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Waking at exactly 3am. Every. Single. Morning.


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I also had a banana last night, but only half of one.  I couldn't eat anymore.  The good news: I didn't wake up at 3am.  The bad news: I woke up at 11pm, 1am, and 4am.  *whomp whomp*  It could've just been an off night.  I will try to have a banana again tonight and see if it makes a difference.

 

While I was catching up on posts, I read something from @sahmomto2.  She said she ate a really big meal and then a banana before bed and slept through the night. It got me thinking...I usually eat dinner around 5:30pm.  Maybe that's too early?  Maybe I need to eat more, or later?  Or a mini meal before bed...?  I'm going to try the banana before bed again, and if it doesn't work, maybe I will try to eat a bigger meal or a mini meal before bed.

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Thinking outside the box here, is there an even that happens around your home at 3:00 am that might be waking you up, like the water heater cycling or a neighbor leaving for work at the same time every day? When we moved to our new place I kept waking up every morning at 4:30 until I found out that's when the trash was taken out daily. Now I wear earplugs. Just in case not all problems are a result of a nutritional problem ...

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Did another night with a banana before bed, and this time I ate a whole banana.  I was so stuffed.  Unfortunately, I woke up at 3:49 this morning.  I don't think I will be able to keep up this a-banana-a-night thing.  I don't like bananas that much.  

 

Tonight I will try a big meal later than I normally do...like 7pm-ish (I usually go to bed around 9pm and sleep til 6am).

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Last night I had a smaller, earlier dinner and no banana. Awake at 3am again :-)

Today I'm trying more starch earlier in the day (sweet potato) and no banana tonight, tomorrow I'll try banana again. At least that's the plan. Need to go to the store for more bananas.

Something about this is bugging me. I understand that whole30 includes lots of fat and protein and less carb (at least, less than SAD) to help become fat-adapted, so needing starch before bedtime seems off to me. I dont think I'm fat-adapted yet at day 17, though. Something else to research...

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I mentioned this in another recent post about sleep issues, but there are two issues that could be at play here.

A) for some folks, if you're to low carb, your body will run out of stored glycogen while you're sleeping and will then release cortisol to kickstart gluconeogenesis (making glucose of of protein). Cortisol's a stimulating hormone, so you wake up.

B) folks that have issues controlling blood sugar can be woken up by the insulin spike that goes along with carb digestion.

If carbs before bed are helping, you're probably looking at scenario A. If carbs make it worse or aren't helping, you've probably looking at scenario B. scenario B would also have sleep issues with a large meal, close to bed time.

Ymmv

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I think in my mind I've been seeing the template like this:

1-2 palm-size servings of protein

1-2 thumb size servings of fat

Rest of plate full of green, leafy, non-dense veggies

Occasional fruit

Starchy veggies (or banana-like fruits) only if you're:

- starving half to death

- can't seem to go more than two hours between meals

- or exercise like a maniac and need triple the calories of everybody else

I've been trying not to eat too many bananas and sweet potatoes, thinking that will help my body become fat-adapted, and missing the idea that I need the glycogen. So thank you, Renee, for pointing that out.

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The rest of the plate should be full of vegetables not just green leafy ones. You need a rainbow of veggies to get all of the different nutrients your body wants. The wider variety of vegetables you eat the more nutrients your body gets. 

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I ate some macadamia nuts with my dinner last night. I'd been off nuts for a month because they tend to be food without brakes if eaten hand to mouth. I ate less than an ounce. It was what was left in the bag when I started AIP a month ago. I decided to test nuts since I was coming off AIP.

My sleep was terrible. I couldn't fall asleep and stay asleep, then woke numerous times during the night. In the end I slept 12-6 and woke up tired. But I don't remember waking at 3am.

So for me I think that another critical component along with how much I eat, is what I eat. Things that are more dificult to digest keep me from falling asleep. Being too full also terrible. I tend to eat my big meal at lunch and lighter dinner. Eating after dinner is always a sleep disaster for me.

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Okay, I am not sure whether to blame the power of suggestion as I read this thread a few days ago, but the last two nights I have been wide awake at 3.30am with no further sleep coming! I am on Day 10 and am actually feeling good/bordering on great in every other respect. The enzymes and Natural Calm seem to be starting to regulate my bathroom action, I am far less bloated and my clothes are feeling much more comfortable. My energy levels are increasing and I managed to good run yesterday. Fingers crossed I have exorcized the lack of sleep demon by mentioning it so I can get back to normal tonight!

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Sorry it's been so long.  My husband got called away on military duty, so I've been flying Han-style for the past few days.  I've been eating later in the evening - 7pm and I've been sleeping through the night (finally!). I've also taken Renee's advise and added more starchy veggies to my dinner - sweet potatoes mostly.  That's helped too.  Only two more days and my Whole 50 is done.

 

Thanks to everyone for your advice.

 

@sahmomto2 - I hope you're sleeping through the night too.  :)

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I've been staying asleep a little better, thanks for asking :-). The past couple nights I have stayed up way later than I should have, and there have been some major emotional stresses the past 10 days or so. Actually, the staying up late is an avoidance mechanism that I fall into when I'm stressed, although I know better. Longer sleep would help me deal with the stress better, right? I've also been eating more sweet potatoes and I think that's helping, too. No tiger blood yet, but maybe that would happen if I actually went to bed before midnight :-)

Today is day 24 for me. I would like to keep going for a w60, but hubby is more than ready for me to be done so we can go out for Graeter's ice cream. He feels guilty going out for ice cream by himself. And his birthday is coming up, he'll want to go out, and none of his favorite restaurants have anything compliant. Wish I could talk him into trying the w30, but it will never happen. He thinks I'm a nut, although he has adopted real maple syrup, real raw honey, and raw milk, all of which he thought was crazy at first.

Sorry, just rambling, but we're really at odds with each other right now, and all our friends are mutual friends, so no one to bounce things off of.

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I used to wake up at 3am ALL THE TIME - wide awake and feeling hot, sweaty, & gross: a clear blood sugar crash. It took me ages, but I finally pinpointed it to (1) calories being too low, (2) a huge supper, or (3) very low carbs. What helped me get back to sleep each time: simple carbs. Usually I'd eat a serving of dried fruit (dates, plums, etc) and be able to fall back quickly & sleep soundly for another 2 hours. If I didn't eat, it would take at least an hour to fall back, and be fitful sleep.

 

To combat this entirely, I switched to eating maintenance-level calories all week with fasting on Fridays. This way, if that one night of sleep sucked, I could nap on Saturday, and my sleep during the week went wonderfully.

 

However, yesterday I began my second Whole30, so obviously I won't be fasting on Fridays anymore. Last night, for the first time in weeks, my sleep sucked & I woke at 2am. My mental tally of yesterday's intake does not fit one of my usual 3 "problem" scenarios, so I was left feeling pretty frustrated. I was not quite hot/sweaty/gross, so I didn't eat anything. If I want to get back to being fat-adapted, then won't eating carbs in the middle of the night work against that? Perhaps I should eat fat instead? Not sure which one to try.

 

Obviously one night of poor sleep does not make it a trend, but I am so super sensitive to sleep that I simply can't let it become a trend. Given that my reason for the second W30 is to STOP OBSESSING about food, any sleep issue needs to be figured out early, lest I return to tracking everything to make sure I eat enough calories/carbs to avoid bad sleep. Frustrating situation.

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