This Is What It Means If You Wake Up Early For No Reason...

t can feel so frustrating to wake up hours before the alarm goes off, especially when we can’t get back to sleep. If you find yourself wondering why you're waking up early for no reason, there could be something your body is trying to tell you.

Verywell Health suggests that there can be a number of reasons why you’re waking up too early every morning, and there may be either physical or mental health issues at play.

Racing thoughts, dwelling on worries, and stressing about the demands of the day ahead can all contribute to “sleep maintenance insomnia”, according to Harvard Health, which is a specific type of sleep disorder in which you can fall asleep, but have trouble staying asleep. A common feature of the disorder is waking up too early without being able to doze off again, and it tends to affect women more often than men — especially as life gets increasingly complex as we get older. Verywell Health also notes that certain brain chemicals that regulate our circadian rhythms and encourage deep sleep, start to decrease in the wee hours of the morning, which is why early morning awakenings associated with sleep maintenance insomnia can be a little tricky to resolve.

If you feel chronically tired on an ongoing basis, in addition to finding yourself awake before the sun's up, sleep apnea could also be a factor. Sleep apnea is a common culprit for waking up too early, and many folks deal with the disorder without realizing that they have it. Verywell Health explains that sleep apnea is most likely to occur during the REM stage of sleep, when our muscles are paralyzed in order to prevent dreaming-induced physical movements. This muscle paralysis can also contribute to disrupted breathing patterns, which can cause too-shallow breathing and pauses in breaths. These breathing disruptions also lessen our quality of sleep, and can contribute to chronic early morning awakenings and insomnia.

Identifying the underlying factors that may be contributing to your waking up too early is key to devising sleep strategies for better rest. 

Read the full story at Bustle. 

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