Why Do I Wake Up at 3 a.m. Or 4 a.m.?

If you often wake up at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m., you are not alone. One sleep study found that 35.5 percent of people wake up in the middle of the night at least three times a week. Waking up at this time of night or early morning, called nocturnal awakening or early morning awakening, can be frustrating, especially if you cannot get back to sleep.

During a typical night’s sleep, our neurobiology (the biology of the nervous system) reaches a turning point around 3 a.m. or 4 a.m., and significant changes begin, according to Greg Murray, a psychology researcher who specializes in mood, sleep, and the circadian system.

First, our core body temperature starts to rise. Additionally, the secretion of melatonin, the sleep hormone, decreases because we have already had a good amount of sleep, while cortisol, the stress hormone, increases as the body prepares us for the day.

Sleep experts say that if you are not under stress, you will likely wake up, go back to sleep, and forget that it happened. Murray noted that we wake up numerous times during the night, and we do not even realize it when we are sleeping soundly.

However, if you are stressed out, your cortisol levels might lead you to wake up feeling anxious as you think about what lies ahead later in the day. Sleep experts say this is also when you start ruminating about past events, such as why you forgot to feed the dog one day in 1994, what went wrong in your first serious relationship when you were 21, or you recall a disagreement with a friend and you think about what to say the next time the issue comes up.

“Around this time in the sleep cycle, we’re at our lowest ebb physically and cognitively,” Murray, professor and director at the Centre for Mental Health & Brain Sciences at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, wrote in The Conversation. “From nature’s viewpoint, this is meant to be a time of physical and emotional recovery, so it’s understandable that our internal resources are low.”

According to Murray, our internal resources are low because our “coping skills,” such as social connections and cultural assets, are not accessible to us during this time.

“With none of our human skills and capital, we are left alone in the dark with our thoughts,” Murray wrote. “So the mind is partly right when it concludes the problems it’s generated are unsolvable—at 3 am, most problems literally would be.”

Murray said when he wakes up around 3 a.m., he tends to be hard on himself. Although his thoughts are often “distressing and punitive,” Murray said they disappear by daylight, “proving that the 3 a.m. thinking was completely irrational and unproductive.” Murray said his friend often calls 3 a.m. thoughts “barbed-wired thinking” because you can get caught in it.

Noise and light exposure can also keep you from sleeping

Besides stress, there are other reasons why you find yourself staring into the darkness at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. According to the Sleep Foundation, some of these reasons involve:

Nighttime noise, such as traffic, televisions, or phones
Exposure to light, including light from the outside or even a dim nightlight
Going to the bathroom
Menopause. A decrease in the production of certain hormones can cause hot flashes, night sweats, or insomnia.
Sleep disorders, such as insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, or circadian rhythm disorders
Medications used to treat health issues, such as pain, heart and airway diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Tips for getting back to sleep

If you can’t get back to sleep before 5 a.m., you’ll likely feel groggy and out of sorts when it’s finally time to get up and start your day. Fortunately, there are ways to get back to sleep:

1. Make a list

If you wake up at 3 a.m. and feel stressed over what you need to do that day, Dr. Jade Wu, a sleep advisor for Sleep.com and author of Hello Sleep, recommends making a “mental litter box.” You can do this by leaving your room (so you don’t associate it with stressors) and making a list of things to do and the stresses you believe you will face in the morning. Then, plan a time to confront those items later that day. Dr. Wu told Sleep.com that this method can help give you a psychological blank slate for bed.

2. Pay attention to your breath

Murray observed that our 3 a.m. thoughts are “very self-focused.”

“In the quiet dark, it’s easy to slide unknowingly into a state of extreme egocentricity,” Murray wrote in The Conversation. “Circling round the concept ‘I’, we can generate painful backward-looking feelings like guilt or regret. Or turn our tired thoughts to the always uncertain future, generating baseless fears.”

Murray recommends redirecting your attention from your thoughts to your breath, which is a form of meditation. “I bring my attention to my senses, specifically the sound of my breath. When I notice thoughts arising, I gently bring my attention back to the sound of breathing,” Murray wrote.

Murray said that sometimes this breathing exercise helps, while other times, it doesn’t. However, meditation, in general, is recommended because it distracts you from your thoughts and helps you to relax.

“This action may seem mundane, but at 3 am, it is powerfully compassionate, and can help draw you out of your unproductive thinking,” Murray wrote.

3. Have a snack

Sometimes, if you wake up in the middle of the night feeling hungry, it’s possible that your blood sugar has dropped.

“The first question I ask [my patients] is, ‘When was the last time you ate?’” Michael Breus, a psychologist specializing in sleep disorders, told Sleep.com. “Often, they’ve finished their last meal at 7 p.m.; now it’s 3 in the morning—that’s eight hours later—so guess what? They’re out of fuel.”

If you wake up due to a drop in your blood sugar, sleep experts suggest eating a small snack containing protein and fat, like peanut butter.

Source Links:

https://www.newsbreak.com/share/3731730217944-here-s-why-you-re-probably-waking-up-right-at-3-or-4-in-the-morning-and-how-to-make-it-stop?_f=app_share&pd=0KA7xWlM&lang=en_US&send_time=1735283719&trans_data=%7B%22platform%22%3A0%2C%22cv%22%3A%2224.51.0.21%22%2C%22languages%22%3A%22en%22%7D&sep=ns_push_exp_rt_bucketv12-v5%2Cns_foryou_blend_exp_25q1-v5%2Cns_local_strategy_24q4_exp-v13%2Cns_foryou_model_exp_25q1-v2&s=i3
https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-wake-around-3am-and-dwell-on-our-fears-and-shortcomings-169635
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-faqs/why-do-i-wake-up-at-3am
https://www.sleep.com/sleep-health/why-do-i-wake-up-at-3am#