Waking Up Shaking: Understanding Why It Happens and How to Stop It
Waking up shaking is an unsettling way to enter the day. For many, it is concurrent with feelings of weakness, anxiety, or even a racing heartbeat. However, while isolated episodes are generally nothing to worry about, regular episodes may point to something serious. Knowing the causes of your morning tremors is the first step in finding a solution to this problem. In this blog post, we discuss some possible causes for waking up shaking and a few practical strategies to help you manage such symptoms and take control of your morning.
Why Do You Waking Up Shaking? Common Causes You Should Know
There are various possible physical and psychological reasons why one wakes up trembling or shaking. Let’s examine some common causes of waking shaky and find out which relate to your condition.
Low Blood Sugar Level (Hypoglycemia)
Low blood sugar, also known as hypoglycemia, is a common reason why people feel shaking inside when they wake up. It’s especially frequent in those with diabetes, but it can also happen to anyone who skips meals or follows a very restrictive diet.
How It Happens: Your body uses stored glucose to keep everything running while you’re sleeping. If blood sugar levels get too low overnight, you might wake up shaking, dizzy, or weak.
What You Can Do: Have a balanced dinner and a light bedtime snack to help keep your blood sugar level through the night. Include protein and complex carbohydrates, which release energy slowly.
Anxiety and Panic Attacks
If you often wake up shivering or feeling like your heart is racing, anxiety may be to blame. Even when you’re asleep, your brain can remain active, triggering stress responses that lead to shaking when waking up.
How It Happens: Anxiety can lead to a secretion of adrenaline in your body, heightening the alertness of the senses and the activities of the muscles. Internal trembling can thus bring about racing thoughts and restlessness in the general sensation of the body.
How to Overcome: Learn presleep calming rituals like meditation, journaling, or listening to soothing music to signal your brain that it is time for sleep.
Sleep Disorders and Poor Quality of Sleep
Conditions such as sleep apnea and insomnia disrupt the regulation of muscle control within your body, causing morning shakiness.
How It Happens: Interrupted sleep prevents your body from entering deep restorative phases, which may interfere with the nervous system and cause trembling upon waking.
Tips: Stick to a regular sleep schedule and avoid stimulating activities and caffeine in the late afternoon. If your symptoms persist, consult a sleep specialist to explore available treatments.
Dehydration
Dehydration could be another reason why you feel shaky in the morning. Your body needs enough water to keep your muscles and nerves working smoothly, and even slight dehydration can cause shaking and make you feel weak.
How It Happens: By not drinking enough water, your muscles may get tired and lead to some shaking.
How to Avoid It: Take water frequently during the day. Take a glass of water before sleeping-but not an excess to disturb one’s sleep.
Hormonal Imbalances
Hormonal changes, especially those involving cortisol, can affect your nervous system and cause shaking inside when you wake up.
What Happens: Normally, cortisol is considered to be the stress hormone that peaks early in the morning. The imbalance, however, leads to exaggerated symptoms such as jitteriness and trembling.
How to Improve Balance: Regular exercise, a healthy diet, and practices for reducing stress can help balance hormone levels.
Caffeine or Alcohol
Both caffeine and alcohol can disrupt your sleep and lead to shaking in the morning.
How it happens: Caffeine is a stimulant that results in sleep disturbance and shivering when taken in significant amounts or at periods too close to bedtime. It irritates the nervous system, makes the nerves sensitive, and can cause morning shakiness.
Alcohol, though it has a sedative action initially, disrupts sleep patterns and reduces sleep quality. During digestion, this can lead to restlessness, a racing heartbeat, and trembling after waking up, leaving one feeling weak and unsteady.
Advice: To decrease these effects, reduce caffeine and alcohol intake during late afternoon and evening; after a while, gradually taper off stimulants to avoid withdrawal symptoms that disturb sleep quality.
Medications
Some medications, including antidepressants, anti-anxiety drugs, and high blood pressure treatments, act on the nervous system and can bring about trembling upon waking.
How It Happens: The drugs may overstimulate or depress the nervous system. Sometimes, their effects wear off overnight so that you wake up with a form of withdrawal, which may be manifested as shaking, dizziness, or restlessness. Irregular doses or omitted doses can also produce such symptoms.
Advice: If you think your medication is one of the causes of morning shakiness, do not change your dosage on your own. One should consult a doctor further to consider other options or changes in dosage.
Neurological Conditions or Nerve Problems
On a more serious note, the reasons why your hands shake in the morning could be neurological disorders like essential tremor (ET) or Parkinson’s disease.
When to Be Concerned: If such persistent shaking fails to subside with changes in lifestyle, consultation with medical doctors is necessary.
Factors That Affect Symptoms: In essential tremor, symptoms may temporarily worsen in the morning due to anxiety, poor sleep, or physical exhaustion. In Parkinson’s disease, morning tremors often result from lower dopamine levels, which drop overnight, making symptoms more pronounced until medication is taken.
Treatment Options: Treatment options range from therapy and medication to non-invasive devices. Tailored plans, including physical therapy and assistive technologies, can help to manage symptoms better and improve daily function.
When to Worry About Waking Up Shaking?
If this symptom occurs more frequently or worsens over time, it could indicate a serious condition.
What to look for: How often the shaking occurs, what its strength is, and whether other symptoms also appear with the shaking; keep a record for your physician to review.
When to Act: If your morning shaking interferes with daily activities such as eating, writing, or even walking, seek expert help immediately.
Other Things to Watch
Watch for such symptoms as chest pain, inability to breathe properly, or intense dizziness. They may be symptoms of an emergency that needs treatment as soon as possible.
Conclusion
Waking up shaking is not uncommon; in most cases, it can be managed with simple lifestyle adjustments. By understanding why you shake upon waking and identifying the specific causes for you, you can take meaningful steps to improve your mornings.
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Photo by: Fotogracija
