Field notes · Sleep and recovery
Why you wake at 3am
You fall asleep fine. Then you are wide awake at three, running through tomorrow's meeting, and the clock will not move.
Dai Manuel · Coach Moose · Vancouver
The usual suspects
Alcohol, which lightens the second half of your sleep. A full bladder, which gets more common with age and with drinking a lot late in the evening. Stress, which keeps the body a little too alert all night. And sleep apnoea, where breathing briefly stops and wakes you without you knowing why.
What to try
Cut the evening drinks and front-load your water earlier in the day. Before bed, write tomorrow's list on paper so your head does not have to hold it. If you wake and are still lying there after about twenty minutes, get up, keep the lights low, read something dull, and go back when you are sleepy. Do not check your phone. Do not check the time.
If it happens most nights for more than a few months, or you snore heavily, talk to your doctor.
Common questions
- Why do I wake up at 3am every night?
- Common causes are alcohol, needing to urinate, stress and sleep apnoea. Reducing evening alcohol and fluids, writing down tomorrow's tasks before bed and keeping a regular wake time help many people. Persistent waking deserves a conversation with a doctor.
This is coaching, not medical advice. If something here sounds like you, talk to your doctor.
Sources
- Management of chronic insomnia disorder in adults, including stimulus control. American College of Physicians clinical guideline, 2016.
- Alcohol and sleep. Ebrahim et al., Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2013.