Dealing with sleep inertia

In My Humble Opinion
1

I wake up in the morning, feeling my body leaden and unwilling to move. My eyelids are heavy and refuse to stay open. Just a few more minutes, I assure myself, and drift off to sleep, only to wake up to realize that a half-hour has passed, and I am still feeling the same.

The cycle can repeat 2-3 times each morning. Ultimately the fear of losing my job jolts me awake enough to get to the kitchen and make myself some coffee.

Sometimes I have been late for work, and on rare occasions, believe it or not, I have slept through the morning and woken up past lunch hour, and have had to invent excuses to give my boss (who by that time had realized I wasn’t turning up for office that day).

Ideally I would like to wake up and have the Sun switch on inside my head, make me feel light and energetic, ready to take on the world. Since this is asking for too much, at the least I would like to be able to sit up and drag my ass to the bathroom to shake off the cobwebs. On many days even this has been unattainable; I plop right back into bed promising to wake up in 5 minutes, which I don’t, of course.

Has anybody dealt successfully with this debilitating problem? I have tried bright lights, loud music, and always keep the 5-hour energy shot by my bedside. They do help, but not nearly enough. (Life was bearable when I still had my supply of Modafinil.)

Could there be an organic basis to this condition (if it is a condition)?

Suggestions are most welcome, TIA!

2

You are trying to get up after how many hours of sleep?

3

How many hours of sleep do you get each night?

Do you keep a regular schedule, going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, or do you switch things around a lot?

Is it possible that you have sleep apnea or some other condition that disrupts your sleep cycle?

4

Yes I know exactly what you are talking about and I too agree we need more information in order to really give you any feedback. Not that I have any solutions! One thing I will say is that I feel that my natural rhythm is greater than a 24-hour cycle. This means my body wants to stay awake longer, and sleep longer, than it could in a consistent 24-hour pattern. Maybe your problem is similar?

I’m curious to also know-- do you have/ have you ever experienced sleep paralysis?

5

I get around 6-7 hours of sleep each night, interrupted by the need to go to the bathroom once per night. I cannot claim to be very consistent with my bed timings; I typically turn in for the night around 10:30 pm. It is a struggle to fall asleep - takes an hour at the least. Then begins the struggle to get up on my feet, beginning about 6 am, which can then go on and on.

I have alarms ringing at 6 and every 30 minutes after, but the inertia is so powerful for me I can turn them all off for “just 5 more minutes”. Last week was particularly bad - one day I finally awoke at 11:30 am feeling ready to go.:smack:

6

I do not have sleep apnea, but I do have trouble falling asleep. My mind would usually not be done with the events of the day, and keep me awake with random thoughts and stuff. Just like the rest of humanity experiences. I do not have a known medical sleep disorder.

7

Yes - on occasion. While it is frightening when it is happening, it does not leave an impact on me after I am awake. It also happens pretty rarely for me - once in the past 3 months roughly.

8

Well I’ve never heard the term “sleep inertia,” but I like it. It’s kind of the opposite to insomnia. The mind has a hard time switching from one state of consciousness to the other. It’s a chemical thing, I believe. In sleep your brain waves are moving more slowly, and deeper. Delta for deep sleep, theta for light sleep or falling asleep. Alpha and gamma for awake, alert, focused attention.

Reminds me of sleep paralysis, where you seem to have conflicting brain states. Though it hasn’t been completely explained (ghosts, of course), the gist I get from reading about it is that the chemicals (glycine) that aid in paralysis literally entrap you while your brain is in a more alert state of functioning.

9

Sleep inertia. I have only gotten disorders that are proven to exist and are well documented.

10

Do you have any periods in the morning where you wake and feel ready to get up? But maybe go back to sleep because it is not time to get up yet? If so, try getting up then, even if it is 5am. I have a natural waking time somewhere between 6-7am but if I stay in bed and go back to sleep I feel very sluggish when I eventually get up.

11

Put the alarm out of your reach so that you must get up. If it’s near the shower, that would be good so that you could get right in. Have a back up alarm somewhere if you’re worried you won’t hear it clearly. 30 minutes for snooze is too long, it should be no more than five minutes or so.

12

I have a sleep disorder that is different from sleep inertia, but a few of the things that I do may help.

Most of these are to follow the boring recommendations you’ve undoubtedly come across so many times: get plenty of sleep and on a regular schedule, cut down or eliminate caffeine and alcohol use, and give yourself a good hour of “winding down” time before bed, with no TV or internet, dim lights, etc. It’s easy to disregard these tips as being unimportant or not worth the effort, but, together, they can make a big difference in how well you sleep.

Another tip that I don’t see often enough - don’t hit the snooze button, or otherwise grab “just ten more minutes”. Get right up and start moving - easier said than done, I know. But if you give in and hit that snooze, you’re sending your body back down into another REM cycle, and you’ll have that much more trouble getting up and feeling awake throughout the morning. This tip took a bit of practicing for me, but it makes a big difference.

I also use a light box (one that is rated for sleep disorders and SAD) in the morning and take melatonin at night, but those are more specific to my disorder.

Dealing with sleep issues is not easy, and you may wish to see about getting a referral to a sleep specialist who will of course be better able to target your needs than random strangers on a message board.

13

Have you tried a clocky?

Seriously though, your mind will find a way to get what it needs. You are not getting enough sleep. If it’s a choice between income and sleep, your mind will choose sleep, and it won’t consult you.

I would advise focusing on falling asleep at least an hour before you are doing it now. Once you are getting 8-9 hours of actual sleep each night, you will begin to waken naturally without trouble.

Google “sleep hygiene” and follow the suggestions. Be in bed a 9:00pm every night without fail, and force yourself out at 6:00am relentlessly. Never use the snooze alarm at all. Your body clock is a tough opponent, and you will have to be extremely determined to win this. But I can tell you from experience that it will also severely restrict your success in life if you allow it to continue controlling your schedule.

One of the best pieces of life-wisdom ever shared with me: “I finally figured out that I was going to hate getting up no matter what time I did it, so I may as well do it in time to have a good morning.”

If you go to bed at 9:00pm and rise at 6:00am for thirty days and it still isn’t working, seek medical help.

Hope that helps. I totally feel your pain, and have lost good jobs over the years for similar reasons. Don’t let it steal your progress and security in life.

14

I’ve heard that one reason for grogginess in the morning is that sometimes you wake up in the middle of an REM cycle. Ideally, you should wake up between cycles. There’s a website that helps calculate when to go to bed and when to wake up.

I don’t know if it’s bunk or not.

15

It’s not bunk - it’s also the reason you should either take a 30 minute or 2 hour nap in the afternoon - anything in between and you are most likely to end up waking out of a REM cycle and be groggy, making the nap unhelpful.

I’m not a morning person either, and that’s exactly how it manifests for me. If the OP is not a morning person, then he/she is going to spend their life beating their head against the wall.

My specific advice?

Find a night-hours job, or at least one where you’re up and running later in the day.

Streamline your mornings so you’re up, out of bed, and out the door in 15 minutes or less.

Reduce your commute to less than 30 minutes.

Get enough sleep!

Figure out your natural sleep requirements: Find a 4-day holiday, or on your next vacation, don’t plan to do anything. Fall asleep when you’re tired, and get up when you naturally want to get up. When that pattern stabilizes, you know where your set-points are, and how many hours of sleep your body wants. My pattern is awful. I naturally fall asleep around midnight, naturally wake up around 11 am, and yes I do sleep 11 hours a night if I’m allowed to do so.

So, I’ve done the best I can. I have a schedule that allows me to work evenings on a regular schedule. I have “slipped” my sleeping schedule up an hour or so, so I fall asleep at 10 (meaning I’m in bed by 9:30 at the latest), and try to wake up by 9 even when I don’t have to.

I’ve tried to soldier through it - when I was in school, I sleepwalked through my morning classes. When I was in college, I avoided morning classes unless they were required, and then I sleepwalked through those as well. Finally I just realized this was how I was wired, and now I do a lot better by compensating in other ways. I try to set meetings for afternoons, or lunch meetings. I purposefully looked for a job that lets me come in relatively late in the day. It is what it is. You wouldn’t tell someone with narcolepsy to “just stay awake” so I don’t see how it’s reasonable to tell someone who isn’t wired for early mornings to “just get up and go.”

16

A rigid body clock is an absolute nightmare. I had it through my early adulthood (pregnancy hormones turned it around for me at last) and it affected every aspect of my life. But I’m not sure the OP is there. Or he hasn’t given us enough information to draw that conclusion.

Strictly going to bed at 9:00 and rising at 6:00 will serve two purposes 1) to see if the body clock eventually adjusts and 2) to let the sleep cycle time itself for a good awakening. These things will eventually happen for people without a full-on sleep disorder.

And as I said, if it doesn’t work, a doctor’s advice is warranted.

17

I do not subscribe to woo in general. But I’ve found that a small dose of melatonin 30 minutes before bed helps a lot. It’s a hormone that your brain secretes to make you sleepy. I am not a doctor; however, I believe that if you do a lot of computer activity in the evenings, the monitor light suppresses the natural secretion of melatonin, which leads to staying up later.

Just don’t take the huge doses they recommend on the label. 1/3 mg is perfect. Some brands recommend a 3mg dose, which is way way too much.

18

My doctor has me taking a 3mg dose, and I’m to take it at 7pm (for a bedtime at 10-11pm). My sleep disorder may account for our different experiences there, I dunno.

I just remembered, f.lux is a great program that automatically adjusts your monitor brightness according to the time of day. http://justgetflux.com/

19

I have some similarities to the OP.

My technique is to get in bed at least an hour before I want to be asleep and read until I get sleepy. Reading on my iPhone is great because I can put it down without even needing turn on a light (an action that would be enough to make me alert again and restart the whole trying-to-sleep thing). Even when I get up to pee in the middle of the night, I usually have to read for a bit to get my brain to settle down.

Then when I wake up, I set my alarm clock for an hour before I really want to wake up. I don’t even hit the snooze button, but I’ll listen to the music and let myself slide from being more asleep to more awake. When the music turns off after an hour, it’s always enough to snap me awake and I know I’ve got no choice but to get up at that point, but there’s usually a time about 30-45 minutes after the alarm goes off when I’m feeling more awake and am ready to get up.

So… getting 8 hours of sleep actually takes me pretty close to 10 hours, but I have to do it this way. If I go right from an activity (even watching TV) into bed, I will not get to sleep - and I’ll get frustrated that I’m not getting to sleep. If I have to jump out of bed and get myself going, I’ll spend an hour in a fog and the rest of the day feeling grumpy and irritated.

20

3mg is too much. I’m not your doctor, glad if it works for you, but 3mg is too much. http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/fact-sheet-melatonin?page=2