Why do you wake up at night? You know you should be sleeping. What causes these awakenings that prevent sleeping through the night? How do these middle of the night interruptions lead to insomnia, the prolonged episodes where you desperately desire sleep yet cannot catch one wink let alone forty?
Most insomniacs imagine stress, an overactive mind, or a genetic background causes this frustrating sleep loss.
In one scientific study, insomnia patients where asked “why did you wake up.” They replies were much different than what was observed in a sleep laboratory. Fifty percent said it is mental and the other 50 percent said it is physical. They will also point to things after their awakenings and state “I woke up because my mind is racing”. However, brain monitoring clearly shows that “racing thoughts” really started after the awakening. A key component in this study was that in the sleep lab breathing events were the most common cause of their awakenings.
This landmark study, published in the journal SLEEP, demonstrated 90% of awakenings experienced by insomniacs were preceded by a disturbance in their breathing while asleep. In effect, scientists found a major, and likely primary, cause for why people wake up at night.
If you are waking up during the night and suffer from insomnia, contact our office at 832-487-0647. We can show you how easy it is to get tested for a sleep disorder.