Sleep Waking Up in the Middle of the Night
I solved one of the biggest problems for my sleep:
Waking up in the middle of the night.
At first, I thought only I had this problem, because I was getting up really early for meetings.
It’s not only me?!
When I was at a happy hour chatting casually with others, another person mentioned they always get up at random hours at night.
The only thing, that I can guess, the person and I have in common is that we had highly technical jobs where we sat down for most of the day.
One thing I did know is that the other person did not get up early - so I ruled out that problem.
“The Spice Extends Life”
The other guess I had: heart burn. I like to eat spicy food, sometimes
too spicy. My current favorite poison, err, hot sauce: The Garlic
Reaper. Sometimes
I would put too much.
🥵
When I reduced my hot sauce addiction, I would wake up less randomly.
Water, water every hour
The other thing I stopped: drinking water just before bed. My one gallon of water a day habit is hard, I would stop trying to attain that. I would still have ten ounces before bed - I would stop that and have my last drink at 19:30.
That improved my sleep dramatically!
I stopped waking up three hours after going to bed. Water, my friend is the enemy of sleep!
New habit: stop drinking after 19:30.
04:30?!
I went to bed early, slept for more than three hours in a row before getting up, yet I was still getting up early - what gives?!
I noticed I woke up consistently at 04:30 - which is what time I woke up before for some meetings, I didn’t have to get up at that hour for months, so what triggered this?
On the weekdays, my neighbor would leave for work early - around 04:30! Their vehicle made a sound and I would sleep with my window open - open enough to let the sound in!
When I closed my window to sleep, I would wake up after 04:30, say 06:00 - giving me a solid eight hours of sleep!
Solid Eight!
I can say now, I am getting a solid eight hours of sleep a night. I don’t get up randomly after going to bed nor do I wake up earlier than when I want to by:
- reducing outside noise I hear
- stop drinking water earlier in the evening
- have less hot sauce in my meals
Getting eight hours of sleep consistently feels really good and I crave for it when I goto bed late - which is not the main variable of how much I sleep.
It’s been a journey to get here - and getting eight hours of sleep every night is worth the effort.
😴