advice on oversleeping please!
 

Hi!
I have had this problem as long as I can remember. I have the worst time getting out of bed in the morning. I'm at the point where my body knows exactly how long it can stay asleep and still give me barely enough time to get up and slide into work on time. I generally go to sleep between 9 and 10pm, and I have tried setting up to as many as 5 alarms placed strategically throughout my bedroom (all well out of arms reach) and I STILL oversleep. I really want to be able to wake up early enough to get a short workout in the morning to boost my metabolism but I can't even get up in time to shower and get ready for work. Is this something I should talk to my doctor about or does anyone have any advice as to what might be able to help me? Thank you!

What time do you have to get up?

It could be a bad habit you've been getting away with, or you could have a sleep disorder of some kind, and are not sleeping well, even though you don't know it. Wouldn't hurt to consult your Dr.

My Dh has to have one of those overnight sleep studies to determine if it's causing his atrial fibrillation problems. Sleep disorders are more common than we think.

I do this too!!!! However, I have a job where I'm in multiple time zones over a couple of days and my hours of sleep per night can vary. My wakeup call can be as early as 3am. But I almost never oversleep when I'm working because I know people are waiting on me.

Have you tried making a workout date with a friend?

Sounds simple, and until I got my current job I would never have believed someone who gave me this advice. But in my case fear of disappointing others is the best motivator. :D

This isn't a sleep disorder, it's a just a bad habit, IMO. But I'm no doctor.

Do you live alone? If so, try this experiment. When the first alarm goes off, yell. Really! Yell "OKAY" at the alarm. Then sit up. Once you are sitting up, it's harder to stay asleep. Then next, stand up. Pull the covers back up over the bed. Make it a rule that once you're standing up, you don't get back in the bed, period.

You may think this is your body, but it's really your mind. Probably you have done this since you were a child?

I'm assuming that you're supposed to get up at 6, because that would be 8 hours of sleep. 8 hours is probably enough.

Good luck!
Jay

Yep, my body has fought waking up most of my life. Doesn't seem to be related to the amount of sleep so much as the time of day. One trick that did work was setting up a personal heater on a timer to heat up the bedroom an hour before I needed to get up so the bed didn't feel quite so cozy.

I was honestly one of those people who just did NOT want to get up in the morning, hitting snooze till the last possible second every day. I always thought everyone did that, until I was telling it to my sleep doctor on my first visit there and she raised an eyebrow. I was surprised!

I had a sleep study and found out I have very severe sleep apnea, and was prescribed a CPAP to wear. Now that I sleep perfectly, if I go to sleep at 10pm, I am up by 6 at the latest, on my own, before the alarm, and ready for the day. I am still shocked by this, even though it's been several months now.

It wouldn't hurt to mention it to your doctor, or to read up and see if you have any other symptoms. I was extremely tired all day, so that's what finally led me to the doctor. A huge side benefit is that I don't have the INTENSE food cravings I used to have from being sleep deprived, and I've had nothing but success with my weight loss since.

Just throwin' it out there! ;)

I've never really had this problem. There have been times where I didn't want to get out of bed, of course, but never to a point where it's keeping me from doing what needs to get done. I usually don't even give myself the option of staying in bed. As soon as the alarm goes off I get up, flip on the lights and the TV then go to the bathroom to potty/ weigh/ brush my teeth. It's habit. Same thing every morning that I have to be up.

Try it tomorrow morning. Don't even give yourself the option of staying in bed.

Shannon- Both my father and his dad have sleep apnea and use a CPAP. I have thought about this a lot. My dad isn't even sort of overweight (Army Ranger), and grandpa is just a little bit (maybe 15-20 pounds). I go to the doctor in two weeks and will ask about this, for sure. Looking at the list of symptoms, it looks like I have quite a few of them :(

Yeah it could be sleep apnea. My dad had this problem before he got the machine. I'm starting to experience it myself, but its only since getting off my thyroid medicine. So it could be something like that too. I would make sure your Dr does a blood panel on you too.
I really don't think its a bad habit, if you are like me and literally feel like you haven't slept more then a few hours during an 8+ hour rest. I need to get in and see my dr about it too. I really hope its not sleep apnea...if it is, I doubt weight loss will cure it, when usually it does. :P

If I decide I want to exercise in the morning, I am unable to get to sleep. I toss and turn all night. I am NOT thinking about exercise or getting up. It took a long time to get that there was an association between the decision to exercise and the insomnia.
I exercise in the afternoons now. I am just wired that way. After work is workout time for me. thats it, thats all.

If you find it's not a medical condition, try this, it worked for my nephew.

Buy a galvanized milk bucket at a feed store and an old fashioned wind up alarm clock with the bells on both sides at the top. Put the clock in the bucket and place it some where in your house where you have to physically get out of bed to go shut it off! Then get straight in the shower!

Makes a horrid, sleep shattering racket that you cannot ignore!:D

shcirerf - I'm not sure I'd be the most pleasant person the rest of the day if I woke up to that :D

It's definitely not for everyone! LOL!

Interesting...You know, I always thought sleep apnea was what middle aged fat guys with no neck have, or the super-obese like me. But I found out from my sleep doc and from a site I belong to that is really just not the case. And there are millions of people undiagnosed, from what they say, because if people don't fit that criteria, they just assume that must not be what they have.

There are several people on that site that have lost a ton of weight just having the CPAP, and it's been my experience that I still have to do all the work toward weight loss, but it is just DOABLE now, because I am not fighting that constant exhaustion and unbearable food cravings. I was feeling really bad when my stepmom said something to the effect that "oh, too bad you couldn't just lose weight and you have to sleep with a CPAP now". I posted that on the site, and lots of people replied that they believe the sleep apnea is WHY they were so overweight. My doctor told me that because of my jaw anatomy, I would likely still need the CPAP if I lose a lot of weight, just the pressure may go down. We shall see.

I saw a thing on 60 minutes a couple years ago where they sleep deprived people. They had a bunch of healthy-weight people come to this place for a week, they only let them have 4 hours of sleep per night, and by the end of the week most of them were eating almost double their calories, all of it pizza, burgers, etc. Several of the people had blood sugars out of whack to the point of pre-diabetes levels -- just from one week without adequate sleep. Also, I worked night shift for many years (talk about sleep-deprived!), and it was SO weird to me that at least half of the 20-something, normal-weight girls who got pregnant had gestational diabetes. So that's a message to everyone, whether you have a sleep problem or not -- get your sleep! :D

Sorry for the public service announcement, but obviously I feel passionate about this. For the first time in my adult life I KNOW sustainable weight loss is possible, it's just a matter of time. My house is clean, my finances are in perfect order, my relationships with my daughter and husband have improved 10-fold, and I've only been sleeping great for 4 months. kathryn, don't be afraid of this diagnosis if you get one, getting it treated is a MIRACLE!!!!

well I got up EARLY this morning! But...that was because our fire alarm got set off somehow (not sure, no fire or smoke or anything). It was about half hour before my alarm clock was supposed to go off, so when everything was put back together there was no time for me to lay back down (ten more minutes please!).

Shannon- I used to work overnights at the local University when I was in school. And yes, I totally agree with that observation. Almost every one of the people who worked there was overweight, and because of the hours that fought against our natural sleep cycles, they would use energy drinks and the like to stay awake. I can see the correlation. That's just madness, though, I didn't think it could cause that many health problems. I am only slightly overweight but they've already cautioned me about my sugar levels being really bad.

Well, I guess we'll see. I've just started a new job and need to actually earn some sick leave before I can go to the doctor. I've got a general appointment set up for the 27th - do you know what the course of action would be when I tell them about everything? Would they send me to a specialist? Thanks for all your help!

That's the way it worked for me. I had just found a new general practitioner, because my other one was a weirdo. So I made an appointment to get all the usual labs done, physical exam, etc. I had already thought about asking her about a sleep study because of how tired I always was and my husband told me I snored horribly. With some insurance plans you need that referral from your regular doctor, some don't require it. My blood pressure was creeping up to where she wanted to talk about meds, but decided she would wait until after my sleep study to see what happened. (I think it was 158/100 that time). I went to the sleep doctor she arranged for me, and they scheduled me for 2 nights of sleep studies -- the first one to see how I sleep normally, and then if needed, one to try the CPAP and figure out what pressure I needed to keep my airway open.

Just to give you an idea of the huge health ramifications of having untreated sleep apnea, when they took my blood pressure after my first night of sleeping my own normal way, it was 170/120! She said all night long my body was doing the fight or flight response -- WAKE UP AND BREATHE! I went back the very same night for the CPAP test, slept like I had never slept before in my adult life, and when she took my BP it was 128/78. At my last follow-up appt, after 2 months with my own CPAP, my BP was 123/80.

I'm really still in shock about it, and again, I am sorry to keep posting all this stuff, but it kills me to think of the amount of people who go in to their doctor complaining about being tired and having high blood pressure who are given antidepressants and BP pills, when a big part of the solution could just be effective, restorative sleep! I think my situation is very extreme, because my sleep apnea is really almost off the charts severe. But I feel compelled to tell my story whenever I get the chance. I have a whole new life!

Edited to add: Feel free to PM me if you have any questions you don't want to post on the thread. ;)

Are you taking any medications? I'm on a couple of antidepressants and find that if I don't watch myself, I could easily sleep 10 hrs at night and still take a 3 hour nap a day and STILL be sleepy all day. Just a thought...

I'm not currently on any prescription meds and I take a multivitamin each morning and that's all. Thanks shannon :)

IM pretty much in the same boat as you. I can sleep like ten hours a night and wake up and still be sleepy. Now I don't think im getting a restful sleep as I wake up quite a bit during the night.

the only thing I could say is try to see a doctor, maybe your sleeping but it isn't a restful sleep, so your body doesn't feel refreshed enough when you wake up. just a thought.

This used to happen to me all the time, I could never get out of bed.

I would definitely go to a doctor to make sure everything is fine health wise, but assuming it is:

When it was happening to me, the two biggest reasons were that I just wasn't getting quite enough sleep, and that I was stressed about the things I was going to have to do that day. So I was able to solve it by getting everything ready for the next day so I wouldn't have to hurry and/or worry about things when I woke up. And by getting to be a little earlier.

When I asked my doctor about it he said that if you wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle, which last about 90 minutes, you'll feel way more tired than if you wake up in between sleep cycles. So maybe I should try waking up half an hour earlier or later. I didn't find that particularily helpful, but it was an interesting idea. I don't know if it would apply to you.

I'd think there's probably a reason behind why it's going on though, and not just a bad habit, because if you weren't feeling tired when you woke up it wouldn't be hard to actually get up.