Sleep problems can take you down some crazy paths, be it drugs with side effects, fear of hidden diseases, and plain frustration. I got ZERO real solutions from my doctors (sigh…) in spite of pleading for help at my physicals. Now I realize many issues pertaining to "me" have to be solved by "me".
I get such a sense of personal accomplishment when I discover some wellness solution through simple research, logic and common sense.
Having enjoyed great sleep since my nutritional revolution 5 or 6 years ago, I moved to Portland, Oregon in 2011, and my sleep issues come back with a vengeance. The bizarre thing about all of this was that I would ALWAYS wake up almost exactly 4.5 hours after dropping off to sleep. It didn't matter when I went to sleep either. Drop off at 10:30pm, wake up at exactly 3:00am. drop off at Midnight, wake up at exactly 4:30am.
At some point, I simply googled something basic like "waking up after 4.5 hours", expecting to find nothing, but low and behold I came up with the solution. I ran across a blogger's article by someone named Glenn Rhodes, read it with am open mind, and that "god given" gift I have seeing truth in a world of contradictory information, I jumped right on it. Glen's article is now in a non public site, don't know why, but the next underlined paragraph in red, after the link breaks down the basics.
"If we were to sleep completely naturally, with no alarm clocks other sleep disturbances, we would wake up, on the average, after a multiple of 90 minutes–for example, after 90mintes, 3 hours, 4 1/2 hours, 6 hours, 7 1/2 hours, or 9 hours, (important to note not after 7 or 8 hours, which are not multiples of 90 minutes). In the period between cycles we are not actually sleeping: it is a sort of twilight zone from which, if we are not disturbed (by light, cold, a full bladder, noise), we move into another 90-minute cycle. A person who sleeps only four cycles (6 hours) will feel more rested than someone who has slept for 8 to 10 hours but who has not been allowed to complete any one cycle because of being awakened before it was completed…. ”
Once I was empowered with this new info, which spiritually, instinctively, and subconsciously felt like the answer, I got back to normal sleep patterns is less than two weeks. I realized waking up after 4.5 hours for me was normal, meaning perhaps my body didn't need as much sleep as it used to. Thus when I would wake up, there was no need for anxiety or panic, or forcing myself back to sleep. Plus after I figured out the game, I realized I was never tired after the 4.5 hours of sleep, it just seemed wierd if the 4.5 ended and 3am and I was wide awake, I wasn't equating this to the fact that my body got all the sleeps it needs, I was erroneously equating it to some sleep problem. I learned to just go to bed at midnight or 1am and let myself wake up at a about 5 or 5:30, and the great part is I was always refreshed, and I got to stay up later at night. Some days I would accidentally wake up before my 4.5 but the next night I got back into my natural groove. Problem solved. This stuff really works!!!!!.
So, short story long, problem solved. Just for the record, speaking for myself, it's all about that LAST SLEEP CYCLE BEFORE I WAKE UP that determines how refreshed I'll be the next day. If one of my middle of the night 90 minute cycles interrupted, say from a firetruck, there is still an opportunity to salvage the night and the next day if that LAST SLEEP CYCLE can happen without interruption. Knowing all this, I know not to panic if I wake up in the middle of the night, I know not to force myself to sleep, I will eventually drop off, even if it takes 2 hours of lying there, and there is a good chance I will get in that last 90 minute cycle uninterrupted, and still wake up refreshed and good to go.
In the end, you have to figure out what is interrupting your natural sleep cycles; heat up too high, weak bladder, bad mattress, the things you eat (very common), or whatever.
One additional note – I don't wanna confuse the beginners, but I've also learned that I can be awake but then drop off to sleep in the last 10 minutes of a 90 minute sleep cycle, like the last 90 minutes right before I wake up to get ready for work, and it seems my body just needs that last 10 minutes "dream state", and it will feel refreshed. What I'm saying is if I'm wide awake at 5:00 am, and my last 90 minute cycle and normal wakeup time is 6:30am, I can be laying there wide awake for most of that 90 minutes, but after about 80 minutes, I will drop off to sleep and wake up 10 minutes later, and feel totally refreshed. Just something I noticed over the years, and helps with the negative psychology of thinking you will be tired during the day if you were awake in the early morning. If that doesn't make sense, don't try to over think it, just get into the sleep cycle concept, and over a couple of years you will have that experience..
A subject for another article is that without this kind of information and practical application and proof of concept, you could end up on this road of taking medications or drugs, with those scary side effects like the ones they talk about in those medical drug TV commercials. You could end up down any crazy road, including the unemployment line, when the answer is right under our noses, if you can grasp it, and prove it for yourself. Now sleep is a pleasure again. ~dw~
2 Responses
Good article about sleep. I haven'y used an alarm clock since the age of 16, so I can relate to sleeping most nights for 4.5 – 5 hrs and waking up without an alarm. Today I arose at 4 am. However, I did fall asleep at 10:30. I'm usually awake until 12:30. When I changed to a raw vegan diet for two weeks in March 1985, I was waking up naturally at 3:00 am. I was new to vegetarinsim, since I had converted in May 1984.
On most nights, I sleep 4.5-5 hrs waking up vibrant and rested. I've tried to sleep 7-8 hrs as recommended, but I usually wake up sluggish and tired. – AWB
I’m at the point where as soon as I wake up I can tell if I properly completed my sleep cycle. Initially I had to watch the clock, and I had to factor in the time it took to fall asleep I noticed if I wake up early and fall back to sleep, that nap lasts almost exactly 90 minutes. This knowledge really worked for me. I also noticed in that very last 90 minute cycle in the AM, I may be lying in bed awake for almost all that last 90 minutes, and then I drop off to sleep the last 10 minutes of the 90 minute cycle. After that I jump up good to go. I guess that means that last 10 minute “dream state” is needs to be hit, and maybe the body is fooled into thinking I was sleeping the entire 90 minutes, terminating in the 10 minute dream state.