Waking Up Tired - How You Can Sleep All Night and STILL Be Exhausted

Ok so you finally got to bed early one evening. Better yet, you actually got to sleep in too! You're anticipating a nice, restful night and to build some energy for tomorrow. And yet, you wake up Tired. In fact, getting out of bed is just as hard as usual and by the mid afternoon your body is begging you to lay down and catch some shut-eye.

Waking Up Tired - How You Can Sleep All Night and STILL Be Exhausted

Waking Up Tired - How You Can Sleep All Night and STILL Be Exhausted

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Waking Up Tired - How You Can Sleep All Night and STILL Be Exhausted

Waking Up Tired - How You Can Sleep All Night and STILL Be Exhausted

Why does this happen? If you haven't experienced or realized this anomaly, you probably know someone who has. To tell you the truth, this whole aspect of the human sleep cycle is a pain in the butt... but I'm here to tell you that I can shed a little light on why this occurs and (better yet!) what you can do about it. So let's learn about waking up Tired and why it happens.

Sleep cycles: Learn 'em, live 'em, love 'em. You may or may not know this already, but our sleep is made up of 5 distinct sTAGes. Ranging from barely dozing off to R.E.M. (rapid eye moveMent) sleep, the one in which most bodily reparations and energy building occurs, these 5 cycles are ALL necessary in recharging your body.

Now, when humans beings were evolving (or were created, if you prefer), the world was a much more treacherous place. It would be difficult for say, a caveMen, to lie down and be undisturbed for 9 hours at a time, with all of the wild animals and flimsy shelters that characterized early human development. Instead, our bodies evolved to cram these 5 sleep sTAGes in 90 minute cycles. These cycles allow us to rebuild energy in smaller chunks. Think about it, we wouldn't last very long if you couldn't get rest unless you stayed perfectly asleep for an enTire night. In fact, most parents would die within the first year of having a child (what with all the nighttime crying) if this were the case, because they'd never get a solid night to recharge.

Enough of the history lesson... Why does MORE sleep make us feel Tired?

It isn't more sleep per se that makes us tired, but the fact that sleeping for numbers not divisible by 1.5 hours result in "broken" sleep cycles. For example, many people sleep 8 hours per night. At 7 and a half hours of sleep you would have just completed your 5th sleep cycle, but at 8 hours you are in the middle of another cycle. Waking up in the middle of your sleep cycle is a big no-no because your body will be trying to get you to go to sleep and complete that cycle the entire day.

Waking Up Tired - How You Can Sleep All Night and STILL Be Exhausted