The past several weeks, I've been having difficulty with waking up too early!
I have always been a very regular, consistent sleeper, and even these days I'm going to sleep roughly at the same time. I'm just not getting enough hours, because I'll wake up after sleeping only five or six hours, and then my brain just won't settle down and let me sleep!

This has never really happened to me before-- always gotten 8-9 hours consistently with only occasional 2/3 day periods where I don't sleep much.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'll really appreciate it!

I don't have any suggestions unfortunately, but I bet a lot of people on here will. I have insomnia so I know how bad not sleeping right sucks. Without meds I don't sleep at all.

I'm no help, either, 5 or 6 hours is about average for me. I can't say that I like it that way.

I've been dealing with this problem (I wake up after 4 hours) as a symptom of significant depression/anxiety issues for the last 5 months. How are you feeling about life these days? I know from your other posts that you're having binge issues, too, so I thought it was worth asking.

I also tend to have some sleep difficulties if I am exercising too hard and eating too little. When you're already thin, I think it's easy to stress out your body with an aggressive dieting plan.

So far, my best method to deal with this seems to be to get up and gently stretch (something that's very relaxing to me) for about 10 minutes, then go back to bed. Once I'm lying down, I use mindfulness techniques to deal with the racing thoughts-- you might do some Googling on this. It works sometimes and doesn't work other times, but it's better than nothing.

Could you be pregnant? That is a very typical sign in early first trimester.

Thanks to everyone for the replies!!

sumire, it's true that I do have some level of anxiety/depression, partially from, as you noticed, binge eating issues, among other life things. But those issues are not new things....though maybe it could be manifesting itself just recently as I begin to really address those things more? I'll give stretching a try and check out midfulness. Thanks!

sacha - Nope, definitely not pregnant, as I'm on BC. ...Well, I guess there is a small possibility, as I've heard stories before, but I'm due for my period in a couple days here, so we'll find out!

You can download free or cheap apps to your smart phone and listen to hypnosis for sleeping or hypnosis relaxation, etc. I do mine right before sleeping, of course. It def helps to relax your whole body and sleep better. You can try some different ones to find your favorite.

Whatever's going on, I hope you find some solution! I know how quickly this can start to wear you down. Take care.

LOL, my son was conceived while I was on bc. I took it correctly too.

I find doing simple meditation exercise helpful in getting my brain to calm down enough to go to sleep.