Thoughts & Things for your Thursday

I have a few thoughts and things to share today -- most of which are centered around one gnawing fact:  I keep waking up at 3am and can't get back to sleep!

My issue of waking up at the Devil's Hour hasn't happened every night -- but it has happened often enough that it's becoming a problem.  It seems to only happen on days when I haven't had a run or a workout -- and it only seems to happen during the summer months. 

This struck me as odd, because I'm usually super stressed out during semesters and much more calm and peaceful during breaks (summer & winter breaks).

Some research

Of course I turned to Google -- I searched and searched and stumbled upon a few different theories:

• Something in chinese medicine associates this time period (2-3am) with the liver?
• Catholics associate this time (around 3am) with the Devil's hour and some have reported seeing doors close or dark figures lurking as they awake in a panic
• Adrenal gland issues?
• Low blood sugar -- due to spiking sugar throughout the day.

Which is it?

I'm not going to rule anything out -- but the Low Blood sugar option seems like the easiest place to start.  If it's something more sinister I'll need a medical professional or an exorcism!

What am I going to?

My main concern is that my body is somehow out of whack.  For me, falling asleep and staying asleep is the ultimate prize at the end of each day.  The more restful sleep I get, the more I'm motivated to do good works the next day.  The more tossing and turning I do, the more worthless I am the next day.

So my plan is three fold:

1. Workout or run each day - hopefully this will exhaust me enough to sleep all night
2. Watch my blood sugar - by watching what I'm consuming and limiting the bad stuff (ie. refined or simple sugars or simple carbs without protein during meals, too much snacking, lots of processed junk) I'm hoping to balance this blood sugar thing out.  I'm also going to try to have a small snack before bed of an apple and almond butter or carrots and peanut butter.
3. Track my nights of no sleep -- hopefully by collecting more and more data, I'll begin to see larger trends.

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night?  

What do you do to fall back to sleep?  

Do you watch your blood sugar? Any tips and tricks would be great!

Share your experiences & let me know in the comments below ^_^