Waking Up at 2 or 3 Every Night!

Q: I wake up a lot of times from dreams, usually around 2 0r 3 in the morning. However, some of my most creative solutions to problems happen in the wee hours after waking, and there is better mental clarity. If I didn’t have to keep regular work hours and could nap during the day, this sleep issue would not be a problem. Have you heard of this?

Dr. Smith: You may be awaking after you have entered your first REM stage of sleep, where paralysis sets in, and you are unable to breathe easily if there are obstructions, such as your tongue. When people awake during REM, or “dream sleep”, they are more likely to remember their dreams. Regardless, if this is happening, you should have a sleep study performed.

You might appreciate a book called “At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past“, but the meat from the book you would need involves the fact that centuries ago, we all had a “first sleep” and a “second sleep”, where we awoke after about 4 hours of sleep and then wrote about dreams, cleaned house, etc.., then after an hour or two, went back to sleep. This was routine until we had oil lamps, then street lights, and the nights became shorter. However, many of us still have this DNA embedded, and are prone to waking up halfway through the night. They are now called biphasic sleepers, and they have support groups, believe it or not. Do some googling and you may find some buddies.