3-4am waking
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It has been months now of consistently waking up anywhere between 3-5 am. Often I can't get back to sleep after waking. This is starting to concern me as I've missed out on many hours of sleep now.
This started months ago after 3 days of waking up at 4am to catch flights, so I originally assumed I had set my rhythm to this wakeup time, however now I believe it may be something else.
Some things I've tried:
- Glycine before bed
- Calcium with sugar+salt before bed
- optimizing light environment (dimmed incandescents, blue-light glasses, dark home before bed)
- Apigenin/L-Theanine/Magnesium
Some notes on lifestyle factors:
- 21yr male
- Warm environment (FL)
- Weight train 4 times a week
- walking tons everyday
- Sun first thing in the morning, sun in peak daylight hours, sunset
- super consistent motility
- recently upped my maintenance calories from 2500-3000 with pro-metabolic practices
- recently lowered fats, increased carbs, increased calories
I've been recommended melatonin countless times. I've stayed away from it after listening to Peat's thoughts on the substance, however, I was wondering if there is ever a time to try a light dose of melatonin? Only curious because I'm getting desperate.
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@temple-of-salt A light dose of melatonin just to get the job done won't kill you in my experience. Then again I am not too familiar with Peat's critique of melatonin, beyond it being somewhat antimetabolic.
Part of the variable here is that doses given in pills are about 10x too high. Effects occur in good effect at 1/10 the normal dose of 3mg, i.e., 0.3mg. Using a liquid formula of melatonin, you can use these smaller amounts. A decent one is available at whole foods, which I occasionally use.
Weight train 4 times a week
Maybe try reducing the amount or intensity of training, even walking? Exercise used to bring on a kind of cortisol-induced mania in me, with symptoms not unlike what you describe.
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@temple-of-salt, this may seem counterproductive but to break the pattern, you could try setting an alarm to go off an hour before you typically wake (so for 2 am), keep something sugary by your bedside like juice or gummy bears and have it when the alarm goes off? Ray recommended a similar approach as a cure for insomnia.
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Hi
Waking up round 3 A.M is supposed to be linked to poor liver function according to some trustful physicians.
I won't take "things" that upregulate energy metabolism or supposed to repair / modulate unbalanced "exchanges" after 4 P.M.
So no calcium, high sugar drinks, red light therapy.I'd try L-theanine 250 at the evening meal,. Add a digestive enzyme if weak digestion. Enzymedica lipo gold.
and a shake with glycine.To be well-balanced:
a) to balance alkaline level, 2.30" - 3 H after the evening meal.
100 ml lukewarm water with 2 g baking soda (1/2 small tsp)
=> To avoid exciting PTH.
b) a shake 125 ml water, one hour later.
collagen 2 tbl (10 gr) or 1.3 g glycine
magnesium bisglycinate 2 doses (2.5 x 2)
Potassium citrate (or taurate) 1 dose (1.6 gr).Note: If you haven't the right amount of Ca (650 - 850 mg), you won't sleep well.
Note: No supplement above 200-250 mg Ca by take.
Need K2 and D3 to metabolize Ca. Otherwise, it will be useless.
I can give a link to explain the interaction between liposoluble vitamins, if desired. -
Idk your age or if you're male or female. But for me that's a typical menopause symptom. I hear high cortisol.
I have something sweet to drink, usually with dextrose. I fall right back to sleep when I do that.
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small jaws covered up by camouflage/retractive orthodontics you likely have a tongue tie and therefore you have small jaws there fore sleep apnea which causes you to wake up in the middle of the night when your tongue falls back too far in the throat blocking the flow of air then you body wakes you up with a shot of adrenaline.
To fix this do a palate expander then double jaw surgery and tongue tie release -
@temple-of-salt Stop taking glycine at night. It causes interrupted sleep.
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@temple-of-salt Father Peat said 2-5mg melatonin is probably harmless if needed to reset the ol' circadian rhythm. No need to be so rigid... even high dose melatonin on rare occasions can serve a purpose, protecting against radiation, other stressors.
Also I have no idea how safe or Peat-Approved
or not these are but pregabalin / gabapentin have been used by GHB users to supress or dull the surge of excitatory neurotransmitters that normally thrust you awake after about the 3 hour mark post ingestion. As seen on Reddit. Could be worth exploring. -
@temple-of-salt I have the exact same problem and tried so many different things, nothing helps. I feel you
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Odd that nobody's mentioned it, especially after seeing your username, but...
How about salt?
Decreases stress, and helps retain fluid which could be issue if waking to urinate. I've had similar issues whereby my caffeine intake, sweating from exercise, and 'healthy' eating probably left me salt-depleted. Waking up around that time, especially to urinate, has been a common issue for me. But then by chance one evening I had some salted bread thing and wow I didn't sleep so well for a year it felt like. The pattern became more clear with some experimentation.
(Someone mentioned baking soda which is an equivalently good call I guess.)
Peat on Salt: https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/salt.shtml
Edit - another minor thing I do which may help, is to take any supplements earlier in the day. I notice those can disrupt sleep sometimes.
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@SpaceManJim said in 3-4am waking:
Odd that nobody's mentioned it, especially after seeing your username, but...
How about salt?
Probably because he listed salt before bed under the things he has tried.
