, you should give up simple carbohydrates. This is exactly what we especially love at night: rolls, bread, sandwiches. Such food only shakes and mobilizes the nervous system due to the influx of energy. At the very least, you should abstain from such food 2 hours before bedtime,” says the psychoanalyst. You should also give up problem solving and planning before going to bed. “When planning begins, the nervous system goes into “Why sleep?” mode. There’s no need to sleep, we need to solve problems.” This is not worth doing. As well as cheering yourself up with caffeinated drinks and alcohol,” notes Alexey Melekhin.
If you have already woken up, but you can’t fall back to sleep, you need to get up and walk around the house. “Just don’t turn on the lights, don’t pick up gadgets and don’t start thinking hard, analyzing and scolding yourself,” says Alexey Melekhin. After all, in essence, this is just an overload indicator, like a smartphone, when it issues a warning that it has 20 percent of charge left. This is how the nervous system also shows that it is missing something before going to bed in order to relax.
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Is there any harm in waking up early?
Is it harmful to wake up early? If you start getting up several hours earlier and then cannot fall asleep, this condition is often accompanied by the following negative factors:
- chronic fatigue appears;
- the patient's attention is distracted;
- irritability appears.
Such symptoms appear more often after lunch, as a result of which they have a negative impact on a person’s performance. In addition, against the background of lack of sleep, disorders of both an emotional and psychosomatic nature are formed.
Advantages and disadvantages
In principle, it is possible to make early morning awakening your ally, even when it has pathological grounds.
There is practically no point in lying there and freaking out because you are unable to fall asleep again - this will become additional stress and will only worsen the problem. Therefore, it is easier to tune in to the positive, get up and take care of personal matters.
Here are the benefits that getting up early can bring if you approach it wisely:
- More time arises. Who hasn’t complained about not having time to do their favorite hobby, reading or family matters? Now you have an extra couple of hours to spend on this. Freelancers are especially lucky - by starting their workday early, they can be free by 3-4 p.m. and use it at their own discretion throughout the evening.
- Brain activity is stimulated. The morning hours are recognized as the most fruitful. It is advisable to devote this time to studying or solving issues that require logical thinking and seriousness. According to studies, many people's ability to work in the morning is 20–40% higher than in the afternoon.
- The body rejuvenates. It is not for nothing that our ancestors rose at dawn - at this time the restoration processes are especially active. If you constantly get up at 5–6 o’clock in the morning, after a couple of months you can notice how the surface of the skin is rejuvenated, wrinkles are smoothed out and complexion is restored.
The difficulty is that the benefits of waking up early will only manifest themselves if it is natural, or such a habit is created consciously. It should be taken into account that for a good rest a person needs at least 7–8 hours of sleep.
For this reason, even if you involuntarily get up at 5 am, try to go to bed early - no later than 21-22 hours.
If you don’t go to bed before midnight or are unable to fall asleep, or are unable to stop being nervous due to forced early awakenings, their negative consequences very soon begin to be revealed: constant fatigue due to lack of sleep; high fatigue, nervousness due to prolonged stress; decreased functionality and distraction.
