Waking Up Too Early?

By Author: Steven Johnson
Total Articles: 490
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Did you have something this? You're carried off to sleep without any problems, but when the clock shows 2 am your sleep is nowhere to be found. You're awake and don't feel sleepy at all but your mind understands that you should sleep more. You have to get up early in order to get ready for work and if you don't go to sleep anytime soon your whole day will be ruined as you will be sleepy, irritable and unable to focus.

You try to understand why you can't go back to sleep again. You remind of the recent quarrel with your partner, think over every word spoken. Or you have problems at college and your recent test wasn't as good as you would want it to be. At times like this you will definitely find problems that you didn't even think you had. Stress, disrespect, low self esteem, problems with self-realization or lack of appreciation from people you live or work with.

And as you carry on with negative thoughts it becomes harder and harder to fall asleep again.

Are these signs of depression or stress? Is there are need in medications to make things right?

Quite possible. However, instead of rushing to the nearest pharmacy to buy Ambien ...
... take your time for a small experiment. Exclude any sugar from your regimen for at least a week and don't consume any alcoholic beverage after 5 pm.

It can turn out that such minor lifestyle changes will give your perfect refreshing sleep back.

If you can't hold yourself from eating that tasty chocolate bar or drinking a glass of beer right before going to sleep your blood sugar levels will dramatically increase. And even if alcohol and sugar are not the same substances they both contribute to the early wake up problem you have to deal with.

Having too much sugar or alcohol in your blood is quite harmful for your body so it will do everything possible to eliminate the problem. Such problems are resolved by neutralizing the effects with aggressive glucose consumption. Still, glucose is crucial for adequate functioning of the brain so when there's too little glucose left in the blood stream your brain sends switches to the alert mode and wakes up. And that's usually around 2 am in the night.

The brain can be supplied by additional glucose reprocessed from protein, however it takes a longer period of time. And while you're waiting for this to happen, you are fully awake and enjoying the effects of the brain chemistry imbalance that puts you in a negative and depressed mood.

Your brain, being a strong analytical tool, tries to identify the cause of the problem and unless you have read this article and know exactly what triggers your early wake ups, it will look through all of your current problems or uncertainties in order to find the exact cause of this state. Your physician is quite likely to not ask about your pre-sleep regimen and will prescribe you with Ambien as a fast solution.

So when you have another 2 am wake up situation try to remember what you ate before going to sleep. This will save you from having to order Ambien and most probably make you think of improving your lifestyle in general.