Do you ever suddenly find yourself wide awake at 3 AM, for no reason at all, no bathroom breaks or feeling thirsty? While the internet usually loves to give supernatural connections to this peculiar sleep behaviour during the ‘witching hour’, the actual reason is much more scientific than spooky.
Dr Christopher J. Allen, a physician in sleep medicine and pediatric neurology with 20 years of experience in the medical field, addressed this in his February 28 post, focusing on a physiological function that occurs during that time. Before you jump to conclusions, let’s try to get a comprehensive understanding of what are some of the natural solutions for you to get back to sleep.
Why do you wake up in the middle of the night?
This is not random. According to the sleep doctor, your body’s natural stress system is responsible, and your daily stress levels, which vary from person to person, play an instrumental role in determining whether you wake up or sleep through it.
This means the more stressed you are, the more likely you are to be more sensitive to that natural physiological shift at night.
Dr Allen described the process, “Around 2-4 AM, your body releases a hormone called cortisol. Think of cortisol like your brain wake up crew. It starts prepping your body for the morning by slowly turning systems back on.”
As mentioned before, how you react to this normal biological process depends on your stress levels. Dr Allenn elaborated, “For most people, this happens gradually, and you sleep right through it. But for some, especially if you are stressed, that cortisol spike comes in like someone flipping the light switch on. The second you are awake and your mind starts racing, your brain arousal system kicks in, and you are suddenly fully alert.”
So, for someone who is stressed, they experience lighter sleep, and with high cortisol, they find it difficult to go back to sleep and instead spend the entire night tossing and turning, willing themselves to sleep.
How to fall asleep?
One of the key reasons why many find it a big challenge to fall back asleep after waking up for no reason is that, as the doctor mentioned, they are trying to keep themselves asleep, fighting it off. But this only increases alertness, making you more wide awake, counterproductive. Dr Allen recommended that it is better to simply accept that the brief awakenings are actually normal. “Accept that waking up briefly is actually normal. Fighting it is what keeps you awake,” he added.
