What is Sleep Inertia? How To Get Rid of It?

Have you read about Issac Newton’s first law of motion in school? The law states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion. The ability of every object to continue its state of rest or motion is known as inertia. Now, you’re wondering why we’re discussing this law of inertia while our topic is Sleep Inertia. Actually the law of inertia can explain sleep inertia in simple words. How? Let’s talk about it!

Your morning routine called rise-up may cut down your time you spend disoriented or groggy after waking up. The principle of inertia is used to describe resistance or refusal to change. Thus your morning grogginess is the result of an inertial force. Research shows that inertia is the first experience you have at the start of the day, daily. 

Although sleep inertia can be managed easily at home with the help of simple lifestyle changes. But if the e life hacks do not work and the sleep inertia continues to disrupt your daily life, you need to talk to a sleep specialist. 

What is Sleep Inertia?

Sleep inertia is a state of transition you experience after waking up. This state makes you feel that you’re not awake yet. Your body wants to continue the state of rest for more time. Now, your brain starts to stay that way. Sleep inertia can be identified by its symptoms, including:

• Laziness and drowsiness.
• Problem in coordination and balance of body due to decreased motor skills.
• Poor reaction time and disorientation.
• Irritability with mood swings.
• Unexpected behavior changes.
• Poor decision making ability.
• Slow learning and remembering.
• Difficulty communication and reasoning.

All these factors play their part to weigh you down when you wake up. That heavy feeling after waking up is sleep inertia. It causes tiredness and makes you feel that you’re not ready yet to hit the ground running. Most people experience it. 

Although it is a common experience, it doesn’t last for long. If you experience a version that lasts longer, it may be a prolonged sleep inertia. The prolonged sleep monitor may convert to parasomnia, a type of sleep disorder when severe sleep inertia causes confusion during sleep drunkenness, or sleep arousal.

In addition, other types of parasomnia include sleep disorders that involve unwanted experiences that occur when you’re:

• Sleeping.
• Falling asleep.
• Trying to wake up.

However, most of the studies suggest that sleep inertia doesn’t belong to any form of parasomnia. But if you experience any symptom of sleep intake, you need an emergency visit to your sleep specialist because sleep inertia is a prediction of parasomnia.

Sleep experts say that people having sleep inertia often experience cognitive issues or feelings of lethargy. Its duration is between 20 to 60 minutes usually but if you are deeply deprived of sleep it may last for longer. The state is known as sleep drunkenness.

According to research, sleep inertia is not a serious health concern but it would be dangerous when it makes you more accident-prone. The danger can be risky and fatal especially when you;re performing high-risk activities, such as operating heavy machinery, performing surgery, or driving a vehicle.

Causes of Sleep Inertia

Sleep inertia sometimes poses a threat to your overall health and well-being. But still it is a natural phenomenon not a health issue. All of you experience it from time to time in your life. Experts say that waking up actively and ready to jump out of bed with full energy is not a normal thing. This misconception should be corrected. That;s why sleep inertia is a common occurrence but why does it happen

Let’s try to find out the answer!

According to sleep experts, sleep inertia is the reaction of waking up from a deep sleep. The disorder  had been categorized into two groups with four stages.categories are:

1. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
2. Non-REM- (NREM) sleep.

This is a four stages cycle over the course of 90 to 120 minutes, on average. The four stages are noted below:

1st Stage of NREM: When you fall asleep, you enter this shortest stage of sleep inertia. At this stage, your body is not fully at rest. That’s why you feel the lightest sleep at this stage. You can easily wake up during the first stage of NREM but if you continue to sleep, you will enter the Second stage of NREM soon. 

2nd Stage of NREM: At this stage your body experiences a drop in temperature, slower rate of heart beat and breathing and relaxation of muscles. Along all these changes, one most effective change also occurs when your brain also slows down its activity. However, the short bursts of activity, known as complexes, still occur that help continue your deep sleep even in the presence of sleep interruptions or noises.Throughout more than half of night, you have spent the time in the second stage of NREM. Now, it’s harder to wake up.

3rd Stage of NREM: This is the deepest sleep stage. Your body temperature has fallen to its lowest and your brain has produced specific waves known as delta waves. These waves induce more deep sleep with slow waves. If you wake up during this stage the sleep inertia will be at its highest point.

REM Sleep Stage: You spend more time in this stage as this is the final stage of sleep in each sleep cycle. Your body temperature begins to rise, the brain starts producing faster waves, your muscles get paralyzed. This is the stage where you dream. At this stage, your brain activity resembles that in your waking stage.

Contributing factors for sleep inertia include:

• Not getting adequate amount of sleep or insufficient sleep time.
• Working at night shift, causing shift work sleep disorder.
• Using medications that can disrupt your circadian rhythm, including beta-blockers, opioids, benzodiazepines, or antihistamines.
• Certain health conditions related to brain activity, such as idiopathic hypersomnia, sleep apnea, bipolar disorder, or major depressive disorder.
• Waking out of the third stage of NREM or deep sleep stage.

Treatment of Sleep Inertia

Grogginess is not a pleasant experience but sometimes it can be helpful for you. According to recent theories, sleep inertia sometimes acts as potentially protective phenomena. For example, sometimes you need to pee while you’re sleeping. This is the time when your semi-alertness helps you to wake up and go to the bathroom timely. After peeing you can drift back off to sleep easily.

However, sometimes sleep inertia becomes a problematic phenomenon. It usually happens when you don’t have completed your resting. Therefore, sleep experts suggested reducing the frequency of sleep inertia instead of curing or treating sleep inertia. This may have a positive impact on your daily life. Following the tips jotted below can help you do this.

The Rise-Up Method

According to research, rise-up is an effective method to reduce frequency of sleep inertia. The method was first applied on the people with insomnia and bipolar disorder to reduce the frequency of this disorder. Further studies proved that everyone can benefit from the rise-up method. As rise-up is an acronym, it has been broken down into following steps:

Oversleeping is not the solution. You have to resist the urge to snooze. When you wake up, try to get back to sleep. This may help you finish the sleep-wake cycle. If you  can’t succeed, stop hitting the snooze button. Try to keep your alarm to another room so that you have to make more effort to turn it off.

After waking up in the morning, your first hour should be full of activity. You can do a morning walk. Incorporating some morning walk or brisk activity in the morning will increase your blood circulation that may help you wake up completely.

Taking a Bath

Showers are amazing. Taking a bath at night is a great factor for promoting good sleep while having a shower in the morning is an effective way to wake your body up. Taking a cold shower, no doubt a brave thing, can help you change your body temperature abruptly.this activity kicks your sympathetic nervous system into gear, improves your blood circulation, and increases your Dopamine level. However, if showering in the morning is not pleasant for you, you can splash cold water on your face as a great substitute for bathing.

Exposure to Natural Light

Exposure to natural light in the morning is a great way to send a message to your nerves to wake up. Here light means sunlight not electricity. Electricity, \no doubt, is a great facility for us but it is not beneficial like sunlight. So, try to take your morning drink on your porch or in the garden to finish grogginess. Getting late for work? Don’t worry, sitting in your car in front of sunlight rays before starting to drive is another effective way. Try it.

Calling your Loved One

This is better than an alarm to wake you up. Alarming sounds sometimes are not pleasant and feel as ear-splitting but the voice of your loved one can help wake your brain cells.

In addition, you can ignore alarm sounds easily but it’s hard to ignore the best friend’s call. 

Moreover, your device can’t get mad after getting ignored but the loved one can show reaction, which makes you alert in seconds. 

Listening to Upbeat Music

Listening the favorite music beat is the most enjoyable way to kick your sleep off. Upbeat music is a great enemy of sleep inertia. Make a playlist of your favorite banger and enjoy them in the morning. The music will make you dance and be energetic in the morning.

Effective Tips to Reduce Frequency of Sleep Inertia

Rise-up ,method helps many people to get rid of sleep inertia or reduce its frequency but there are plenty of other ways that can help you minimize your sleep inertia, such as:

Improvement in Sleep Hygiene: Taking rest for enough time and making your muscles test for the whole night is the best way to resist sleep inertia. Good sleep hygiene matters a lot in your sleep quality. 

Adjusting the Sleep Wake Cycle: Amount of sleep you need during a whole night decides your alertness level in the morning. Adjust your sleep-wake cycle in ways that can fulfill your sleep requirement and also can match with your daytime routine. If you feel grogginess in the morning, try to go to bed at least 30 to 45 minutes before and after. may help you get rid of sleep inertia in the morning. In addition, tailing and during working hours can be a good way to keep yourself active throughout the day. Howrah, the power naps should be short and sweet. 

Consumption of Caffeine: Coffee or tea, contagious caffeine, caffeine can help you wake up actively. However, skipping milk in both coffee and tea may have a positive impact. But don’t overdo it.  Because over-caffeination can cause severe side effects that can make it harder for you to fall asleep at night. It can cause insomnia or other sleep disorders as well.

Staying Hydrated: Drinking plenty of water throughout the day can help you stay hydrated not only during the day but also at night. It doesn’t mean you start drinking 50 ounces of water before bedtime. It means drink water throughout the day. Staying hydrated can promote sleep and improve sleep quality while dehydration or dry mouth can lead to high frequency of sleep inertia. It also causes headaches when you get up.

Conclusion

Sleep inertia is not a medical problem but it can affect your overall well-being, negatively. Therefore, prolonged sleep inertia is an indication to visit a sleep specialist to devise the ways to reduce the frequency. Sleep exports declared it a natural phenomenon that occurs commonly in everyone. But if left untreated for a longer duration,it can lead to parasomnia that is a group of sleep disorders.

I permitting, different tips like the rise-up method to retreat sleep inertia can help you reduce its frequency. Research suggests to reduce the frequency not to cure it because it is not an illness. But if you experience that your sleep inertia is lingering throughout the day and common tips are not working to test the disorder, make an appointment with a sleep specialist as soon as possible.