4 Reasons Why You Keep Waking Up Middle Of The Night

One minute you’re in la-la land, next you’re feeling completely argh. Sounds familiar? Many of us go through the rude awakening of rousing at 3am and then not being able to go back to sleep again. It’s a common occurrence and there’s even a name for it – sleep maintenance insomnia.

It’s annoying for sure, especially when you have a long day ahead and need that full rest at night to function the next day! So what’s happening? What’s causing your midnight wakes? Here are four possible reasons and what you can do about them so you finally get that blissful sleep you deserve.

#1 YOUR ROOM IS TOO HOT, TOO COLD, TOO BRIGHT
Hands up if you often wake up because you suddenly feel too hot or too cold! There’s something called an arousal threshold, which is how easy it is for something to wake you up. This depends on what sleep stage you’re in – and your body cycles through the different stages throughout the night. If you’re in the first stage, which is the lightest, you’re more likely to wake up because of your room temperature or say if a car’s headlights shine into your room.
DO THIS: Ideally, your room should be dark, comfortably cool, and quiet. If not, make some changes to your sleep environment to achieve optimum conditions. You can also opt to wear an eye mask to block out light or get a higher horsepower air-conditioner if your room sways towards the warmer side of things.

#2 THERE’S A LOT ON YOUR MIND
Ah, good old stress and anxiety – it’s no wonder why you keep waking up when you’re feeling anxious about tomorrow’s presentation for the new client! Trouble sleeping is a common symptom of anxiety. This is why when your mind is racing over an issue or problem you have, you find it hard to fall asleep and also stay asleep! Notice how you sleep your best when you are relaxed and don’t have a lot to think about?
DO THIS: Sometimes, it’s a one-off thing which is OK because you’ll go back to sleeping like a baby once all that stress is over. But if it is something that’s bugging you constantly, you might want to evaluate what’s causing you so much anxiety that you lose sleep. If it’s stress at work, consider talking to your boss about temporarily lightening your load. If there are looming deadlines that are causing you to feel anxious, try practising some meditation and deep-breathing exercises to alleviate your stress.

#3 TOO MUCH SCREEN TIME BEFORE SLEEP TIME
Guilty of browsing TikTok while lying down to go to sleep? That’s a big no-no if you want good quality sleep. Using your phone too much close to bedtime can affect your sleep as all that scrolling can overstimulate your brain and delay REM sleep. You’ll find yourself awake for hours beyond your normal bedtime and when you finally fall asleep, you don’t get the quality sleep, waking up constantly. Also, the blue light emitted by your smartphone can affect your internal body clock, throwing off your circadian rhythm which is important to help you stay asleep.
DO THIS: Too much screen time keeps your mind engaged. You are more active and awake, and stay this way for much longer! So easy peasy – stay off your phone! Experts recommend that you tuck your devices away for the night an hour or two before bed.

#4 YOU NEED TO PEE
Of course, you need to wake up when nature calls! Experts call it nocturia, where you need to get up to pee at least once during the night. This is really common if you’re pregnant or am on medication, but some people are just more prone to early-hours weeing.
DO THIS: If you don’t have any underlying issues, it may be a simple case of cutting back on your evening fluid intake to reduce nightly bathroom trips. But if doing that doesn’t help with 3am wakeups, you might want to consult a doctor for other possible explanations as nocturia can sometimes be linked to diabetes, or an overactive bladder.

Photo by Kinga Howard on Unsplash.