Can't sleep through the night

[shakartothechai]

I'm on Day8 of the Whole30. A week before I started the Whole30, I started having trouble sleeping through the night. I thought...hmm, this might be a phase, but it has continued since then.

 

I wake up sometime between 2-4am every night and either can't go back to sleep, or go back to sleep 15-30 minutes later and wake up feeling tired/grumpy, etc. I usually end up using the restroom, or wake up from being thirsty. If I drink water 1-2 hours before going to bed, I wake up having to use the restroom. If i don't drink water 1-2 hours before going to bed, I wake up thirsty...WHAT THE HECK!

 

Over the weekend, I forced myself to stay awake until 1:30AM, hoping that I'd be too tired to wake through the night, and STILL woke up @ 5am, then went to back sleep until 9:30am.

 

The good thing though, is that I don't get sleepy during the day.

My usual sleeping pattern before this all started was from 10:30pm-6:30am, in case anyone wondered.

 

Has anyone experienced this before? Has melatonin helped? I'm seriously considering giving it a try. 

 

I should also mention that I have chronic kidney disease and kidney stones so I'm supposed to drink lots and lots of water. I don't want to deprive myself, but am worried that I'm not getting the time needed for my body to recover since I can't get a good night's rest!!

 

:[

[Tom Denham]

Sleeping through the night starts when the sun is shining.

 

1) It seriously helps to get 20-30 minutes of time in direct sunshine on your skin during the day. Not only does your skin convert sunshine into Vitamin D, the sunshine helps get your circadian rhythm set to be awake in the daytime and, consequently, asleep at night. 

2) You may need to stop drinking anything with caffeine after lunch because the half-life of caffeine is long enough to keep you stimulated at night if you are sensitive.

3) You need to avoid light from TV and computer screens one to two hours before bed. The blue light from screens fakes your body into thinking it is daytime and makes sleep difficult.

4) You need a completely dark room to sleep and stay asleep. The more light there is in the room, the more likely your sleep is to be disturbed. Your body is sensitive to light. A sleep mask helps, but even your skin is somewhat reactive to light. 

5) Most people sleep better in a cool room, so be careful about getting too hot at night.

6) A magnesium supplement can be helpful as magnesium has a sedative effect. I take Natural Calm every night.

7) A melatonin supplement may help. I find a 5 mg timed release melatonin helps me stay sleepy through the night.

8) I drink a lot of water too and have to get up every night to urinate. I find that getting up once is not a problem. The problem is when I need to get up 3 times. I would say keep drinking plenty of water and just deal with it at night. 

9) Avoid eating for 2 hours before bedtime so that your digestion has a chance to settle.

10) Stress can disturb your sleep. If you are under stress at work, in a relationship, or from especially hard exercise, your sleep may suffer. Deal with the stress as best you can and maybe try to allow more time to sleep fitfully.

 

That is about all I can think of just now.

[Robin Strathdee]

Also, you may want to check with your doctor about these new symptoms. Perhaps there's something that needs adjustment in your treatment plan.

[mollyknight]

Great tips, Tom! My sleep has been a bit off the past few days and I'll be trying some of these out!

[shakartothechai]

thanks for the responses!

 

My treatment plan is....plenty of water and vitD supplements. So nothing to change there.

 

Thanks for the list of tips, Tom! Most of them didn't apply to me (caffeine consumption, cool room, not eating 2 hrs before going to bed, etc), but I did turn off the tv/computer last night, reading instead for about an hour before going to bed - and guess what....slept until 6am without waking up!