Latest news with #wakeup
Daily Mail
14-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
People are just realizing what it means if you keep waking up at the same time in the middle of the night
Waking up at the same time each night can send you into a panic and leave you wondering why but the real reason is more surprising than just a racing mind. A good night's sleep is crucial for daily life, yet waking up suddenly during the night or early morning - typically 3 to 4am - is surprisingly common, with one US study finding that 35.5 percent of people reported jolting awake more than three times a week, as reported by Many restless sleepers believe their nightly wake-ups are caused by an overactive mind - reliving embarrassing memories from the past or simply overthinking - and often aren't sure whether they should seek help. 'As a cognitive therapist, I sometimes joke that the only good thing about 3am waking is that it gives us all a vivid example of catastrophizing,' Greg Murray, a sleep expert, wrote in an article published by The Conversation. 'Waking and worrying at 3am is very understandable and very human,' he added. However, the reason behind this phenomenon isn't rooted in anxiety or the stress that often creeps in during the quiet, dark hours of the night. Instead, the collective experience of a 3am wake-up call is intricately tied to how our bodies function on a day-to-day basis. Murray, the Director of the Centre for Mental Health at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, tied the strange phenomenon to our body's neurobiology and hormonal rhythms. During a normal night's sleep, our neurobiology - the study of our nervous system's structure, function, and development - typically hits a critical turning point between 3am to 4am. Around this time, our core body temperature begins to rise, sleep pressure eases since we've already rested, melatonin - the sleep hormone - has peaked, and cortisol - the stress hormone - starts increasing, gearing the body up to wake and face the day ahead. This experience surprisingly happens without outside signals - like bright light peering through our bedroom windows - as our bodies are built to predict both sunrise and sunset thanks to our natural circadian rhythm. However, rising cortisol levels can play a key part in whether or not you fully wake up during the wee-hours of the night, as it mainly helps regulate your body's response to stress, The Cleveland Clinic explained. This stress hormone plays a massive role in making you feel on high alert and 'triggers the release of glucose (sugar) from your liver', giving your body a quick burst of energy during stressful moments. Simply put, if you're more stressed than usual, your body likely releases more cortisol during the night - leading to those abrupt, middle-of-the-night wake-ups. Although about one in three people report jolting awake in the middle of the night, the truth is we all wake up several times - we're just not usually aware of it until stress comes to play. According to Murray, when sleep is going well, 'we are simply unaware of these awakenings'. But with added stress, there's a good chance those brief wake-up moments turn into fully self-aware moments. Stress can also cause hypervigilance - feeling anxious or on edge about being awake during the night - which often leads to insomnia. External supports are also missing in the depths of night - no social connections or cultural comforts. 'With none of our human skills and capital, we are left alone in the dark with our thoughts,' Murray explained. 'So the mind is partly right when it concludes the problems it's generated are unsolvable - at 3am, most problems literally would be.' Once the sun rises, familiar sounds, smells, and sensations help put things in perspective. Problems that felt overwhelming just hours earlier suddenly seem much smaller, and people often wonder why they couldn't calm themselves down the night before. 'The truth is, our mind isn't really looking for a solution at 3am,' Murray wrote. 'We might think we are problem solving by mentally working over issues at this hour, but this isn't really problem solving; it's problem solving's evil twin - worry,' he added. The revelation stunned people across the internet, many of whom had long believed they were alone in their mysterious, late-night awakenings. 'So true. Reading this at 4am,' one user wrote to Facebook. Another added: 'My 4am issue is finally explained.' 'The Bain of my life,' a third chimed in. 'Interesting read.' 'I don't know about fears and shortcomings, but my brain goes off in all directions when I awake in the middle of the night,' wrote another. Joining into the conversation, another user wrote: 'These might be the answers to my waking most nights.' So, for those who wake up at the same time every night, the big question remains: What do you do about it? 'Buddhism has a strong position on this type of mental activity: the self is a fiction, and that fiction is the source of all distress,' Murray explained. As a helpful tip, Murray recommended practicing Buddhist-informed mindfulness during the day to manage stress - making it easier to use the same technique during those quiet, restless hours at night. If all else fails, traditional cognitive behavioral therapy advice can help - getting out of bed, turning on a dim light and cracking open a book to distract your mind and ease back into sleep. 'One last tip,' Murray wrote. 'It's important to convince yourself (during daylight hours) that you want to avoid catastrophic thinking.'
CNN
26-01-2025
- Health
- CNN
What's one small thing to help your sleep? A real alarm clock
Phones have replaced many things: computers, calculators, cameras and maps. But returning to an old-fashioned alarm clock instead of your phone might help you get up and go in the morning. 'Keeping the phone in another room will likely decrease the opportunity for distraction from sleep, and also decrease opportunity for sleep procrastination,' said Dr. Shalini Paruthi, sleep medicine attending physician at John J. Cochran Veterans Hospital in St. Louis and adjunct professor at St. Louis University School of Medicine. A phone by your bed could mean easy access to scroll at night and an easy snooze button in the morning. If you're planning to sleep better or wake up earlier to implement new routines in the new year, a small and helpful step may be trading your phone for an alarm clock. Stop the morning snoozing The best-case scenario is that you wouldn't need to hit snooze. 'Ideally, a person has gotten enough sleep that by the time the alarm rings, they are well rested and actually ready to get up,' Paruthi said. Hitting the snooze button once might help you psychologically by allowing you to ease into waking up, she added. But more than once isn't recommended because you aren't getting good sleep with the extra minutes. At the end of a night of sleep, people usually go in and out of a cycle called REM, or rapid eye movement sleep, said Dr. Brandon Peters-Mathews, a neurologist and sleep medicine physician with Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in Seattle, in an earlier CNN article. This stage is important for memory processing and creative sleeping, and fragmenting that sleep could affect brain function. Instead of setting an alarm for earlier than you need and hitting snooze, he recommends allowing deep, uninterrupted sleep until you absolutely must wake up. 'When you didn't get enough sleep or didn't get good quality sleep, the likelihood that an extra 5 to 10 minutes of sleep could make a meaningful impact is pretty low,' Dr. Joseph Dzierzewski, senior vice president of research and scientific affairs at the National Sleep Foundation, said via email. 'When we wake in the morning and aren't feeling refreshed, it is best to get up, start the day, and be intentional about taking steps that can set us up for success in the coming night.' With a phone alarm on your bedside table, it is easy to reach over and hit the snooze button. But dedicated alarm clocks have many ways to get you up and out of bed. 'Alarms come with a variety of features such as vibration, lights, noises, puzzles,' Paruthi said. Your phone disrupts your sleep Another benefit of not using your phone as an alarm is that you have an easier time removing it from your bedroom, which is helpful for sleep, Paruthi said. 'Ideally, a bedtime routine includes winding down, relaxing, and helping the brain transition from a 'go-go-go' state to a more calm, ready to fall asleep state,' she said. 'Having a phone at the bedside makes it really easy to roll over and start scrolling.' The bright light and content on your phone might make you more alert instead of drowsy, and screens can also lead to procrastinating about sleep and getting less than you originally intended, Paruthi said. And having your phone close by makes it more likely that you will use it, Dzierzewski said. 'Having a phone in close proximity could increase feelings of curiosity. … What might be happening that you aren't seeing?' he said. 'These feelings could be enough to entice you to roll over and check your phone, thus interfering with going to sleep, staying asleep or sleeping soundly.' If you aim to sleep for eight hours but then reach for your phone to scroll, two hours can fly by quickly, leaving you without the necessary amount of sleep. 'If my phone is in another room, I am less likely to get out from under my warm covers, and thus sleep those 2 hours between 10 and midnight, i.e., getting the 8 hours my brain and body thrive on,' Paruthi said in an email. How to wake up earlier and happier The only way to wake up earlier or more easily is to get good quality sleep, Dzierzewski said. Most adults should get seven to nine hours of sleep a night, according to the National Sleep Foundation. But population research from the foundation has shown that 60% of adults are not meeting that recommendation. 'Getting too little sleep or too much sleep can both be problematic and impact how well we function throughout the day,' Dzierzewski said. For better sleep, the National Sleep Foundation recommends some more small steps. You should get bright light in the daytime; exercise for at least 30 minutes five days a week; eat meals at consistent times; avoid heavy meals, nicotine, caffeine and alcohol before bed; use a consistent wind-down routine; sleep in a quiet, cool and dark place; and put electronics away an hour before bed. If you are getting enough sleep at night consistently but are still not sleeping well or waking up feeling rested, it may be time to get evaluated by a board-certified sleep physician for possible sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome or insomnia, Paruthi said. Ready to do more? Sign up for our LBB Sleep newsletter to get better sleep in 2025. If you need help setting and sustaining your sleep goals, try these tips for building habits.
