[bobwright123]

Hi,

I am a 21 year old male. For the past 3 weeks I’ve only been able to get 5 hours of sleep a night. I wake up after 5 hours with a full bladder and having to urinate. But after that, I’m unable to fall back asleep. I require 8-9 hours of sleep to function properly.

It doesn’t matter what time I go to sleep. I could fall asleep at 12 and wake up at 5am, or fall asleep at 3 and wake up at around 8.

I believe this is all happening because I took Benadryl one night, but woke up after 5 hours of sleep and couldn’t fall asleep after that.

Any reason why I am waking up too early and unable to fall back asleep? Did taking benadryl have anything to do with it?

Notes:
-I don’t drink water before bedtime
-I drink coffee daily but have been doing so for 10 years, before this all started happening
-I don’t have any depression/stress/anxiety.

[Scott]

Hi @bobwright123,

Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing your story. The good news is that you’ve proven the ability to sleep, albeit, not the 8-9 hours a night you desire. Do you believe you need at least 8 hours of sleep because that’s a popular number found in most sleep related articles or are you experiencing major setbacks the following day if you don’t get that amount of sleep? Keep in mind that sleep is like wearing a shoe – not everyone requires the same amount of sleep just like everyone doesn’t wear the same shoe size. At the time my insomnia began, I was sleeping 6-7 hours a night until I listened to a podcast that mentioned alleged health consequences if I didn’t get at least 8 hours. I began to worry that I wasn’t getting enough sleep, which caused me to experience insomnia for 10 months – all because of what was said on a podcast. I know now that there isn’t anything detrimental about my sleep schedule but something as insignificance as a podcast triggered my anxiety about it.

I’m not surprised you haven’t found Benadryl beneficial since no medication can generate sleep and I don’t see it inducing a wake time in the middle of the night. Based on what you described with your sleep schedule though, have you experimented with a consistent bed and wake time schedule? Since you’re already sleeping about 5 hours a night, you might find implementing sleep restriction therapy beneficial for you, which has been confirmed to work well for insomnia sufferers. You can find more information about this technique here: https://insomniacoach.com/sleep-restriction-therapy/

Hope that helps,
Scott J

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