Is waking up refreshed a myth?

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Just a general question, no matter how much sleep I’ve had, when I have last ate, what I ate, I wake up feeling generally the same, quite ass. Does anyone here wake up ready to attack the day or is this a myth?

Comments

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  2. trmetroidmaniac Avatar

    Once in a blue moon.

  3. Confident_Board_5210 Avatar

    If you’re waking up groggy all the time you might be waking up in the middle of a REM cycle

  4. Dramatic_Strategy_95 Avatar

    Try a magnesium supplement before bed

  5. eluuu Avatar

    If I’ve not been drinking or smoking then yes, rare but yes.

  6. No-eye-dear-who-I-am Avatar

    Personally I wake up ready for a quick 40 winks 💤

  7. 811545b2-4ff7-4041 Avatar

    My normal tip to anyone not sleeping great is magnesium glycinate supplements.

    I’m usually out of bed within a few minutes and downstairs to make a morning brew. Mid-40s and not feeling like ass when I wake up.

  8. scream_schleam Avatar

    Do you get good quality though? I’ve heard exercise helps but there could potentially be an underlying health issue resulting in poor sleep.

    My blood glucose levels used drop in my sleep and i’d wake up feeling like I’ve been hit by a lorry but sorting that out has helped feeling better upon waking up.

  9. HellPigeon1912 Avatar

    I’m in your camp.  I never ever wake up feeling ready to get out of bed.

    I have read every piece of advice there is about good sleep hygiene.  I do all the things you’re “supposed” to do.  I still wake up every morning, at best, feeling mildly hungover, and at worst like I’ve caught a disease.

    Some of us just aren’t morning people.  I can power through the night into the early hours with no difficulty at all

  10. PuzzleMeDo Avatar

    I wake up thirsty, with caffeine withdrawal. I feel refreshed once I’ve have my morning cup of tea.

  11. roxieh Avatar

    No, it’s not a myth.

    Ignore random medical/supplement advice in the comments. 

    If you are doing all the normal everyday things for good rest (decent diet, drinking water, sleeping 7-8 hours uninterrupted) a night and waking up tired and groggy you should see your GP. Lots of health issues can be underpinned by feeling tired when you “shouldn’t” and likely you will need some blood work done to have a look at what’s going on with your body. 

  12. GordonLivingstone Avatar

    Are you looking forward to the day or just forcing yourself to get on with a tedious routine?

  13. Audacious_Antelope5 Avatar

    It can be natural, we all have different circadian rhythms, some people will never be a morning person, sadly for late risers society is very much geared towards the 9-5

  14. dragonmotherk Avatar

    Have a passion that you’re looking forward to? I’m an artist, so the second the weekend hits, I literally spring out of bed in anticipation of making stuff 😃

  15. NostalgiaTripper Avatar

    I would recommend drinking 3 litres of water a day for a month and see how you feel. I did this, and I wake up feeling pretty wide awake every morning. Typically from 6-7 hours sleep. And if I don’t get the 3 litres, I can very much feel it now.

  16. LomondDad Avatar

    It happens often

  17. keishajay Avatar

    No it’s not. I feel rested some days, others I don’t. Depends on how much sleep I’ve had. I ditched the caffeine. 

  18. purpleypinkwitch Avatar

    Every morning I wake up feeling groggy and generally it takes about three hours to feel normal again. This is one of the reasons I went self employed so I can choose my work hours/days to minimise having to rush out of the door first thing whilst feeling horrendous.

  19. Distinct_Star9990 Avatar

    im a huge morning person (tons of motivation to smash through my to do list before lunch) so even if i dont feel refreshed per se, im definitely ‘springing’ out of bed so to speak

  20. DimensionImmediate66 Avatar

    Honestly it might be a sleeping condition you have. I worked with a person who has expressed that no matter what they do and how well they sleep, it feels as though a train has hit them every single morning

  21. _rushlink_ Avatar

    Normally I wake up feeling refreshed less than 5% of the time, like only a handful of days a year.

    That said, if I set my phone to wake me during light sleep (I think I need to be wearing my watch) I will wake up refreshed much more often.

  22. PhantomFairy Avatar

    I’ve never, ever woken up well rested. No matter how many early nights, in a comfortable room, after a gentle evening of reading and drinking only tepid water.

    I don’t smoke or drink. I don’t have kids. I don’t have noisy neighbours or a stressful job. I have no nutritional deficiencies. I fall asleep quickly and sleep well. But bloody hell, I feel like shite, tired shite, every morning.

  23. Curious_Orange8592 Avatar

    Definitely a combination of things. Wake up lookinh forward to the daily activities and you’ll be energised (although too much excitment could keep you from sleeping). 

    Good sleep hygiene is a must, keeping screens out of the bedroom, blackout curtains, decent soundproofing and the right mattress, pillows and covers all help

    Eating too close to bedtime is just asking for poor sleep, I would recommend at least 3 hours between your last meal/snack and bed

  24. alphahydra Avatar

    From childhood to early-40s, I don’t think I have ever once woken up feeling like I wasn’t just shot with a tranquilliser dart.

    Sometimes after I’ve hauled myself out of bed and out the door for work, I’ll think I feel well-rested and alert, but never on waking. I never feel like I want to jump out of bed, unless I’ve been lying there slowly powering up for an hour or so, like at the weekend.

  25. cgknight1 Avatar

    >Is waking up refreshed a myth?

    Depends on the rest of your health and your sleep habits (if you don’t have underlying health issues).

  26. xxx654 Avatar

    I’ve got very boring things that help.

    Exercise for 30 mins during the day. Gym 2/3 days per week (nothing crazy btw). Then the rest of the time something as simple as a moderate walk to the shops and back helps. No caffeine after 6pm. Try to eat dinner before 730pm and limit eating crap. No alcohol during the week. Try to avoid screens after 10pm with iPhone set for blue filter reduction from 9pm. Try to get to sleep by 1030.

    None of this is hard and fast, there are definitely exceptions made at times. But if I do most of these things most of the time, I sleep better.

    I’m male 40s.

    If you’re constantly waking up feeling exhausted and you have tried to address it, speak to your GP.

  27. wafflespuppy Avatar

    I never wake up feeling refreshed. I’ve got a chronic disease though and one of the worst symptoms is fatigue so I’m just knackered all the time. Unless I’m on steroids in which case I’m bouncing off the walls and eating anything not nailed down 🤣

  28. SkipsH Avatar

    Can I suggest googling epworth sleepiness test. And if you have a high result speaking to your doctor?

  29. Lopsided_Pain4744 Avatar

    As people have already noted Magnesium Glycinate (a real game changer). I don’t know if you’ve gotten into this train yet but mouth tape and early morning sunlight (see Huberman Lab). Are very beneficial. Mouth tape has been really good because of the sheer amount of hydration you lose from mouth breathing over night. It’s probably in large part due to dehydration (tiredness, and as you say, feel hungover). Breathing through the nose helps keep you hydrated by moistening the air you take in.

  30. AnythingKey Avatar

    There is a huge difference between my sleep when I excercise a lot and go to bed at a reasonable time, vs eating whatever i like & going to bed late, looking at my phone. You are probably consuming too much caffeine and or sugar, plus not exercising enough. And going to bed late.

  31. Twolef Avatar

    Might be worth talking to your GP about.

    I was experiencing the same issue and it turned out that I was pre-diabetic.

  32. hanging_about Avatar

    Somebody’s said this already, it could just be that your normal waking time is always in the middle of a REM cycle, compared to when you go to sleep. There’s an app you can download (forgot the name sorry) that if you keep your phone on your bed, based on your movements it tracks your sleep cycle and rings your alarm at the end of one. So you tell it when you want to wake up say 7 30 and it might wake you anytime between 6 30 and 7 30, say

  33. MalcolmTuckersLuck Avatar

    Depends. I find if I can wake naturally I feel a whole lot better than getting roused out of a proper sleep by the alarm clock, or the bastarding cat deciding it’s time I woke up.

  34. Competitive_Reward21 Avatar

    I’ve never woken up feeling refreshed or well rested. Often feel hungover even though I’m not!
    Doesn’t help that I am in no way shape or form a morning person.

  35. TalosAnthena Avatar

    Once a year about I get a night where I will sleep all the way thru. I’m ill at the minute and I slept 11 hours last night and I’ve just been nodding off at the hospital. Like what’s all that about lol

  36. LuanneGX Avatar

    Around a month ago I had a few weeks off work (planned annual leave and then another 2 cause I couldn’t work for a reason which doesn’t really matter), and I woke up feeling refreshed everyday.

    Now I’m back at work I am back to feeling rubbish & tired all the time.

  37. Volo_Kin Avatar

    Get a nice (expensive) mattress and you’ll immediately see the difference it makes.

  38. Hot_Razzmatazz_4038 Avatar

    I wake up refreshed only on days I’ve gotten enough sleep and have woken up without an alarm. A lot of ‘ready to attack the day” is really mental. I could be refreshed after waking up but it could be a weekend and I can just relax and not have to attack the day!

  39. Plaisteach Avatar

    It can’t be a myth because every time I go on holiday I wake up feeling great.

  40. Acceptable-Fish9712 Avatar

    About once in 365 days

  41. gromitrules Avatar

    My husband was like you, never feeling rested in the morning and was getting pretty desperate – close to suicidal at times from lack of proper sleep. We always went to bed early, same routine, doctors had done loads of tests and never found anything.

    Then, FINALLY, he got a sleep study done and he just wasn’t getting enough oxygen in. He doesn’t have sleep apnea as such, but there are polyps in his nose which partially blocks it, if he tries just breathing through his nose he ends up out of breath. He’s got an oxygen machine now and it’s worked miracles! I mean, he’s never going to leap out of bed with a spring in his step and a song in his heart – not his style – but he actually feels rested in the morning.

    If you are a mouth breather as well, it’s worth pestering your doctor to get that checked out! I fully believe my husband would not have got it sorted if I hadn’t kept nagging him to ask them to check further – don’t leave it as long as my lovely goof to check it out!

  42. Ornery_Dot910 Avatar

    Tbh, I don’t even know what being refreshed feels like

  43. torashies Avatar

    I’m autistic, I don’t deal well with transitions. This includes the transition from sleeping (lying down, resting, not doing anything) to The Day (standing up, being active, doing things). This makes me not a ‘morning person’ even though it happens whether I wake up at 6am or 1pm. 

    I’ve started given myself time in the morning solely for the transition, to ‘ease’ into the day, and that puts me in a much better mood. I don’t know if it makes me feel ‘refreshed’, but I drink less coffee when I have that transition time, which is something. 

  44. sayleanenlarge Avatar

    I think we experience different levels of sleep inertia, which is basically the grogginess transferring from sleep to wake. Some wake up wide awake, some take half an hour to wake up.

    I think the issue happens when you never get out of that exhausted state, but a bit of transition time is normal.

  45. Careful-Button-606 Avatar

    It is a myth to make you buy more stuff and to be a happy little worker, I’m convinced.

  46. lorelai_lq Avatar

    I’ve been having terrible sleep and feeling awful all day, turns out the insanely bright street lamp outside was to blame. Enough light was getting through the curtains that it was ruining my sleep, I made a black out curtain and I’ve been sleeping in darkness and waking up feeling refreshed every day.
    I’m starting to wonder whether the LED street lamps are what’s making everyone in this country crazy.

  47. AE_Phoenix Avatar

    No, it’s not a myth. But proper sleep in a modern society can be difficult to come by.

    1. Firstly, it’s important to be aware of sleep cycles. A sleep cycle is approximately 90 minutes, varying between people. If you wake up at the end of a sleep cycle you are more likely to feel well rested, even if you have only slept for the first 90 minutes. If you wake up in the middle of a sleep cycle your brain will still be full of sleep chemicals that make you feel tired. For that reason you should always aim to be sleeping either 6 hours, or 7 hours and 30 minutes, or 9 hours. If you don’t have an alarm you will notice that you will way up a multiple of 90 minutes from when you went to sleep.

    2. Humans aren’t designed to jump straight out of bed and into work. You will feel better rested if you give yourself 30 minutes awake without getting up, while your brain wakes up on its own.

    3. Sleep debt is real. If you’re not consistently getting 7 hours 30 minutes of sleep (or 9 hours if you’re a woman) you will go into sleep debt. Besides causing permanent brain damage over a very short amount of time, this will also prevent you from feeling rested until you’ve recovered.