You Hear Their Call, Too, Brother?

If you live far from the tropiques like I do, that is just the sun. The sun is walking you up for behind your curtain. You body know is day know. It has forgot you’re only sleeping since 4 hours.

I do that sometimes, but haven’t been any more than usual lately.

Actually…yes, kinda of. I just started taking Midnite when I have trouble sleeping, and I normally fall asleep about 2.5 seconds after my head hits the pillow.

Yes I am. Seems to happen to me every time the season changes.

How old are you? When I hit my mid 30s, I started sleeping far less. I’m 45 now and sleeping 12-8am is completely impossible, even with sleeping pills, patches, melotonin- it’s all useless and makes NO difference.

The sun has been raising earlier so I have been waking up earlier. Today woke up at 6am

I awaken naturally at 4am with or without an alarm. But it has always been this way for me. I was raised on a farm so early rising was always sort of the expectation but it definitely suits my natural rhythms. I do come from a long line of dairy farmers, so there’s probably some selection going on there.

Now for context, I have placed a high priority on sleep hygiene for a very long time. So I usually get 8.5-9 hours of sleep a night. That’s just what experience tells me I need for optimal functioning.

It is a strange life choice. I am not really into nightlife, so I am aware there is an alternate universe of night owls out there, but those worlds rarely collide with mine. I’m ready for a afternoon nap about the time many people start to think about brunch.

Maybe its due to the latestagecapitalism.exe virus has been infecting “earth” gameservers? Which would explain the missing serotonin.dll files in some player characters, which causes the “depression” debuff, and thus fucking up their sleepcycle.sys process.

Sleep has always been a challenge for me. I medicated I will either not be able to fall asleep until 2-3 in the morning, or will fall asleep around 11-12, and wake up at 4-5 am.

Throughout the years I’ve tried various modifications to my sleep routine, and am no stranger to medications to help me sleep. (Doctor supervised, while paying attention to all side effects and interactions. Do not try to manage your own sleep without significant research. Case in point: Long term use of diphenhydramine (Benadryl) has been linked to dementia.)

I’ve found that of the things in my sleep routine, the melatonin is the best tool I have to facilitate falling asleep, and having an outlet for my energy during the day is the best way to ensure staying asleep.

It’s also useful to note your surroundings. During winter I’m woken up a lot at exactly 4:40 am, because a neighbor uses their remote start, which causes their car to beep 4 times. (It’s very annoying, because they park on the street outside of my place and start their car as they’re walking to it, so it’s not as if the beeping is for a useful purpose.)
Is something else environmental happening?

It’s the only time I can get any worms

I had this happen around 35. Job, family related stress, and age are my best guess. Ambien was great for getting to sleep, but would wear off and I’d still wake up, same with the extended release. My doctor decided to try 10mg of Valium. This gets me through the night for years now. I still wake up, but it keeps the panic of existence from setting in and I’m able to turn over and get back to sleep.

There’s tons of possible reasons for this:

Did you recently hit maybe age 35 or older?

Drinking more in the evening?

Working out less?

Stressed out in general?

Too much screen time before bed?

Thin curtains and not realizing the sun comes up earlier every day as summer approaches?

Birds?

Something you can hear outside that’s waking up, like a loud car that drives by at the same time, people talking, etc.?

Impending sense of doom overall?

That’s been happening to me for years. You start randomly waking up earlier and then you’re so tired you start going to bed earlier and the next thing you know you’re wide awake at 3AM most days. I tried melatonin but it doesn’t last the night and gave me weird dreams. Low dose CBD gummies (~2mg) have helped and now I’m sleeping till 5AM. It started in my late 40s so maybe it’s age related.

Are you in the northern hemisphere? The sun is rising earlier and earlier.