Can't keep awake after 9pm EVERY night

I am alseep on the sofa every night by about 9.15pm - sometimes earlier.

I'm get up at by 7am even at the weekends, sometimes earlier. I feel fine all day but every night I just can't keep my eyes open from 9pm! I then wake up about 3 hours later and go to bed.

It's really annoying that something suddenly shuts down after about 9pm and I'm just shattered. I dont have kids or work ridiculously long hours or long journey.

Anyone else have the same problem as it's getting to the stage where I dont like giong out int he evening coz I'm so tired after 9pm! Also means I dont have much of an evening - and very sad as I'm not THAT old!!

Comments

  • I tend to do similar HD - mind I'm up at 5 am and take myself to bed rather than on the sofa. Was a spell where I would not go out at night and I'd find any excuse. Don't fret about it -guess thats what your body needs.
  • I go to sleep at about 9pm to 10pm, never much later. If I go to the pub, I'm home by ten anyway as it's only at the bottom of my road. I also get up at about 6, especially now the mornings are lighter. It takes ten minutes for me to cycle to work and I work 9-5. I wouldn't worry too much, though you may be over training. It could be worth visiting your GP if it's getting to the point where you don't want to go out.
  • I'm completely the opposite and it annoys me immensely. Feel tired at 10.30, try and sleep at 11 but find I end drifting off about 12.30. Then I'm tired in the morning and don't want to get out of bed. Even if I'm knackered after a run and feel tired all evening and don't do much it still happens.
  • I dont have any children and I'm up at 7am so not that early compared to some! Just find it really frustrating. Notice I'm awake tonight coz i've been surfing. Bedtime soon!!
  • Get yourself some kids a) you'll be glad to get to bed early b) you've got a great excuse for not going out and c) you'll sleep like a log and won't want to get out of bed of a w/end....can you borrow some till you feel better? you can have mine for a month no probs!
  • Try and get to bed rather than crashing on the sofa then off to bed after 3 hours. Then you'll have a chance at a full night's sleep and that might help you break the cycle.

    But as Thomas says, might be time for a trip to the GP if you can't get by with less than 10 hours sleep (9pm - 7am) and there isn't an obvious reason like alcohol/heavy exercise/some already-known medical condition
  • I'm exactly the same HD, thought I was the only one!

    I very farely feel tired during the day or in the evening, even though I'm up fairly early in the morning.

    I'll be sitting on the sofa, feeling fine and suddenly I'll just zonk out - no warning, no tiredness or that feeling of trying to keep awake - It's just like an off switch.

    I'll wake up a few hours later and go to bed.

    I'm sure I just need to try and re-train my body clock, but it's so frustrating. At least if I started to get that nodding-head feeling, I could make the decision to go to bed, but I've usually zonked out before I know it.

    J.x


  • Wish I could go to bed at 10 and actually go to sleep! 1:30am and bright as a button!! Have gone for runs in the middle of the night when I cant sleep (I know I know its not exactly safe...)
  • I was having the same problem late last year. Like you I'm up at 7am, my job isn't busy or stressful and I don't over train. Hubby was getting very annoyed with me nodding off on the sofa as early as 7pm some nights. Went to the GP and my iron level was low. Taking a course of iron tablets soon sorted me out.
  • D'yell Namaste -you were up late:o-
  • One of the guys I work with had something similar. He started going home from work and going to bed for no more than an hour (he used to set the alarm), then he'd get up and have the rest of his evening and go to bed at a normal kinda time.

    Worth a try?

  • DustinDustin ✭✭✭
    tricky one, i'm always knackered on the way home from work (at 6ish) but if you actually fall asleep the I suspect there maybe something amiss.

    I get up between 4.00 and 4.30 to go to work (in London) and at weekends normally up around 6.30-7. I find my 'sleepy time' is around teatime, but usually get a second wind at 8-9 o'c - thats if i'm out.

    Otherwise try to get to sleep by 10.30, apart from those nights out when I don't roll in until 1am.....
  • Morning folks *yawns*

    I better somehow reverse this sleeping pattern cos I'm back in work on Monday. Groan!
  • I've always been a bit of an insomniac, but the last few years things have just been slightly nuts. I'm also doing the conking out thing, but I'm also still an insomniac! So at my worst I conk out on the couch (typically in the middle of something I really wanted to watch). Maybe surface briefly a few times... wake up later and I'm wide awake half the night and can't get to sleep again.

    I've tried regulating my sleeping hours by getting up the same time each day (work from home so have the choice...) and determindly staying upright and not laying down on the couch. I just got very tired... I'm finding the best for me seems to be to get up early some days, and some days allow myself to sleep in.

    There is a theory that it's normal to have a sleep early afternoon time. I'm just putting it down to getting old: my mum always tries to get a nap in. I don't find it fits my schedule myself though.
  • Thanks for all your tips - it's good to know there are others like me as I thought I was the only weirdo!!!

    I'm good with getting up at the same time every day (7am - even on weekends). Occasionally it's 6am but I like getting up early if I havent got to go to work!

    Yes it's really annoying when you fall asleep watching something you wanted to watch. I've been doing this for years so very hard to break the pattern. I dont always zonk out - do have warning of feeling sleepy but just can't face getting up and cleaning teeth scenerio at that stage. Not that it's any better after 3 hrs sleep on a 2 seater sofa waking up with an achy back!! Programme with adverts are the worst as I just tell myself I will 'rest my eyes' during the ads which is lethal! ZZZZ

    I just wondered if there was anyone who used to do this who now has stopped doing it and how they did it?

  • Like you, I'm trying desperately to break this habbit, not least because it is really annoying to just zonk out in the middle of a programme I was watching, wake up 4 hours later and find I've missed the end of the programme but also have a load of jobs I had intended to do before bed. Plus my electricity bills must be much higher than they need to be with half the lights in the house blazing away til the early hours.

    I've tried setting an alarm clock so that, when I do fall asleep at least it won't be for too long, then I can get up off the sofa, finish the jobs I neede to do and get myself to bed properly. Trouble is, I'm such a deep sleeper the alarm clock has no effect at all and my body clock just wakes me up when it decides it wants to.

    I think I do get plenty of sleep, it just happens to be on the sofa rather than in bed!


    J.x



  • Hound Dog, are you my husband?

    ;-p
  • blimey, it's amazing how much guilt society can give you without you even realising!


    you're meant to go out in the evenings to see people or do things because you enjoy it! if you don't, you don't have to go! if you're sitting in front of the TV, you're not really missing out on any social interaction or much else, so if you'd rather go to bed, then do!

    if you zonk out in front of a programme when you weren't feeling tired before, maybe that says that the show wasn't as good as you thought it might be!

    anyway, time is completely arbitrary anyway - the particular time points you happen to be awake between aren't moral issues - no need to feel sad or weird or need an excuse not to be out/up!! (saying that, i still have an irrational compulsion to only set alarm clocks for multiples of 15 minutes. i mean, 6:23 - what kind of time is that for getting up?!!)
  • Just came across this thread with trying to after googling  the same problem that Mrs Stoat has.I’m in the same boat!

    I’m 50 years old, I get up every morning no later than 5am start my journey around 5.30, I try and fit the gym in between 6am and 7am, start work at 7.30 am and usually  get home around 4.30pm, 6 days of the week. I make dinner and have a a glass  of wine or two, then it’s  lights out for 7pm, near enough the same time every day of the week, my nights are non existent, I always fall asleep on the sofa, it doesn’t matter if we have company in, I just zonk out,  Recently I fell asleep standing up in my kitchen! Hence the reason I’m trying to find out if there is a cure for this! 
  • I think it's just the natural sleep cycle Marky67. You're up early, you do a full day including the gym and the body tells you it needs to sleep. Of course a couple of glasses of wine might also assist that feeling.

    I'm up generally by 4am to travel in to work and I don't actually get home until gone 7pm. By the time I've made dinner and eaten it, normally by 8:30pm, I'm dead to the world. The other week I played the same 5 minutes of a film three or four times because I kept falling asleep watching it. The bugger comes at the weekend when I still wake up before 4!!
  • Hi everyone. I'm up at 4am pretty much every single day as I have my own paper delivery business. Try keeping awake at night past 8.30pm! I took the wife up to Manchester to see Shania Twain the other week. I managed to fall asleep in arena no problem at all!
  • I suspect Shania Twain singing would send me to sleep too  :D
  • Lol not my choice! But she was pretty good, and more importantly it made my wife very happy.
  • Keeping your wife happy is of the utmost importance. So I'm told. I obviously failed at that one. I probably should have taken her to see Shania Twain  :'(
  • espenhbespenhb ✭✭✭
    Tried taking naps? I always get dozy after dinner, and unless we're eating late(and done eating after 7pm) I try to get a 20-30 minute nap in right after dinner. After getting up at 7am, a full day at work and most days a workout, that little nap makes a world of difference. It means that I can stay awake and function properly for the rest of the evening. But it's important that the nap doesn't last longer than those 20-30 minutes, and that I jump straight up when the alarm goes of. Otherwise I just end up feeling sluggish.
  • I work two jobs im up at 7:25am for work. In one job I do do 18 hours a wk from 9am till 3:30/ 4:00pm and in another I do 10 hours a week 6pm till 8pm. I cycle to the morning job (3mins) cycle to the evening job (15 mins) and cycle home (15 mins). When I get home I have dinner and always intend to get ready for bed at 10:10pm but I fall asleep before that time. It's ruining my life! I get so tired after dinner and a brew because I'm full.
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