Sleepless on Sunday night? Join the club

Can’t sleep Sunday night?

You are hardly alone. Worse, it’s your own fault, according to experts.

A survey of more than 4,200 Americans and Britons found nearly one fourth suffer from poor sleep Sunday night, according to the meditation website and application, www.Calm.com.

More:Happy people get this much sleep

More:Air pollution could be disrupting your sleep

More:Have a case of the Mondays? Blame Sunday night.

More:Can’t sleep? Call this hotline for bizarre sleep-inducing sounds

With 23 percent of survey respondents saying sleep is tough on Sunday night, Thursday night is when sleep comes easiest, according to Michael Acton Smith, co-founder of Calm, which offers soothing music and sound effects to help listeners nod off.

The Sunday night sleepless syndrome is a consequence of throwing off one’s biological clock by staying up into the wee hours on weekends and sleeping later Sunday morning. That disrupts a regular sleep pattern during the week, said Dr. James Rowley, a board-certified pulmonologist and professor with Wayne State University in Detroit and a director with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

“I think because people are sleep deprived most of the week they allow themselves to catch up on weekends,” he said.

By catching up too much or taking a nap on Sunday afternoon, the body is not ready to sleep later, he said.

Another hitch are the types of people who are planners, who get in bed and can’t stop plotting out their week ahead and don’t sleep restfully, he said.

They are the “super organized type,” he said. “It’s a personality thing.”

For others, anxiety about the work week ahead keeps them wide-eyed Sunday night, said Dr. Sadiq Al-Nakeeb, who is board certified in pulmonary medicine, critical care and sleep medicine in Southwest Florida. He is the medical director of Physicians Regional Healthcare System’s sleep center at its Collier Boulevard campus.

He recalls another online survey a few years ago where people ages 40 to 54 experience higher stress and anxiety at sleep time. The higher the income, the higher the stress, he said.

The amount of time people spend with their cell phone and other electronic devices will hinder melatonin, the body’s natural sleep aid, from coming into play to make them feel sleepy, Rowley said.

“The light helps prevent melatonin from rising,” he said.

Melatonin normally starts to kick in three to four hours before sleep time, Rowley said.

The answer is to put down the cell phone a few hours before bed time and dim other bright lights.

The National Sleep Foundation found 45 percent of Americans say poor sleep mars their daily activities at least once a week, according to a 2014 analysis.

Americans report sleeping an average of 7 hours and 36 minutes a night — within the 7 to 9 hour recommendation for adults — but about 35 percent say it’s not quality sleep.

On average, Americans go to bed at 10:55 p.m. and wake up at 6:38 a.m. during the week. They add 40 minutes of snooze time on weekends.

Al-Nakeeb, with Physicians Regional, said the Sunday night sleepless trend is not cause for seeking professional help. He offered simple recommendations.

» Get out of bed on weekends within one hour of your normal weekday wake time, no matter how late you stayed up Friday and Saturday nights, he said.

» Put down the gadgets within one or two hours of sleep time and don’t bring them to bed, he said.

» For people who get anxious about planning for the week ahead, jot down on paper what needs to get done and put the notes away and don’t look at them in the bedroom, he said. An obvious recommendation is laying off caffeine.

“If you are not asleep by 20 minutes, get up,” he said, adding that reading in another room can help sleep come.

While alcohol makes people sleepy, it doesn’t mean the brain goes to sleep, and that’s why people report poor quality of sleep after drinking.

“That’s the problem with alcohol,”Al-Nakeeb said.

Rowley agrees sticking close to one’s weekday sleep pattern and not being up late is best for avoiding sleepless Sundays.

“It’s kind of boring,” he acknowledged.