“Why Do I Always Wake Up at 3 AM? Understanding the Causes and Solutions for Middle-of-the-Night Waking”

2023-04-26 07:45:57

Have you noticed that you wake up a lot from sleep in the middle of the night all of a sudden, thinking it’s morning only to find out that it’s still 3am? You’re not alone. According to many sleep medicine professionals, one of the most common questions they get asked is, “Why do I always wake up at 3 am?” And what can I do about it?”
Waking up suddenly, commonly referred to by sleep scientists as waking up after sleep, is a common occurrence. One study found that more than a third of people woke up in the middle of the night on three or more nights a week.
The good news is that getting up at night isn’t usually anything to worry about, as long as you can get back to sleep easily; Psychologists confirm that most people wake up several times during the night, sometimes without remembering, but if you wake up regularly and feel that the quality of your sleep is poor due to waking up; It is useful to investigate to determine the cause.
There are some common reasons in psychology for waking up at night, most notably the following:

1- Tension

Studies have found that more than a third of people wake up in the middle of the night three nights a week. «Source: Adobe.Stock»

Stress is the body’s mental and physiological response to a perceived threat, likely to arise when we are anxious, under stress, overwhelmed, or in danger; When you feel stressed, your brain starts preparing for fight or flight, flooding your body with hormones including adrenaline and cortisol to prepare you for fight, flight, or freeze. This response can lead to a range of physical symptoms, such as a racing heart, dizziness, or a dry mouth.
Cortisol may be best known as the body’s stress hormone, but it also plays a pivotal role in managing our sleep ‘architecture’. Studies of the circadian rhythm, the body’s 24-hour clock, show that cortisol levels naturally begin to increase between the hours of 2 and 3 in the morning, if you are already stressed or anxious, and your cortisol levels are naturally rising; It’s no surprise that you wake up at that hour, and when your body’s sympathetic nervous system kicks in, your increased heart rate and blood pressure can make it difficult to fall back asleep.

2- Anxiety

If something is on your mind; The middle of the night, when there are no distractions or mundane tasks, is a common time to worry about concerns that can amplify your body’s stress response. This makes it more difficult to fall asleep or get back to sleep.
An important way to help sleep when you’re stressed or anxious is to think about those stresses outside the bedroom. so that you don’t associate your bedroom with stress-causing factors; Where you write a list of all the tasks assigned to you, and all the stresses that must be faced in the morning, then plan a specific time the next day to confront these tasks, and tell yourself that you have allocated time and mental space for them during your waking hours, and this method is called the “mental trash bin.” This method helps give you a psychological blank checklist for sleep.
And if you got up in the middle of the night; The key to getting back to sleep is to encourage a transition from a state of anxiety or frustration to relaxation. The calmer you are, the easier it will be for you to fall back to sleep. Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and guided meditations can help calm your mind and calm the fight-or-flight response. Escape so you can drift away.. How do you think about identifying the symptoms and causes of agoraphobia?

3- Shifts in sleep cycles

Changes in sleep cycles sometimes lead to sudden awakenings in the middle of the night. Source: Adobe.Stock

Nocturnal sleep involves multiple sleep cycles and transitions between lighter and deeper stages of sleep. The length of each stage varies throughout the night, with longer deep sleep in the early evening and longer sleep, and lighter sleep when dreams occur as morning approaches. The ability to awaken quickly varies depending on which stage of sleep you are in. exercise with it; REM is the lightest stage of your sleep, when your mind is very active and your body is moving more. When you move from light sleep to REM sleep, you may wake up more easily.
To get back to sleep, it is recommended that during light sleep, when you are more ready to be awakened by environmental factors such as the noise from a passing truck or the heat of your bedroom, that your bedroom is comfortably dark, cool and quiet, considering the use of tampons. Ear or eye mask to prevent unwanted environmental disturbances, add a fan, lower the thermostat, or even open a window to keep the room at the right temperature.

4- Insomnia

It is very common for people to wake up around 2 or 3 in the morning; Because this is when our sleep structure (the pattern of our sleep phase cycles throughout the night) naturally shifts from deep sleep to more REM sleep. Insomniacs also suffer from this, but are more likely to stay awake for a long time or feel anxious about waking up, as stress about staying asleep can lead to feelings of stress and anxiety when one finds oneself has already woken up overnight.
To get rid of the problem, psychologists advise that you don’t push yourself too hard to stay asleep or go back to sleep. If you’ve been awake for a while and feel down, you can wake up and do something fun. if awakenings become frequent; Consult a behavioral sleep specialist or other insomnia expert.

Source: sleep.com.

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