Couple of practices I have developed for improved sleep that are applicable to your situation Miss Croft:
Reduce light to absolute darkness.
Even the slightest light will trigger your brain to wake up
1. As it seems your awakening is due to light, considering investing in heavy, blackout (not light "filtering or room "darkening") curtains or best of all; "shades with side tracks" . I like the shades with side tracks as they block the light from creeping around the edges. Even that little bit of light, reflected around your walls and ceiling will signal to your brain... right through your eyelids... that it is time to go out and kill a dinosaur for breakfast.
I would further suggest that you get them in dark brown or black as the less light reflecting surfaces, the darker your room will be.
If this is not workable for you then consider contoured eye mask sleep shades. These are contoured to bulge out at your eyes so the fabric does not touch your eyes. I don't wear them all night but I will sometimes put these on when I wake up too early and want to go back to sleep for another hour or three. These are awesome for a siesta, airplane trips and extended role play! One tip is to find the smaller ones that don't cover too much of your face. They are inexpensive enough at amazon.ca that after reading some reviews, you can buy 2-3 different styles and see what fits you better. You can also use scissors to trim them to fit you perfectly.
2.0 Reduce sound as much as possible
If you can't eliminate it, then try various types of in-ear plugs. If you can get accustomed to wearing them regularly, you WILL have way better sleep.
A low level white noise sound generator can help mask any irregular road noise etc that gets into your bedroom. It is the irregular noise that will wake you.
3. Reduce water intake ahead of going to bed and pee before bed and ANY time you might wake up through the night.
We don't "need" 8 glasses a day and stopping drinking an hour or two before bed will help reduce the bladder's ability to wake us. There is no down side to this either. The longer duration your sleep, the more likely you are to experience deeper REM and have a more effective sleep.
4. Better living through DRUGS!!
Melatonin: If you don't have any problems getting to sleep, then melatonin is not really of any benefit as it only signals the brain it is time to start preparing to go to sleep. It is not a "sleep hormone" and will not prolong sleep. It has a pharmacological half life of 30-50 minutes so even if you think it is helping you sleep longer, it is not this drug that is doing it.
Melatonin is good to re-set your circadian clock to an earlier time. It is not good to take it for extended periods as it will reduce the production of natural melatonin.
Finally, the lower does of melatonin, the more effective it is. 1/4 of a 5mg tablet is MORE than enough.
4. Sleeping Pills
Most benzodiazepine sleeping pills that will not leaving you groggy the next day will not help you sleep longer. They induce sleep but have short half lives. Same with the Z-class of sleeping pils. The exception is AMBIEN-ER (extended release). But is is frikkig expensive... like $5-6 each!
However, if you have a good doctor, he may prescribe you zopiclone which is a non-benzo (Z-class) hypnotic that you could take at your mid-sleep pee wake up that would help you sleep through the 6:00am wake up.
There IS a great, safe and long lasting OTC drug that will help prolong your sleep and without side effects into the next day.
Plain old Benadryl anti-histamine (Generic: [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Diphenhydramine) causes "drowsiness" and is also sold directly as a night time sleep aid.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It has a half life of 8 hours so the effects are perfectly timed for sleep. It has a long history of long term daily use and safety profile and will give you the added benefit of stopping any sniffles or congestion a lot of people suffer from dust in their pillows, and mold spores distributed by the air conditioner.
Hope this helps![/FONT]
Reduce light to absolute darkness.
Even the slightest light will trigger your brain to wake up
1. As it seems your awakening is due to light, considering investing in heavy, blackout (not light "filtering or room "darkening") curtains or best of all; "shades with side tracks" . I like the shades with side tracks as they block the light from creeping around the edges. Even that little bit of light, reflected around your walls and ceiling will signal to your brain... right through your eyelids... that it is time to go out and kill a dinosaur for breakfast.
I would further suggest that you get them in dark brown or black as the less light reflecting surfaces, the darker your room will be.
If this is not workable for you then consider contoured eye mask sleep shades. These are contoured to bulge out at your eyes so the fabric does not touch your eyes. I don't wear them all night but I will sometimes put these on when I wake up too early and want to go back to sleep for another hour or three. These are awesome for a siesta, airplane trips and extended role play! One tip is to find the smaller ones that don't cover too much of your face. They are inexpensive enough at amazon.ca that after reading some reviews, you can buy 2-3 different styles and see what fits you better. You can also use scissors to trim them to fit you perfectly.
2.0 Reduce sound as much as possible
If you can't eliminate it, then try various types of in-ear plugs. If you can get accustomed to wearing them regularly, you WILL have way better sleep.
A low level white noise sound generator can help mask any irregular road noise etc that gets into your bedroom. It is the irregular noise that will wake you.
3. Reduce water intake ahead of going to bed and pee before bed and ANY time you might wake up through the night.
We don't "need" 8 glasses a day and stopping drinking an hour or two before bed will help reduce the bladder's ability to wake us. There is no down side to this either. The longer duration your sleep, the more likely you are to experience deeper REM and have a more effective sleep.
4. Better living through DRUGS!!
Melatonin: If you don't have any problems getting to sleep, then melatonin is not really of any benefit as it only signals the brain it is time to start preparing to go to sleep. It is not a "sleep hormone" and will not prolong sleep. It has a pharmacological half life of 30-50 minutes so even if you think it is helping you sleep longer, it is not this drug that is doing it.
Melatonin is good to re-set your circadian clock to an earlier time. It is not good to take it for extended periods as it will reduce the production of natural melatonin.
Finally, the lower does of melatonin, the more effective it is. 1/4 of a 5mg tablet is MORE than enough.
4. Sleeping Pills
Most benzodiazepine sleeping pills that will not leaving you groggy the next day will not help you sleep longer. They induce sleep but have short half lives. Same with the Z-class of sleeping pils. The exception is AMBIEN-ER (extended release). But is is frikkig expensive... like $5-6 each!
However, if you have a good doctor, he may prescribe you zopiclone which is a non-benzo (Z-class) hypnotic that you could take at your mid-sleep pee wake up that would help you sleep through the 6:00am wake up.
There IS a great, safe and long lasting OTC drug that will help prolong your sleep and without side effects into the next day.
Plain old Benadryl anti-histamine (Generic: [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Diphenhydramine) causes "drowsiness" and is also sold directly as a night time sleep aid.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It has a half life of 8 hours so the effects are perfectly timed for sleep. It has a long history of long term daily use and safety profile and will give you the added benefit of stopping any sniffles or congestion a lot of people suffer from dust in their pillows, and mold spores distributed by the air conditioner.
Hope this helps![/FONT]
