The causes for which a person awakens at dawn are diverse. According to Andrés Monterroso, biomedical engineer and operational director of the Rest Clinic, specialized in sleep, ensures that there are more than 80 Sleep disorders.
One of these disorders is insomnia. “It is the one that occurs after having slept, waking me again during the night or hours of the morning, the causes can be stress, side effects of some medication, for example,” explains Monterroso.
The expert adds that there are also movement disorders, When sleeping. The grinding of teeth, the movement of legs and limbs often make people awaken during the night and early. Some people, for example, suffer sleep apnea. That is, they wake up having difficulty breathing. It often occurs in the second half of the night, when there is greater muscle relaxation.
The difficulty of achieving a deep sleep can also be related to high levels of cortisol, a hormone that occurs in response to stress. “The levels of Cortisol They are associated with high levels of stress during the day or with an over stimulation during the day. When we are going to sleep with high levels of cortisol it is difficult for our system to enter the deep sleep, to the reparative dream, then the dream becomes very superficial and any mild noise, any movement can wake me up more easily, ”explains Monterroso.
The recommendation, says the specialist, is to relax, do meditation practices or stretching one hour before sleeping, at least to reduce cortisol and achieve a deep sleep.
The impact of concerns
The psychologist María Raquel Quiñónez says that personal problems and concerns influence the increase in cortisol hormone. “This interferes with the natural cycles of our dream, this makes it difficult for us to reach deeper phases of sleep. We who have repetitive thoughts about our personal problems increases insomnia and have a more poor sleep quality,” he clarifies.
Stress and anxiety, adds Quiñonez, leads people to have repetitive thoughts about problems or concerns and having such an active mind can interrupt the dream at dawn.
The environment and other factors
Environmental and external factors can also affect sleep quality and cause people to wake up and interrupt their rest. For example, if there is very hot in the room, noise, an uncomfortable bed, an inappropriate temperature is more likely that the dream is affected.
In addition to that, there is a large association between sleep and food problems. For example, says Monterroso, “if we have dinner too late or we are having very spicy or spicy foods, they could generate gastritis or reflux.” The reflux tends to awaken people.
High consumption of sugars at night can also cause these problems. The caffeine makes our dream, although we can sleep, not a deep sleep and that could also be generating awakening at night, adds the specialist.
Just as excesses are harmful, not eating at night can also affect and interrupt the dream, by hunger. It is advisable to have dinner three hours before sleeping and that is a balanced meal.
Another recommendations is to avoid self -medication, since it can be counterproductive and affect sleep quality. There are medications that are used to induce sleep but do not really guarantee a repair dream. “It is a more superficial dream and many patients have a hard time starting the day after having taken medication to sleep,” says Monterroso.
The specialist concludes that the ideal is to go with a professional to address sleep problems to make a precise diagnosis.