Hey there,
It is 3am while I am typing this. This might explain the title “sleep envy”. Right now I envy people who can sleep at night…
Let’s differentiate: I am probably the record holder in falling asleep. Just going to bed makes me instantly tired so that I can hardly keep my eyes open. I can even fall asleep while walking if I feel tired enough. Not to mention just dropping into a slumber on the couch. If I decide it is time to sleep I sleep.
Unfortunately though I have the lightest sleep too. The neighbor next door coughs. I am awake! Hubby comes to bed. I am awake! The window is open and a car drives by. I am awake! There are funny noises. I am awake! You get the picture.
It is really annoying. And the reason I often sleep with earplugs to get some rest at all.
And then there are nights when I wake up for no apparent reason – like today – and I am wide awake in the middle of the night. Knowing this might happen I usually don’t really open my eyes, don’t turn on lights and just walk around in the dark to avoid completely waking up. Sometimes I fail. And then I am done. Because falling asleep then is not at all easy anymore.
Those nights are the ones when I envy all people who sleep like the dead. Who do not hear anything. Like hubby who sleeps right through a fire alarm. For me it takes a 100 paged in a book. 500 Instagram accounts to scroll, sitting on the balcony, walking through the apartment, (stress) eating or writing blog post. Often I “waste” 2 hours of my nights rest before finding sleep again. And then it is usually not very peaceful.
Is anybody else suffering from this? I once read that this phenomenon is also considered as a sleeping disorder and can be triggered by certain things you eat/drink. And it was actually kind of true for me. I slept more restless when I had black or green tea in the evening. I always thought tea only triggered falling asleep but as I said no problem there. But besides that I still don’t know what it is. And I’ve had that my entire life. I can hardly remember nights were I didn’t wake up once. Those are really rare and worth mentioning. And even when I tell hubby very proud he often says oh you were awake when I came to bed…
I really really wish I would have a better sleep. So if you have any ideas I look forward hearing them.
Happy resting,
13 comments
Ugh. That sounds horrible. I usually have no problem sleeping and I rarely wake up at night… if I have a bad night every once in a while where I toss and turn, I am so grumpy in the morning that I don’t know how people, who suffer from this regularly, do it.
I have no advice. Maybe try sleeping with ear plugs? Make sure you don’t eat or drink anything that my ‘stimulate’ your system (like caffeine would).
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It often feels horrible but I guess I am so used to it that I feel weird when not waking up. I actually do sleep with earplugs more often than not. Maybe I could try eating not too late.
I’m jealous of people who can fall asleep easily (takes me at least an hour of laying in bed until my mind shuts off) but waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep would be awful. It would totally mess with my days as I’d be exhausted the whole next day. Hopefully it doesn’t happen to you too often.
The only advice I can offer is to not go on the computer for Instagram or Blog Posts. Apparently, electronic devices within a certain period of time before going to sleep can make sleep more difficult.
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Thank you for the advice. I have heard about that a lot but it is so so difficult. I often try to read but even that would be on a kindle. In summer I often just sit on the balcony but during winter its just to cold.
Hey Tobia,
I had been struggling for more than a year with having difficulty to get a good night sleep. Everyone’s already asleep and I am still very much wide awake then I wake up when somebody’s awake or when the cat starts walking right off the room. I wake up and struggle getting back to sleep again. I started doing some research, experimenting. So there are quite a few that helped me. One, I’ve read that sleeping at the same time every night and waking up every morning at the same time every day is a must, so I did. Two, Drinking Green Tea before bed. Three, use ear plugs and eye mask. So after a while, I am just happy that I’m now back to having a very good night sleep :) Try it out, see what works for you ;)
Hey, thank you for the comment. The routine of going to bed at the same time and waking up definitely helps with sleeping better. The Green tea thing didn’t work for me at all. ever since I cut that in the afternoon/nights I actually sleep better. And earplugs are a huge help. I just wonder do we have to get used to sleeping with “accessories” to be well rested? Shouldn’t we be able to do so without?
Hey Tobia,
Yes it is just so sad that some people (myself included) need accessories just so we can have a good night sleep. Our needs change as we age and so the things that we “normally” do no longer work. So we have to try new things to have a better sleep and so far the safest I’ve tried are sticking to sleep and wake up time, Green Tea and my ever reliable buddy, eye masks and earbuds :)
Try melatonin. My little one is eight years old, and for the past few months she has found it close to impossible to go to sleep before 10pm. I was very reluctant to give melatonin to my child. It works!
Dear Jennifer, thanks for the tip. I’ve never heard of melatonin supplements and have to admit I am a bit sceptic. But I’ll check it out. Have great day, Tobia
Oh, how I envy people who can fall asleep fast! It’s a struggle for me to fall asleep and I often use earplugs to block out street noise (or snoring haha). Also listening some podcasts (the people there should have calming voices and/or speak about something boring) or relax music and meditations help me to fall asleep. I also found that I can’t fall asleep when I’m hungry, so sometimes I just eat something. It’s not a great solution since you shouldn’t eat just before going to sleep but sometimes nothing else works.
I definitely wake up at every little noise too! I started using one of those apps that plays the sound of rain and that really helps to mask some of those noises. Though the neighbors still wake me with their noises sometimes!
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Oh yes, I hear neighbour noises all the time…
I don’t always get a good night’s sleep. But I’ve discovered there is a direct correlation to how well I sleep and how much exercise I get. I enjoy walking and usually do it daily. But when I get away from it (like I did last month for the most part) I don’t sleep as well