<ol><li>During this transition period, you may feel groggy or disoriented. If you aren’t careful, you can easily fall back asleep.</li><li>Sleep inertia slows down your motor and cognitive skills, which is why it sometimes feels impossible to do anything right after you wake up.</li><li>Sleep inertia can last anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour, though it typically improves within <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5136610/">15 to 60 minutes </a> </li></ol>

Sleep Inertia (cont.)

<ol><li>Avoid screen time for two or three hours before you go to bed.</li><li>Use dim red lights at night, which don’t have as powerful of a melatonin-suppressing effect on your circadian rhythm.</li><li>Expose yourself to a lot of bright light during the day.</li><li>Use blue-blocking glasses at night or an app that filters blue light if you have to use electronics at night.</li></ol>

How to reduce the impact of blue light on your sleep

<ol><li>Being too hot or too cold can cause restlessness and make it hard for you to fall or stay asleep. </li><li>Personal preference should play a role in your bedroom’s temperature, but a cooler room is better when it comes to a comfortable sleep.</li><li>If you still have trouble sleeping, warming your feet by wearing socks may help dilate blood vessels and adjust your internal thermostat.</li><li>A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031938406003933?via%3Dihub">2007 study</a> shows that adults who wore unheated or heated socks to bed were able to fall asleep faster.</li></ol>

Too-cold or too-hot bedroom

<ol><li>Even if you’re the type of person who can fall asleep with the TV on, noise can still have a big impact on your sleep quality.</li><li>Reducing background noise can help to increase the amount of deep sleep you get each night and decrease the number of times you wake up during the night.</li><li>Even if you can’t get rid of the source of noise, you can try:</li></ol><ul><li>sleeping with earplugs</li><li>using a sound machine, which you can find on <a href="https://amzn.to/2T4Wmtf?correlationId=26ee4dfa-5602-440e-b3e4-b36dff4b0ffe">Amazon</a></li><li>keeping your windows and bedroom door closed</li></ul>

Loud noises

Sleep apnea, usually obstructive sleep apnea, is a serious sleep disorder that causes your breathing to stop periodically in your sleep. You may not even realize you have the condition.Other signs and symptoms of sleep apnea include:<ul><li>snoring</li><li>gasping for air during sleep</li><li>feeling tired after a full night’s sleep</li><li>trouble staying asleep</li><li>waking with <a href="https://www.healthline.com/symptom/dry-mouth">dry mouth </a></li></ul>

Sleep apnea

<ol><li><a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/insomnia">Insomnia </a>involves having a hard time falling asleep or waking up too early and not being able to go back to sleep. </li><li>Short-term insomnia is very common and often caused by <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/stress">stress</a>, a traumatic event, or sleeping in unfamiliar surroundings, such as a hotel room.</li><li>Insomnia that lasts a month or more is considered <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/chronic-insomnia">chronic insomnia</a>. This can be a condition itself or a symptom of an underlying issue.</li></ol>

Insomnia

<ol><li>Blue light, more than other types of light, suppresses the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate your body’s circadian rhythm, which is your sleep-wake cycle. </li><li>This makes it harder for you to get good-quality sleep, which can leave you feeling tired the next morning.</li></ol>

Effects of Blue Light

<ol><li>It’s not unusual to wake up feeling a bit groggy. For many people, it’s nothing a cup of coffee or shower can’t fix.</li><li>Chances are, your morning grogginess is just sleep inertia, which is a normal part of the waking process. Your brain typically doesn’t instantly wake up after sleeping. It transitions gradually to a wakeful state.</li><li>During this transition period, you may feel groggy or disoriented. If you aren’t careful, you can easily fall back asleep.</li><li>Sleep inertia slows down your motor and cognitive skills, which is why it sometimes feels impossible to do anything right after you wake up.</li></ol>

Sleep Inertia

<ol><li>Avoiding drinking liquids for at least two hours before bedtime. </li><li>Cutting back on caffeine and alcohol-containing beverages. </li><li>Wearing compression socks during the day if you have <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/swollen-ankle-and-leg">swollen ankles and legs </a>or certain states of <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/water-retention">water retention</a>. </li></ol>

You can reduce how often you get up to urinate by:

<ol><li>If within the first few hours of falling asleep, you suddenly wake up from a deep sleep and are in a confused state, you may have <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/sleep/sleep-drunkenness">sleep drunkenness</a>.</li><li>Also called confusional arousals, sleep drunkenness is a sleep disorder that bypasses the inertia phase. </li><li>An episode may last for up to <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/12133-parasomnias--disruptive-sleep-disorders?_ga=2.77718108.974810217.1551652206-622031066.1551652205">30 to 40 minutes </a>. You may not even remember it occurred when you wake up to start the day.</li></ol>

Sleep Drunkenness

Caffeine is a natural stimulant that promotes alertness.Having too much caffeine during the day or having it too close to bedtime can:<ul><li>make it harder to fall asleep</li><li>make it harder to stay asleep</li><li>increase the number of times you go to the bathroom overnight</li></ul>Coffee, chocolate, and certain teas and soft drinks all contain caffeine. Caffeine can also be found in certain medications, including some prescription and over-the-counter pain-relieving medications.

Too much caffeine

<ol><li>If your morning fatigue is accompanied by stiffness or aching body parts, your mattress could be to blame.</li><li>A medium-firm mattress is best. The age of your mattress also matters. A small <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697581/">2009 study</a> found that participants reported better sleep quality and fewer aches and pains in the morning after sleeping on a new mattress.</li><li>Mattresses are also home to common allergens — such as dust mites, which can cause nighttime sneezing and coughing, especially in people with allergies and asthma.</li></ol>

Mattress problems

<ol><li>Replacing your mattress every 9 or 10 years, ideally with a medium-firm mattress. </li><li>Using a hypoallergenic mattress cover if you have allergies. </li></ol>

Make sure your mattress isn’t hurting your sleep quality by:

<ol><li>Avoid having caffeine three to seven hours before bed.</li><li>Limit your intake of coffee or other caffeinated beverages to one or two servings a day.</li><li>Check medications for caffeine content.</li></ol>

To keep caffeine from interfering with your sleep:

<ol><li>Blue light is any artificial lighting that emits blue wavelengths, which aren’t necessarily a bad thing. </li><li>During daylight hours, they can boost alertness and mood. But this isn’t the vibe you’re going for when you’re heading off to bed.</li><li>Energy-efficient lighting and electronic screens have increased our exposure to blue light, especially after sundown.</li></ol>

What is Blue Light? 

Sleep inertia is a natural part of waking up, but you can limit its effects by:<ul><li>regularly getting a full night’s sleep</li><li>limiting naps to less than 30 minutes</li><li>drinking coffee or another caffeinated beverage when you get up</li></ul>

Limit the Effects of Sleep Inertia

<ol><li>Drinking too much of anything too close to bedtime can make you frequently get up to urinate throughout the night. This can also happen in certain situations if you’re retaining a lot of fluid.</li><li><a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/urination-excessive-at-night">Excessive urination at night </a>, also called nocturia, may also be a sign of an underlying medical condition. </li><li>If you continue to wake up two or more times per night to urinate after limiting how much you drink before bed, speak to your doctor.</li></ol>

Frequent urination

<ol><li>Sleep movement disorders are conditions that cause movement before or during sleep, making it hard to fall or stay asleep.</li><li>Some common sleep movement disorders are:</li></ol><ul><li><a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/restless-leg-syndrome">restless leg syndrome </a>, which causes uncomfortable sensations in your legs and a strong urge to move them that intensifies when trying to sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/sleep-disorder-periodic-limb-movement">periodic limb movement disorder </a>, which causes your limbs to flex, twitch, or jerk during sleep. Movements may occur every 20 to 40 seconds and may last up to an hour.</li><li><a href="https://www.healthline.com/symptom/teeth-grinding">bruxism </a>, which involves clenching or grinding your teeth during sleep</li></ul>

Sleep movement disorders

You’re more likely to experience symptoms of sleep inertia or sleep drunkenness when you:<ul><li>don’t get enough sleep</li><li>wake up abruptly from a deep sleep</li><li>set your alarm for earlier than usual</li></ul>Sleep inertia can also be worsened by <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/shift-work-sleep-disorder">shift work sleep disorder</a>, <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/sleep/obstructive-sleep-apnea">obstructive sleep apnea</a>, and certain types of <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/circadian-rhythm-sleep-disorder">circadian rhythm sleep disorder</a>.

Reasons for Sleep Inertia & Sleep Drunkenness 

<ol><li>Keeping your bedroom between 60°F and 67°F (16°C and 19°C). </li><li>Wearing socks to bed or placing a hot water bottle at your feet. </li><li>Choosing appropriate sleepwear and bedding for your local climate. </li></ol>

Create the optimal temperature for quality sleep by:

<ol><li>Alcohol has been shown to have a sedative effect and make you sleepy, but it doesn’t lead to a good sleep. </li><li>Alcohol increases the number of times you wake up once the relaxing effect wears off and prevents you from getting deep sleep.</li><li>The more alcohol you consume before bed, the more it disrupts your sleep, increasing your likelihood of waking up tired. </li></ol>

Drinking alcohol

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