I have various theories on this:
1. My husband is HOT. Seriously. He emanates body heat like nobody's business. This is convenient a lot of the time for me, particularly in the winter, since I have thin blood vessels and thus do not regulate heat well. Sometimes I complain when he goes to bed long after me, because I cannot get warm enough on my own, no matter how many blankets I pile on. However, a few hours of this during the summertime and I'm throwing covers off of me because I'm overheated.
2. My husband steals the covers. This he will adamantly deny, but it's true. I should know; I'm the one waking up, not him. I like to be snuggled in even when its warm outside.
3. My husband sleeps like a log. I am a light sleeper and wake up at the slightest stimulus. This can include, but is not limited to: a) becoming over or under-heated b) having the covers stolen from my side of the bed, and c) crazy nocturnal cat shenanigans. Deep down I think I resent hubby for sleeping so well. Perhaps the Universe has some comic need to balance his heavy sleeping by making me sleep less.
OK, since I know some of you are snickering and planning to give him a hard time about the above, on to some reasons that don't involve blaming my husband, and which perhaps have more physiological validity:
4. I'm stressed. When I'm worried I toss and turn for hours while various (usually negative) scenarios play out in my head. Also, this pattern of sleeplessness has been around 8 years long, which while it coincides with my marriage, also coincides with starting my job with corporate America. While marriage can be stressful, ours has been on the blessedly happy and content side (yeah I know, gag gag, whatever). And college was a stressful time, too, but I slept like a baby back then, most of the time. I would wake up a few minutes before the alarm clock rang every single day. I stopped using the alarm clock because my body always knew when to get up, even when my schedule changed. Now I wake up before the alarm clock rings, but its hours, not minutes before. So, working for the man is the more likely culprit. Ultimately, however, I think stress has more to do with why I can't get back to sleep than with why I wake up.
5. I have some imbalance or intoxication in my liver. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), energy flows through 12 different meridians over a 24-hour period. Each meridian is associated with a different organ, and since I generally wake up at about 3am, this could indicate my liver is somehow involved. Of course TCM also suggests that heart/spleen issues commonly cause insomnia. Actually, looking over that list (at the prior link), I have all of those symptoms involving both the liver and heart/spleen. Maybe I should go see Steve Chen as my mother-in-law keeps insisting.
6. An imbalance of my Vata-Kapha nature, based on the ancient Ayurvedic tradition. I've been reading about this, and I'm still pretty rough, but I think I'm getting a slight grip on it. It all relates to the body and what types of food is better for different doshas, or natures, of people. Vata is the air/space side of me seated in the throat and heart chakras, which gives me, of the three doshas, the "greatest potential for a profound spiritual life" (I'm not making this up), but also makes me vulnerable to worrying and insecurity. On the other hand, my Kapha nature is the more grounded side of me (water/earth related to the root and sacral chakras), giving me my motherly and practical nature, but on the flip side vulnerable to lethargy and depression. The Vata and Kapha natures are fairly diametrically opposed, but together it seems they can balance the other's weaknesses. Basically I'm spacey and grounded, spiritual yet practical. Down to the main point here . . . Vata energy is most active between the hours of 2 and 6 (am and pm), so are most likely to become restless and lose sleep during those early am hours. And it seems fairly plain to me that both my Vata and Kapha natures are imbalanced, since I'm showing negative signs on both fronts, although the symptoms seem to overlap somewhat.
7. I am deficient in minerals, possibly including magnesium. My herbalist confirmed that I'm mineral deficient, which I've discussed briefly before. My chiropractor recommended a magnesium supplement, because it helps the body relax, and is needed to balance the effects of calcium in the body. We hear we need calcium all the time, but hardly ever hear about magnesium. This stuff is supposed to help me sleep better. Well it works great for Steve but has yet to do the trick for me.
8. I have hypothyroidism. I have never ruled this out even though my doctor did some test saying I'm not, since I show so many symptoms. And the normal blood test isn't supposed to be that reliable, according to nearly every alternative medicine source I've read. Thyroid function is connected with the production of serotonin, which helps regulate mood, temperature, blood pressure, sleep, etc. etc. Another complication is the common prescribing of antidepressants like Prozac, Zoloft, etc, which are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). If depression is due to hypothyroidism, then the underlying cause is not being treated, and the drugs are not effective until the hypothyroidism is addressed.
9. One of the other 442 causes of sleeplessness.
10. Alternately, I'm just thinking about this too darn much and it's keeping me awake.
So what do I need to do? For starters, follow all the normal advice that it's so hard to do:
1. Exercise
2. Drink lots of water
3. Eat healthy
4. Don't eat after 8 pm
5. Go to bed at the same time every night... the earlier the better ("an hour of sleep prior to midnight is equal to 2 hours of sleep after midnight")
6. Take my magnesium and other supplements even when I can't tell it's making an immediate difference
7. Get checked for hypothyroidism before I jump on the SSRI bandwagon
8. Get regular massages!! (Olivia, I know where to come!)
9. Hire a personal chef who can provide healthy and enticing meals for me every single day at the right time of the day
10. Hire a maid to do all the crap around the house that I just don't want to
11. Heck, while I'm at it... hire a personal assistant and a personal trainer and a life coach to help me keep organized and motivated with everything else
12. Win the lottery to make all the rest of this possible (not just so I can afford #8-11, but so I have time to do the rest!)
13. Sigh (aka remember to breathe), try not to get overwhelmed, and at least start...baby steps, right?
and last but not least
14. Just pull the covers back over and go back to sleep!
Retiring this blog
4 years ago
3 comments:
Not that I sleep that well but...Ambien, separate comforters, epsom salt baths, close the door on the animals, white noise, separate beds....I could go on and on.
Poor Heather. I could easily have written this myself--minus the husband problems and a lot more psychotic nocturnal feline incidents. What do we do? I go back and forth on the issue of taking sleep aids (Rx or otherwise). Sometimes I believe in them, sometimes I don't. My old therapist told me that I should try to follow asleep for 20 minutes. If I'm unsuccessful, I should exercise for 20 minutes and then take a warm bath for 20 minutes. He swore this would work. I never tried it because, well, it sounds like a lot of work, and I'm lazy.
Anyway, I feel your pain--or rather, your insomnia.
Also, my friend Elisa radiates heat like nobody's business, and it is definitely hard to sleep next to!
I might also say it's female thing, but that might sound like a sexist opinion. But sexist or not, you could have written that blog for me. According to Scott, I wake up if the cat sneezes, which is slightly true, but I will deny to death if ever repeated in my husband's earshot! I would blame the kids, my mother insists that once you become a mother your body, senses, etc. are tuned to listen out for sounds of distressed, sick, scared or upset child in the night. But since I was like that BEFORE the children, I guess I can't lay blame at their feet. So it's back to the "female" thing, maybe it's do with estrogen or something!
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