If you’re having trouble staying asleep at night and wondering “why do I wake up at 3am“? I want you to know first that you’re not alone.
Waking up in the middle of the night is common for most adults. But just because something we do is “common” or “normal” doesn’t mean it’s ideal or actually normal.
There’s a great quote that says….
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
I feel like this quote is so perfect for what I was trying to say. Comparing your sleep cycles to sick people is not ideal.
Everybody these days is sick with something so comparing yourself to them (although it makes you feel good because you feel a “part of the group”) isn’t in your best interest.
I like to compare myself to what’s ideal for humans. What’s optimal?
Is it possible to sleep for 10 hours uninterrupted with no waking up at 3am to go pee? Is it possible to have unlimited abundant vibrant health? Is it possible to wake up feeling absolutely amazing every morning?
Let’s compare where we’re at with our sleep right now to what’s possible.
I would say yes it’s possible because for thee most part I’ve done it.
Whether you’re waking up at 2am, 3am or 4am this is not normal. So I want to explore some possible reasons as to why you’re waking up at 3am and near the end I want to share some tips for staying asleep longer every night.
The goal here is to help you identify what the problems so you can know where to focus first.
Before we get started tackling the question about why you’re waking up at 3am, I want to say there’s most likely not a single reason as to why. As with most health conditions, there are multiple reasons.
Let’s say all of the reasons total up to 100%. And let’s say there’s 8 reasons. One of those reasons could be primary and equal 40% while the others might be secondary and only total 5% of the 100% total.
They key is to focus on the foundation and figuring out what that 40% is first. Then work on the possible secondary causes for you waking up at 3am. It’s impossible to know what’s the primary cause of you waking up at 3am and what’s the secondary cause.
There are many tests you can do like the DUTCH test, HTMA (hair tissue mineral analysis), and other bloodwork markers but all of these are snapshots in time. There could even be heavy metals or parasites that are causing these issues.
What you need to do is to use your intuition and start working on what YOU think might be a primary cause. I’m a big believer in trusting your gut and following your intuition when it comes to health problems in general and sleep issues (like insomnia) in particular.
With that said for you that are asking, “why do i wake up at 3am“?
Here are some possible causes of sleep disturbances…
Broken Circadian Rhythm
The core foundation of your sleep is your circadian rhythm. Making sure your circadian rhythm is working properly is more important that sleeping pills, over the counter sleep medications, anxiety, stress or anything else.
You could fix all of those reasons you can’t sleep but if your circadian rhythm is off, nothing else you do will be 100% effective. This is the foundation of your sleep. Most people I’ve notice can fix their circadian rhythm and it fixes their sleep entirely.
For other people fixing their circadian rhythm gets a 90% improvement in their sleep scores and then they can work on their anxiety, depression, mental issues (how to turn your brain off) etc. If you can’t sleep because your mind is racing, what happens if your circadian rhythm is still broken but now you can actually turn your mind off?
You’re still not going to be able to either fall asleep or stay asleep. You’ll still be waking up at 3am unable to fall back sleep.
Circadian rhythm is King, all other sleep conditions are queen.
How To Fix Your Circadian Rhythm
- Watch the sunrise each morning (before looking at any man made light)
- Get outside frequently during the day with no sunglasses or shoes on (grounded)
- Open windows as often as possible when indoors
- Exercise outside daily
- Avoid eating after sunset
- Block blue light during the day by wearing yellow glasses when indoors
- Block blue light from your computer and your phone
- Be outside grounded for the sunset
- Wear orange glasses after sunset
- Wear red glasses 2 hours before bed
- Take melatonin 2 hours before bed – Read this if melatonin doesn’t work
- Let zero blue light hit your eyes after sunset
- Go to bed and wake up at the same time each night
- Install circadian lighting throughout your home
- Track your sleep with an Oura Ring or Whoop Band
Medications
As you probably know there are many medications that can adversely effect your circadian rhythms. I do not recommend taking pharmaceutical medications or sleeping pills when there are natural sleep aids available. For example, Ambien has long term side effects you don’t want to mess around with.
Try everything natural first and then if nothing works then I would consider taking a chemical for a short duration of time for a specific reason and knowing how long you’ll be taking it.
With that said here are some things to look out for when it comes to medications…
- Diuretics: Often prescribed for hypertension or edema, diuretics increase urine production and can lead to nocturnal awakenings to urinate. Do you wake up to go pee too much? This could be why!
- Antidepressants: Some antidepressants (I won’t name names here…), especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), can cause insomnia or can disturb your normal sleep patterns.
- Beta-Blockers: Used for heart conditions (I used to be on these when I was 15), beta-blockers can lead to nightmares, insomnia, and sleep disturbances.
- Corticosteroids: These medications, used to treat inflammation, can cause a wide range of sleep disturbances, including difficulty falling asleep and nighttime awakenings.
- Stimulants: Used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy, stimulants such as amphetamines can significantly disrupt sleep if taken later in the day.
- Asthma Medications: Some bronchodilators used for asthma are stimulants and can interfere with your sleep.
- ACE Inhibitors: Used for hypertension and heart failure, these can cause coughing at night, which may disrupt sleep or just keep you up if you wake up at 3am.
How To Fix
If you’re on any of these types of medications, I would “build your own healing team”. You probably already have al medical doctor, I would work with a natural doctor and work together to get off of these drugs. Not medical advice, but that’s what I’d do. By changing your lifestyle, stress levels, diet and environment, you can correct the cause of your need to be on these drugs.
In fact thousands of folks die each year from taking prescription medications correctly. 🙁
It might take some time and some targeted supplementation but it’s well worth it.
Temperature
Room temperature is a big one because our core body temperature is supposed to drop as we enter the deep sleep cycles.
Below I’m going to lay out our sleep cycles and when they happen for somebody going to bed at 10pm.
- NREM Sleep
- Stage 1 (N1): This initial stage happens shortly after falling asleep, around 10:00 PM to 10:05 PM. It typically lasts for about 5 minutes.
- Stage 2 (N2): This follows Stage 1 and lasts approximately 10 to 25 minutes. You might enter Stage 2 around 10:05 PM to 10:30 PM. I’m normally asleep less than 10 minutes after putting my head down on the pillow.
- Stage 3 (N3): Deep sleep begins after Stage 2 and can last 20 to 40 minutes during the first cycle. The first occurrence of Stage 3 might be from about 10:30 PM to 11:10 PM.
- REM Sleep
- First REM phase: This first REM period happens roughly 90 minutes after you reach sleep onset. You might enter your first REM phase around 11:30 PM, and it typically lasts about 10 minutes. As the night progresses, REM phases extend, becoming longer toward the morning.
Cycle Progression Through the Night:
- Second Cycle: Begins after the first REM and will go back to N2, then N3, followed by a longer REM stage. This second cycle might start around 11:40 PM and go on till about 1:00 AM, with the REM phase occurring around 12:40 AM.
- Subsequent Cycles: Each subsequent cycle repeats about every 90 to 120 minutes. Sleep is so incredibly complex isn’t it? The deep sleep (N3) stages become shorter, and REM stages lengthen as the night progresses. The longest REM periods typically occur just before you wake up.
By the end of your night and near the morning, your cycles (assuming you’re healthy) have more prolonged REM phases and shorter or absent N3 stages. For example, by around 6:00 AM, a person may predominantly be in REM or light sleep stages (N1 and N2).
How To Fix:
I recommend buying a good air conditioner for your bedroom if you can afford it and/or (we have both) investing in a Chilipad for your bed to make sure you’re nice and cool when you sleep. This is so very important to work with your body instead of against it.
Blood Sugar
Blood sugar issues can have an impact on your sleep and whether or not you wake up at 3am. If this is happening to you, I would consider getting your adrenal glands checked as it could be what’s called hypoadrenia. Our adrenal glands (we have two of them just above our kidneys near our spine in our lower back) are what’s responsible for creating adrenaline and cortisol. These are stress related hormones.
Normally in a society where it was much less stressful, our adrenal glands might create the fight or flight hormones like adrenaline once or twice a month if we got chased by a lion. Cortisol would rise normally around 5am to increase body temperature and wake us up to see the sunrise.
Instead in our 24/7 go go go society, we’re stressed all day, which really makes our adrenal glands weaker and less able to regulate our stress response. Think of it like doing an hour on the treadmill 3 times a week but instead you’re on the treadmill all day, every day.
When your blood sugar drops too low in the middle of the night, your adrenal glands are too weak to compensate so the body will raise core temperature to wake you up in order to compensate. This will stimulate the adrenals to make that cortisol.
Think of it like forcing a person to stay on that treadmill.
If your liver isn’t storing glycogen properly this could be the reason you’re waking up. Cortisol is lowest between midnight and 4:00am. So if you’re waking up anywhere from 1:00am to 3:00am there’s a 100% guarantee you have adrenal fatigue.
How to Fix
Consume a high protein and high fat snack before bed with a little bit of salt and a little bit of raw organic honey. You could also consider other supplements to restore adrenal function.
Frequent Urination (Nocturia)
If you’re waking up at 3am and need to go pee, it could be sleep apnea. I would check to see if you have sleep apnea. If you do, I would tackle that issue first. There was a study (see page 432) published in October 2015 found that 84% of patients with sleep apnea suffered from frequent nighttime urination.
What’s interesting is that in this study once their sleep apnea was treated, the frequency of nighttime trips to the toilet dropped off pretty darn significantly. The connection between sleep apnea and frequent urination is due to the production of a hormone called atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) during episodes of apnea. Each surge of adrenaline during apnea diverts blood from the heart to the brain, increasing the production of ANP, which in turn makes the body produce more urine.
How To Fix
First check to see if you have sleep apnea and then if you do, there are specific ways you can deal with it. This book has some really good protocols for long terms sleep apnea solutions.
Tips For Staying Asleep
There are so many things you can do to fall asleep quicker, stay asleep longer and get at least 8 hours of solid deep sleep. If you follow the numbered list I have above about correcting the circadian rhythm issues, that’s the best place to start. After those are fixed you can tackle doing a heavy metal cleanse or even looking at parasites and mineral dysregulation etc.
Conclusion
“Why do i wake up at 3am”? The causes of waking up in the middle of the night vary. Just know they’re not normal but you can fix them! Stay strong, stay motivated (hard to do I know when you’re not sleeping) but you’re worth it. Invest in your health and yourself.
Questions:
- How long have you been waking up at 3am?
- When you wake up at 3am do you go back?
- If so, how long does it take?
- Do you wake up more than once per night?
Comment below.