Why is my mother waking at the same time every night?
I am a family caregiver for mother who has COPD, hypertension and anxiety. To help her sleep, she takes clonazapem, remeron and ativan at 10:30. However every night 12:00-12:30, she wakes up, uses the restroom then goes back to sleep. Anyone know why this is happening?
Expert Answer
Since she's waking up at he 90 to 120 minute interval, that's one sleep cycle, when you reach deeper levels of sleep (deep non-REM or REM sleep) at the end of this first cycle. Deeper levels of sleep and especially REM sleep is when your throat muscles relax and you're more likely to stop breathing. It's been shown that in most cases, waking up and going to the bathroom is because you stop breathing, and not due to an overactive bladder. However, breathing pauses can cause your heart to make a hormone that make the kidneys produce a bit more urine. Then when you wake up from the breathing pause, you think you have to go to the bathroom, only to see that you have only a little bit of urine. Whether or not she snores, with her medical history, there's a good possibility that she may have obstructive sleep apnea. You may want to have her see a sleep doctor for consultation.