From tomsguide.com
Why you keep waking up at 3am, plus how to stop — according to a doctor of sleep medicine
It’s a familiar scene: You’ve nailed your wind-down night-time routine, fallen asleep fast… only to then be wide awake at 3am. But why? Waking up briefly in the night is normal, but periods of wakefulness lasting around thirty minutes or more can be a sign of a larger sleep issue.
While there’s plenty we can do to help ourselves go to sleep — such as getting our bedroom temperature right, blocking out ambient noise and ensuring we’re sleeping on the best mattress for our sleep needs — for many of us actually staying asleep can be the sticking point to our overall sleep quality.
Age, environmental factors, health conditions and underlying sleep disorders can all contribute to night-time wakings. Waking in the middle of the night can also be down to middle insomnia, the most common type of insomnia, affecting two-thirds of insomnia sufferers. Here, we'll explore why you might be waking up at 3am, plus how to stop. Let's get started.
WAKING UP AT 3AM — 7 COMMON CAUSES
Factors outside your control, as well as your environment, can all contribute to waking up in the middle of the night. Here are seven of the most common:
1. Stress and anxiety
Sleep expert Olivia Arezzolo attributes some middle of the night waking to an increase in levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. "This prepares you to wake the next day, but if your baseline levels of cortisol are too high, it will wake from you from sleep too early – you’ll know this is the case if you feel anxious and restless and it’s difficult to return to sleep,” she says.
2. Caffeine consumption
What you’ve eaten or drunk that day can also disturb your sleep. “Stimulants like coffee, which has a very long half-life, takes a long time to leave your system and should be avoided after lunchtime,” explains Dr Allie Hare, consultant of sleep medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London. “Smoking, as well as alcohol (which particularly disrupts REM sleep in the second half of the night) will make it more likely you will wake prematurely.
“Stimulants like coffee, which has a very long half-life, takes a long time to leave your system and should be avoided after lunchtime,” says Dr Hare, “Smoking, as well as alcohol (which particularly disrupts REM sleep in the second half of the night) will make it more likely you will wake prematurely."
3. Screen time
Pre-bedtime scrolling on your phone impacts your ability to both fall and stay asleep, due to the blue light emitted from our screen supressing our levels of melatonin, the hormone that helps us feel sleepy. “Using phone, laptop or TV in the two hours before bed can trigger broken sleep because blue light supresses melatonin,” explains Olivia.
What's more, studies show that using social media immediately before bed can inhibit your ability to stay asleep. “You’re 66 percent more likely to wake up during the night if you use social media within 30 minutes before sleep, fact,” says Olivia. This happens because using social media gives us a dopamine hit that can make it trickier for our brains to switch off.
4. Your environment
In order to fall asleep and stay asleep, there are certain environmental factors that should be taken into consideration. For example, sleeping on the best pillow and mattress for your sleep needs an position will help you stay asleep longer.
Ensuring your bedroom is the right temperature and removing sources of ambient light and sound will also minimize any night-time disturbances that could be causing you to wake up at the same time every night. "If your room is too warm or stuffy or there’s external noise, this can disturb your sleep too, making you wake up fully," explains Dr Hare.
5. Advancing age
Research shows that as we age, night waking can be more common, particularly in women going through menopause or perimenopause, which can begin from the early forties onwards.
6. Underlying sleep disorders
While environment and lifestyle factors play a significant role in your ability to fall and stay asleep, underlying sleep disorders such as insomnia, sleep apnoea and restless leg syndrome can all cause sleep irregularity.
Symptoms such as struggling to fall and stay asleep, daytime fatigue and irregular sleep cycles are indications that you could be suffering from a sleep disorder. Tracking your sleep habits with a sleep journal will help a sleep specialist identify any
7. Frequent night-time peeing
Consuming too much fluid too closely to bedtime can lead to a night-time trip to the bathroom. However, if you are making more than one visit to the bathroom a night, it could be a sign of underlying nocturia, a sleep disorder that is characterized by taking more than one bathroom break per night.
Age, medication and undiagnosed health conditions could be behind any frequent night-time peeing - and the reason you're awake at 3am. If you're at all concerned by your night-time bathroom habits, seek advice from your doctor.
No comments:
Post a Comment