Sleep expert reveals why some of us wake up at 3 am every night - it's not always stress
History is punctuated with accounts of artists and creatives who suffered from insomnia. They woke up in the middle of the night, around 3 to 4 am, and while crickets chirped and the fulgent light of candles illuminated their notebooks, they painted dreamy portraits of sleeplessness. From Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” to Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” countless works of art have been inspired by insomnia for centuries. However, when looked from a physiological perspective, this tendency of broken sleep could be a medical or psychological condition, although it is not always related to stress or anxiety. Speaking to Science Alert, psychology researcher, Greg Murray explained why many people wake up around 3 am every night.
“Our neurobiology reaches a turning point around 3 or 4 am,” Greg wrote in Science Alert, and further explained, “Core body temperature starts to rise, sleep drive is reducing, secretion of melatonin (the sleep hormone) has peaked, and levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) are increasing as the body prepares to launch us into the day. Remarkably, all this activity happens independent of cues from the environment such as dawn light.”
Sleep.com describes that cortisol, the body’s stress hormone, usually rises between 2 am and 3 am, which is why many people are automatically jolted awake during this period. Their nervous system is activated, heart rate accelerates, and so does the blood pressure, which makes it harder for the person to fall back asleep. Adding to this, the ravages of sleepless nights could also be triggered by psychological stressors. Often, when a person wakes up during this time, it’s just them and their thoughts that are awake while the rest of the world is asleep. Nocturnal ruminations, intrusive thoughts, and spirals of negative feelings act as blockers to a restful sleep.
When neglected, these sleep-disturbing stressors can lead to chronic insomnia which “damages your brain and your heart. It worsens anxiety and depression. It even inhibits your ability to fight off infections,” as Barry Krakow explained in TEDx Talks. He added that, over time, these bouts of sleeplessness can drive people so crazy that they end up becoming suicidal. However, cortisol or stress is not always the culprit. Michael Perlis, director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at the University of Pennsylvania, told TIME that there are many underlying causes of broken sleep. People can be forced to rise early during the day due to various reasons such as too bright rooms or medical conditions like “stomach acids burning your esophagus.” However, Perlis added that “even the healthiest sleepers wake a few times during the night.”
Another factor for waking up too early or tossing in the bed relates to a person's age. “As we get older, our sleep efficiency decreases and we have more light stage-one sleep,” Sandra Horowitz, a clinical instructor with Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine, told TIME. Other factors include the room’s ambient temperature, concerns about job security, or alcohol consumption before sleep.
Writing in Science Alert, Greg said that whatever may be the reason for waking up at 3 am, the cure lies in cultivating a little self-awareness, as Buddhists say. He recommended breathing meditation to calm the wandering mind and withdraw it back into the body. At the same time, he added that although he doesn’t prefer this habit, “waking and worrying at 3 am is very understandable and very human.”