Waking up at 3am

[UTG2812]

Hello Robert,

For the past 2-3 weeks, I have been struggling with disrupted sleep during my NLP. I usually get around 8-10 hours of sleep but have been waking up at 3-5 am and can't fall back asleep. When I do fall asleep, I experience strange dreams and wake up every 30 minutes or so. This leaves me feeling terrible throughout the day.

This started happening only on days of my workouts and has progressed to include rest days, even though I still made progress in all my lifts. I've tried various remedies such as melatonin, zinc and electrolytes, CBD, meditation, sleep mask/ear plugs, cool my bedroom, but none have worked except for skipping workouts. I have skipped the last two workouts and finally slept well for the first time yesterday.

Last winter, I experienced similar sleep problems that I could only fix by taking a break from training. Then a non lifting related injury forced me to take some time off of training.
I restarted my NLP in late February. My current stats are
height: 5'10", bodyweight: 200 lbs (started NLP at 173)
deadlift: 305, squat: 250, bench: 185, press: 135, clean: 155.

I suspect that my early waking could be a symptom of too much cortisol. Do you have any advice or suggestions for me?

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

[Robert Santana]

Are you taking any supplements?

[UTG2812]

Are you taking any supplements?

I have been taking zinc, quercetin, vitamin D and electrolytes regulary for a long time.

Recently tried melatonin, ashwagandha and Rhodiola but this didn't improve the sleeping issue.

[Robert Santana]

I had one client report having strange dreams taking ashwagandha. Did you notice that start when you were taking that?

[UTG2812]

No, when this started the first time in winter I wasn't taking ashwaganda.

I now started to take it when I restarted my NLP in hopes it would help to regulate cortisol. So I had been taking it for 2 months before this started.

Mostly i won't even fall back asleep and only if I do I will dream for 20min and wake back up.

[Robert Santana]

When do you discontinue screen time? Caffeine?

[UTG2812]

Screens an hour before bed.
Caffeine about 7 hours before.

[Robert Santana]

What time do you train?

[UTG2812]

On weekends at around 1pm
Weekdays around 5pm
Going to bed at 11pm

Haven't noticed a difference between training earlier or later tbh

I am male,32 btw forgot to include that in the OP

[Robert Santana]

I have heard that some people are wired if they lift in the evening. Residual adrenaline is the likely cause of this. How close to bed time? It varies. Try training in the am just once and see how, if at all, that impacts your sleep. You may also want to play around with removing one supplement at a time and see if something is going on there.