Do you frequently wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep? If so, night-time awakenings have certainly taken over your nights. These unexpected awakenings are detrimental to your quality of sleep, and consequently to your mental and physical well-being. To stop suffering from them, it's essential to understand them so you can resolve them naturally.
Sleep is made up of different cycles, at the end of which there is a micro-awakening, which may or may not be felt. This phenomenon is physiological, and therefore perfectly normal.
If you don't find it difficult to get back to sleep, and it only happens occasionally, there's no need to worry. On the other hand, when it becomes difficult to get back to sleep and happens frequently, we speak of night-time awakenings. These unwanted awakenings can be temporary or recurrent, and can occur once or several times a night. It's usually difficult to get back to sleep, not least because your thoughts are invading you and running on a loop.
According to an Ipsos survey carried out for the Adova Foundation, nearly 8 out of 10 French people are regularly interrupted in their sleep, and take around 40 minutes to fall asleep again. These figures give us a better understanding of the frequency of nocturnal awakenings, considered to be sleep disorders, and why it's important not to let these untimely awakenings, considered to be one of the characteristics of insomnia, take hold.
There are obvious causes for these sudden awakenings, such as a heavy meal, anxiety or hot weather. These occasional events, although disturbing, are not serious if they are not repeated on a daily basis.
On the other hand, if you find yourself waking up every night, it's important to determine the cause. For many specialists, the causes of waking in the middle of the night are primarily physiological. In the second half of the night, your brain alternates between phases of light slow wave sleep and REM sleep. The older you get, the more common it is to wake up at this time, with insomnia lasting up to 30 minutes.
Night-time awakenings are also caused by reactionary and psychological factors. These include stress, anger,anxiety, overwork, depression, panic attacks and so on. Replaying thoughts or events that are bothering you delays the onset of sleep. This can lead to a vicious circle that prolongs the phenomenon of waking up at night: you're afraid you won't be able to get back to sleep, which leads to a source of anguish and anxiety that keeps you awake.
There are other, non-psychological causes of night-time waking. These include
According to a study by Tel-Aviv University, published in the journal Sleep Medicine, when these nocturnal awakenings are frequent, they disrupt the quality of your sleep and have the same consequences as sleep deprivation.
When nocturnal awakenings haunt all your nights, it alters the quality and quantity of your sleep.
This phenomenon can have an impact on your daily life and cause :
Over the long term, waking up at night can weaken the immune system, making the body less resistant to infection.
In a report, the Institut National du Sommeil et de la Vigilance states that lack of sleep increases the risk of cancer, multiplies the risk of catching a cold by 4, and is the cause of cardiovascular disorders, diabetes,high blood pressure and weight gain.
Here are a few tips to help you get back to a good night's sleep.
Diet plays an important role in our health, and particularly in the quality of our sleep.
The Institut National du Sommeil et de la Vigilance recommends a few simple food hygiene rules for better sleep:
It's also a good idea to eat foods rich in tryptophan, an amino acid that cannot be synthesized by the body, and which helps facilitate melatonin synthesis and promote sleep.
Here are a few examples offoods rich in tryptophan (in g per 100gr):
When you suffer from frequent night-time awakenings, it can be a good idea to create "good fatigue" through physical activity, as long as it's done at least 3 hours before bedtime.
In fact, INSEP (Institut National du Sport, de l'Expertise et de la Performance) explains that sport helps you fall asleep, as it induces physical and mental relaxation. This is made possible by the endorphins generated during the session, which reduce stress. Night-time awakenings are therefore less frequent, and sleep is deeper.
For this to work, you need to find a sport that's suited to your physical condition, that motivates you and, above all, a sport that lets you let go of all the tensions of everyday life.
Several studies have shown that blue light from screens (computers, smartphones, tablets...) delays melatonin secretion.
Melatonin, also known as the sleep hormone, is a small molecule synthesized in our brain, whose soporific action helps us fall asleep. Melatonin production increases at the end of the day, when light levels fall. If you expose your retina to blue light, via screens, you delay the production of this hormone.
To put it simply, the light perceived by our retina is transmitted directly to our main internal clock, located in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. The information is then relayed to the epiphysis, the small structure responsible for secreting melatonin. So, when we are exposed to too much light in the evening, this system sends the following message: "It's still daylight, it's not time to go to sleep, so there's no need to start producing melatonin ".
As a result, using your phone, tablet or computer before going to bed delays the onset of sleep and increases the number of nocturnal awakenings.
It's a good idea to set up a routine to create a calm, relaxing atmosphere to help you fall asleep andavoid waking up during the following hours.
Among the habits to adopt before going to bed, you can read, listen to soft music, drink herbal tea, practice cardiac coherence... all in a calm environment with subdued lighting.
In addition to these 4 tips, there are a number of other ways you can help reduce the number of night-time awakenings:
You're probably thinking "until I apply these tips, I always wake up at night and don't know what to do while I'm awake". Well, here are a few tips for when you're in the middle of waking up at night:
To support you, Laboratoire Dielen has developed Nutrissome SP.
Nutrissome SP is a natural nutritional complex for rapid, long-lasting sleep*. This unique formula combines our patented marine active ingredients withall the co-factors your body needs to produce melatonin.
Nutrissome SP stands out thanks to its dual-release melatonin tablet: a sublingual release of nutrients for rapid drowsiness and a continuous release for long-lasting sleep.
It is neither addictive nor habit-forming.
This dietary supplement should be taken in addition to the advice given above. Ask your pharmacist for advice.
*Melatonin helps reduce the time it takes to fall asleep.
