Seriously, I sleep through alarms and people calling my name even in the same room.
Go to a doctor, get a sleep study done.
All these anecdotal stories in the thread and this is the correct answer.
15 years ago, I was falling asleep everywhere, even when stopped at traffic lights. Had a sleep study done and have been on CPAP since. That first night on it was the best night sleep of my adult life
What if they’re in the US and can’t afford health care? I’ve been to the doctor once in the last 25 yrs.
What if they have a rat for a foot?
I can’t help them, but the answer is sleep study
Anecdotal, might not apply to you. I knew a guy like this, was a roommate for a while.
He had a similar issue. He said he would literally set an alarm clock in the opposite side of his room, so that he would have to get up and walk over to shut it off, hoping that would wake him up. According to him, in his sleep daze he would go shut the alarm off and go back to sleep, and not even remember doing it… Crazy.
Regardless, I noticed he drank tons of cheap diet soda. This contains caffeine. He’d drink around one or sometimes two 2-liters of this shit per day, from the afternoon after work, until late into the night, usually gaming.
I told him about the caffeine. He said it made sense, and that also “it might be why he had trouble falling asleep at night”… Fucking DUH.
Long story short. He tried cutting it out for about a week. Mentioned a minimal improvement in being able to wake up, but said he felt like shit the whole time, so went back to his old habit.
He probably felt like shit due to the cold turkey caffeine withdrawal, which I tried to point out. He went back to his old ways.
Anecdotal, but check your diet, caffeine intake and times of day, exercise, consistent sleeping patterns, etc. That’s my 2 cents.
I indeed take a lot of caffeine, I gotta try weaning it off.
You are having a pretty big issue here. Don’t try, do. You can wean yourself in just a few days. Or cold turkey if you don’t think you can keep to a weaning schedule.
Certainly no caffeine after noon.
I’ve been there before. I notice it when I develop a tolerance to caffeine and it doesn’t wake me up.
Depending on how much you take, your withdrawal might really suck major. If you can afford to lose a weekend or any 2 day consecutively, go cold turkey those 2 days. You’ll lose those days cause you’ll feel like absolute shit when the headache kicks in. But then on Monday go back to caffeine but only around half of what you usually do per day. You’ll feel amazing getting the caffeine again after the cold turkey weekend, and you’re tolerance should go down. This has worked for me in the past.
Or wean slowly. Whatever works for you.
Those 2 days suck though. I love caffeine…
I switched to first to black coffee instead of, in my case, Mt. Dew. Then once I was caffeine free (and more importantly to me at the time, sugar free) save for coffee, I switched to decaf. Felt tired the first week, but no headaches. Decaf still has caffeine in it so you avoid the migraine, but so little it doesn’t affect you much.
Honestly, the massive sugar cravings were a bigger problem for me for months than the caffeine withdrawal, but I lost 20 lbs just cutting the sodas out.
Not sure how you get yours, but I’ve always been a coffee drinker. I cut my caffeine way down by slowly mixing more decaf into the grind when I make the pot. Instead of drinking half a pot or a pot of regular, now I get the equivalent of about a cup or cup and a half if that and it was easy to do.
If it’s soda you could experiment with drinking it from a big cup and doing the same trick mixing in decaf maybe?
Sleep until you wake up. See how many hours you need. Then adjust your schedule until you are getting enough sleep. And pay attention to the number of hours - for me 7 can be more refreshing than 8! You may need 9, you want to be waking up at the right point in your sleep cycle, not while you are so very asleep.
I sleep pretty heavy, but when it’s time to get up I can. Do not go back to sleep, get up when you wake up. But really, try sleeping until you wake up.
Putting your lights on a timer may work better than an alarm, more gentle so you have time to come to awakeness more naturally.
A few things:
- Prepare for sleep sooner, with dim light and a quiet place, and no screens.
- drink a bunch of water
- don’t set an alarm, but tell yourself when you want to wake up.
It might not work the first time, but after a few attempts it will. Oh, and no food or stimulants within 3 hours of your bedtime.
Maybe some deficiency? Get it checked out.
Do you routinely go to bed in time? Is your sleep environment right?
Do you suffer from depression or another disorder? Get help, if you can.
Possibly try to wake up according to your natural sleep cycle.
Are you on medication that could cause issues?
So many possibilities. A professional might be able to help best.
See a doctor and ask for a sleep study. You might have sleep apnea, or some other condition.
