is sleeping in making me tired?

January 1, 2009 10:10 AM

I sleep in on the weekends, but always feel out of it. Am I going to have to get up at 6:30am every morning now?

for several months now I've noticed that I have a tendency to feel lethargic, out of it, heavy-headed on weekends (not all the time, but often enough) and any days off during the week. but I don't really see this pattern during the week.

I get up around 6:30am on weekdays for work, usually on 6-7 hours of actual sleep (i.e. not including time to fall asleep which ranges from 10-30 minutes), and around 9-10am on weekends. I speculated a while ago that maybe this shift was too dramatic and was "throwing me off" some how, but I can't be only one who sleeps in a few hours on a saturday, right?

I've tried getting up earlier, but I admit it's hard to maintain, especially when I don't really have anything to do and/or it's a cold winter day. I've wondered if I have no trouble getting up at 6:30am on weekdays because I know I have to go to work, so I just sort of do it.

does any of this make sense to anyone? could there be anything else in play here? I know sleep can be a funny thing, but it seems like everyone I know has no problem working early, staying out until 2am on a friday/saturday night, and going back to work on monday feeling fine.

posted by fishtacos to health & fitness (10 comments total)

Find something to do. Really. I mean, if you actually go out on a weekend, sleep in a little, but getting up at teh same time the whole wee is a great boon. Not that I follow my own advice, but...

My local botanical garden has early hours on Saturday mornings. When I'm being "good", I get up and take pictures there.
posted by notsnot at 10:21 AM on January 1

Do you set your alarm on the weekend, just for a later time? If so, perhaps you're waking up in a different part of your sleep cycle. I know I usually sleep something like 10:45pm - 5:45am, and that works well for me. If, on the other hand I go to bed early, say, about 10:15pm I feel really out of it when I wake up.
posted by losvedir at 10:42 AM on January 1

Some people can deal with radically changing sleep schedules, some people can't. Maybe 10 hours of sleep is just too much for your body - I also get lethargic when I oversleep. Really, your situation doesn't sound that unusual.

You could try waking up around 7-8:30 and stay in bed reading a book, the internet, or a newspaper. You get the benefit of not needing to get up but at the same time you're not oversleeping.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 10:45 AM on January 1 [1 favorite]

this may be obvious to everyone but me, but i was all fucked up on weekends because i was sleeping in past my usual drug-taking time. during the week i would take all my meds at 7.30, but on the weekends not until 11 or 12. and it seriously fucked me up. now that i get up at 7.30 on the weekends to shuffle to the bathroom and take my pills (and then go back to bed for a few hours) i'm fine. so, something to consider if that applies to you.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 12:00 PM on January 1

Is your caffiene intake the same? I feel dopier when I sleep in late because I'm a few hours overdue for coffee.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 12:36 PM on January 1

Your sleep patterns disrupt when you sleep in like that.

You would actually feel much better if you had a consistent wake up time-AND if you went to bed earlier.

As to staying up too late, one solution is to get up early then take a short postlunch nap.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 1:23 PM on January 1

i woke up every morning at 5 am to go to work for 10 months straight. on my days off i slept in, but never more than an hour or two later because if i did i'd feel exhausted. i say maybe you should just get up close to your regular time and see if it makes a difference. maybe you feel lethargic because it's the weekend and you're allowed to :)
posted by big open mouth at 1:39 PM on January 1

Maybe you're actually tired and need to get some extra sleep? Everyone else here sounds like they're auditioning for the military or something. Is'nt the weekend supposed to be about recharging yourself? Are you missing out on anything important by sleeping in a little and taking it easy?
posted by AuntieRuth at 1:55 PM on January 1

I think there are studies that show people function best when they get up in a relatively narrow window every day (90 minutes total variation). If you're accumulating sleep debt during the week and trying to pay it off over the weekend, it doesn't really do your body much good.

That said, I'm a morning person and my BF has pronounced my "sleeping in" (i.e., to get up at 8 instead of 7) to be a sin against decency.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 6:03 PM on January 1

This authors@google talk by Sara Mednick talks about sleep cycles and might help you out.

Don't be afraid of the hour long video, I found her worth listening to for the whole thing, but you can skip to 12 minutes in where she starts talking about sleep stages. (The last 20 minutes are people obnoxiously bragging about their google nap couches.)

It might not be the amount of extra sleep you are getting, but that you are waking up during the wrong parts of your cycle.
posted by edbles at 6:35 PM on January 1