Irreversible awakening

[mtbc]

Last year I mentioned how I would be awoken before 5am by the milkman. Yesterday morning I was awoken at 6am by a minibus stopping at a neighbor's to pick up a group of loud people. I find it interesting that I am cursed with a waking process such that if it is much after midnight and I much awaken then it just keeps on going. If I had to do more than use the toilet, for example if I remember to move the trash out for pickup, then that's it, I am not going to manage to get back to sleep. Even if I don't wonder what made a noise, once awake I may think of things to do downstairs or at work or whatever and I feel myself growing increasingly wakeful.

Annoyingly these early mornings come with the knowledge that by the afternoon I will feel like crap. Unfortunately I don't nap easily and don't want to risk making it difficult to fall asleep promptly for the coming night. mst3kmoxie seems the opposite, being far better at falling back to sleep or taking a helpful daytime nap. I did still try to nap yesterday lunchtime but of course the garbage truck came around at just the wrong moment. I was thus greatly relieved that last night went rather better for me: I awoke before 7am but was then able to get back to sleep until after 9am.

Comments

[emperor]

I have a bit of this problem too - if I wake up in the middle of the night it can be very hard to get back to sleep. I tend, now, to get up and read something that I am familiar with and is low-brain (e.g. some graphic novels I'm really fond of), and that seems to help stop the brain-loops that were keeping me awake, and then I can at least sometimes get back to sleep.