Is this normal?

[coccinelle]

Just wanted to share this with you talented people out there.... I wake at about 3am in the morning after about 5 hours of sleep. I then have to wait 2 hours to get back to sleep again but go through a restless period of feeling inadequate, depressive and generally listless state. I then wake a couple of hours later and though not bursting with energy get up and make a cup of tea then feel OK!
I actually apprehend things whilst I'm lying there at 3 in the morning but once up and about I feel I can cope....
Just wanted to know if this is a normal feeling or if there is something more in it....

[Mosaic]

Hiya hun
Language thing - 'apprehend things' literally means understand things but I think you mean you get fearful - am I correct?
Sounds like a touch of the blues. What's bothering you? Maybe you need to find a talking buddy about 'stuff'?
If it is a natural sleep pattern, you would not get the feelings of agitation / worry - hence I think you might need a mental hug and cuddle.

[Sir Alec]

It is probably the time of day when your blood sugars are at their lowest. The cup of tea wakens your brain and makes you feel better.

[coccinelle]

yes, mosaic when I use the apprehend is does mean I'm on the negative side of things. Just thought it strange I can get so 'low' in the night but once dawn breaks I feel so much better. So probably right Sir Alec though surely a cup of tea can't do that... with no sugar!
Would so much love hugs and cuddles but .....

[wolf63]

I have similar sleep patterns. I am going to go to bed now as I am too tired to think. In a couple of hours I will probably be awake again. It has been like this for years and nothing that I do seems to help.

Sir Alec mentions blood sugars - I am diabetic and sometime feel awful before having a cup of tea in the morning. I usually find that I shake quite badly and have sweat running through my scalp and down my face.

Depression - either mild or clinical depression - mucks up your sleep patterns. I sometimes get one thought going through my mind for hours, trying to work out what to do and just generally worrying. This is the sort of thing that happens during the early morning hours.

Luckily I don't work and I can take things easy if I have had a really bad sleep.

If all else fails there is often someone on AB during the night.

[Sir Alec]

There is more caffeine in tea than people realize, coccinelle.

[wolf63]

Talking of blood sugar - my brother and his family are just back from France and they bought me a box of mini bars of chocolate. I know that being diabetic I shouldn't eat chocolate but I have just eaten half of the little box. They were good!

[coccinelle]

Hi wolf if you haven't gone off to bed yet, maybe my sleep pattern is down to grievance and menopause but not really sure. It's these 2 hour spans of 'low' that I find hard to live through every night. I'm wondering if this is what others go through.

[Mosaic]

The lowest and most vulnerable part of the circadian cycle of most people is around 3 am.....lots of folk who pass away in hospitals do so around this time (just a known quantity because hospitals monitor TOD)
So everyone is prone to being a tad negative if they can't catch the sleep train at this point.
But if you add to that an issue preying on your psyche...maybe pressure to be up n about at worktime....then you've got worry keeping you awake, and the negativity cycle of thoughts kicks in.
Part of addressing this (a long personal process) is to identify the voice that is delivering your inner criticism. try to do this. You may find it is a parent, or a teacher, or a version of yourself. Attempt to identify their points of criticism..... and to to tell them where to stick it...because this is now yor life now, not their life then.

Another cool trick to a big night's sleep is total physical exhaustion. If you are placed to attempt it, try double-digging your garden in preparation for autumn planting.

Thinking of you on your healing journey and sending out blessings.

[Sir Alec]

Like wolf, I am bipolar. My sleep pattern at the moment is ridiculous. I'm getting only one and a half hours sleep and am waking between half 3 and 4am. Luckily I read a lot. As to the low feeling, keep a glass of water or squash beside the bed, it's amazing how a few gulps of simple water can revive your brain.

[Mosaic]

'grievance'....is not the same menaing as 'grieving' for loss ....which I think you may mean.
'language is the limits of my life' - Wittgenstein
The words we use frame the brain we work with. Yes, going into the third phase of your woman's life can also disrupt sleep patterns, both for hormonal reasons and for reasons of sadness that one is no longer a childbearing babe.
But life's a long song and the harmonies alter...and we make the harmonies.

[andres]

Go to bed about 11p.m. Sleep deeply until about 5 a.m. toilet, back to bed but don't go to sleep again until about 6.30 a.m. Wake about 8.30 a.m. feeling miserable and this sometimes lasts until mid-morning. Then I feel ok for the rest of the day and evening. I know quite a number of people with similar sleeping problems.Never had any sleep problems when I was working.

[coccinelle]

I really appreciate your post mosaic and it gives me food for thought. I do have things going on my mind (lost husband 2 years ago...) so do wonder if it's all pysychic or just as I ask 'normal'. I exhaust myself in many ways to get a good night's sleep but * there is goes and at 3 am I'm awake....

[ABerrant]

Aside from your feelings during this period of wakefulness, it has been suggested that segmented sleep was the predominant slumber pattern of Western civilization before the Industrial Revolution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmented_sleep

[Mosaic]

Travelling through the Sudtirol in July, I saw this and thought of you!
http://s561.photobuck...urrent=coccinelle.jpg
Lots of love while you work on your thoughts....it will come good in the end.

[Mosaic]

Abberrant is so correct....my OH comes from a family who have unusual sleep / waking patterns, consequently I have not enjoyed a lie-in for over 30 years....

[coccinelle]

Thanks everyone for getting back to me: andres that sounds like me. it's that miserable feeling which is so bad. Once I'm up and going things feel so much better but at that time at 3 in the morning life is just so ...sad.....

[coccinelle]

Ha Ha mosaic that's my shop!!! Not!!!!
I'll now have an other idea when I wake up at 3 tomorrow morning and have a smile for you mosaic and all those who are posting....

[Mosaic]

..'the kindness of strangers..'

..and we don't get much stranger...

[jno]

your ancestors would just have read the Bible, visited neighbours, had a cup of tea or something, then had a second sleep later.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

If you do wake up in the wee small hours it's easy to start thinking and worrying. Getting up and reading a book or doing something might well help take your mind off things. If you're clinically depressive, though, best see a doctor about it.

[ludwig]

It's perfectly normal. Alcohol or caffeine before bed will tend to make it worse.