# Insomnia ?: Why do I feel SO tired after the 2nd time I wake up?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insomnia-why-do-i-feel-so-tired-after-the-2nd-time-i-wake-up/159044>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 4, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insomnia-why-do-i-feel-so-tired-after-the-2nd-time-i-wake-up/159044 "2003-03-04T18:28:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tomcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insomnia-why-do-i-feel-so-tired-after-the-2nd-time-i-wake-up/159044/1 "2003-03-04T18:28:24Z")

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I suffer from insomnia and have noticed something strange, I will wake up at, say, 3am and be wide awake and feeling fine. I’ll manage to go back to sleep after an hour or so, but when I wake up in the morning, I am groggy and tired and feel like crap. Why do I feel that way after an additional 3 to 4 hours of sleep?

-Tcat

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**Author:** ![KidCharlemagne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@KidCharlemagne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KidCharlemagne)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insomnia-why-do-i-feel-so-tired-after-the-2nd-time-i-wake-up/159044/2 "2003-03-04T18:57:50Z")

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When you wake up in the morning, do you wake up naturally or by alarm? If the latter is true, you are probably waking up mid-sleep cycle and would feel groggier than if you woke up naturally.

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**Author:** ![Tomcat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insomnia-why-do-i-feel-so-tired-after-the-2nd-time-i-wake-up/159044/3 "2003-03-04T19:41:49Z")

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It happens both naturally or if I use an alarm…There seems to be no difference.

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insomnia-why-do-i-feel-so-tired-after-the-2nd-time-i-wake-up/159044/4 "2003-03-04T20:02:19Z")

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Sleep Apnea/hypopnea sometimes get worse towards morning. It’ll leave you feeling like crap, as you describe. Searching for earlier threads on apnea gives \>50 hits. Some of them were quite useful, but I can’t recall which.