We actively covered the benefits of SleepPhones and how it helps you sleep faster. But we have realized many people fall asleep on time, but they wake up in the middle of the night. That’s scary because they can’t get back to sleep state. So before we tell you how to go back to sleep after waking up in the middle of the night, let’s first find out why you cannot go back to sleep after you have woken up.
Why do I wake up at 3 am and can’t go back to sleep?
You have been having this problem for a while now. It’s not just one night, it happens every single time. You fall asleep within 30 minutes of going to bed but then you wake up around 3 am or 4 am and then you can’t get back to sleep.
We think of the same question.
It seems like you go to sleep every night and wake up again within an hour or so. A lot of factors are waking you up at 3 am and making it difficult for you to sleep again. Why is that? Is there something wrong with your sleep cycle? Or is it just normal for everyone else?
So here are some reasons why you wake up at 3 am and can’t go back to sleep. (1)
Reason 1: You Drink Coffee Before Bedtime
Drinking coffee can stimulate your nervous system. It’s one of the biggest reasons why people wake up at night. Don’t drink coffee or eat anything too heavy before bedtime. These things will make it harder for you to fall asleep since they cause drowsiness. Even if you sleep, you’ll wake up in hyper-activated mode.
Reason 2: You Watch TV Or Read Books Before Sleeping
Reading a book is a good habit, but not right before bedtime. Try to avoid watching TV or reading books right before bedtime. If you need to read or watch something, keep it light-hearted. Avoid any kind of news stories or shows that might upset you. Don’t keep your brain activated just before sleeping. You need a sense of calmness before sleeping.
Reason 3: Your Environment Is Not Relaxing
Another reason that wakes you up in the middle of the night is your environment. Your environment has to be calming and relaxing. Create a relaxing environment. Turn off all the lights, put on some soothing music, dim the room lights, and use scented candles. Have only important bedroom essentials. When you sleep with a calm head, you tend to sleep longer.
Reason 4: You’re Underestimating Your Breathe
Maybe you’re not breathing deep before sleep. If your breathing is not rhythmic, you often find yourself awakened in the middle of the night. Rather, do some deep breathing exercises before sleeping. Breathe deeply through your nose until you feel relaxed. Then breathe slowly and evenly through your mouth. This will prolong your sleeping session and you’ll feel more energized the next day. Another way to relax is by focusing on your breath and counting backward from 10 to 1. Repeat this process as many times as needed.
Reason 5: You’re Sleeping Dirty
The fresher you feel, the more you sleep. You may feel tired, exhausted, and think that sleep would come to you. But sometimes, sleep becomes more difficult with an exhausted mind. So take a warm bath or shower before bedtime. This will have two benefits. The water helps relax you and can even help you fall asleep faster. And when you have slept, consider yourself much calmer.
Reason 6: You’re Ignoring Your Allergies
Allergies may wake you up at 3 am. Although you can’t get rid of allergies overnight, make sure you address them for sleeping longer at night. As allergies can result in stuffy noses, sneezing, coughing, and other symptoms, it will become even harder to fall asleep.
Reason 7: You’re Getting Rest During The Day
Maybe your circadian rhythm and sleep cycle have changed. If you’re sleeping during the daytime, chances are high you’ll wake up in the middle of the night. Get rest during the day, but not to an extent that you can’t sleep at night. So if you are tired, take a power nap instead of sleeping.
Reason 8: Your Room Is Either Too Hot Or Too Cold
It gets difficult for your body to adjust the temperature at night. You may have been waking up at 3 am in the morning because either your room is too hot or too cold.
Use a fan or air conditioner to regulate temperature, which helps you fall asleep faster during the middle of the night. Instead of regulating the room temperature, you can also regulate mattress temperature if you have Chilipad or Ooler.
Reason 9: Your Room Is Not Dark Enough
Your room has to be dark to keep up your healthy sleep cycle ticking. If you’re finding yourself awake in the middle of the night, maybe there’s too much light in the room. Keep your bedroom dark. Light affects your circadian rhythm, which means that it can affect your ability to fall asleep.
Reason 10: You Watch Nightmares
Sometimes we wake up in the middle of a dream. This usually happens when we are dreaming that we are having a nightmare. If you wake up from such a dream, you may find yourself still in the dream world. It can be scary, but it doesn’t last long. When you realize that you’re awake, you’ll quickly snap out of it.
Reason 11: You Have a Lack Of Nutrients
It’s one of the most underrated reasons why you’re waking up in the middle of the night. A lack of nutrients like Magnesium can disrupt your sleep cycle. You want to have enough nutrients to keep your sleeping routine up to the mark.
Should I go back to sleep after waking up at 3 am?
Yes, you should go back to sleep after waking up at 3 am in the morning if you haven’t slept more than 7 hours. If you think you can compensate for your sleep during the daytime, then you might want to get out of bed and take a walk around the block or something until you feel more refreshed and sleepy.
How to go back to sleep after waking up?
The answer depends on what you mean by “going back to sleep”.
If you mean getting back into deep REM sleep, then yes, this is possible. The trick is to make sure you don’t disturb the process. For example, if you wake up due to an alarm clock, then turn off the alarm clock and go back to sleep immediately. Don’t worry about how long you spend in the middle of the day. Just focus on getting back to sleep.
If you mean getting back to normal sleep patterns, then no, it isn’t possible. Once you awaken in the middle of the sleep cycle, you won’t be able to return to sleep until the next time you normally fall asleep.
In either case, you probably shouldn’t go back to sleep after awakening in the middle of the nighttime. Instead, you should try to get back to sleep at the same time every night. But here are some biohacking sleep tricks to sleep after waking up in the middle of the night.
Trick 1: Don’t Move Around
When you wake up during the night, do not move around. Stay in one position and just breathe deeply. You’ll feel much better when you wake up in the morning. It will take some time to get used to this new habit, but once you do, you’ll notice that you wake up refreshed and ready to start
Trick 2: Change Your Sleeping Position
If you’re waking up in the middle of the night, it sounds like your body is trying to tell you that you need more rest. If you’re sleeping on your side, try sleeping on your stomach. Also, try switching from lying on your left to your right. These changes could help you fall asleep again.
Trick 3: Go To Bed Earlier Than Usual
Try to avoid staying up late watching TV or surfing the Internet. These activities keep us alert and prevent us from sleeping. Even if you catch some sleep, you never go into a deeper sleep state. Let’s say you wake up at 3 am every day. Try sleeping at least 6 hours before that.
Trick 4: Avoid Caffeine And Alcohol
Caffeine and alcohol stimulate our nervous system and cause us to stay awake longer. And in case you sleep, the effect stays longer in your head. You want to avoid them at all costs. Be kinder to your body. Avoid anything that activates your brain right before sleeping. Once that is tick marked, you can tick mark not getting awake in the middle of the night.
Trick 5: Take A Warm Bath Or Shower
A hot shower or bath can relax your body and mind. Once you’re in a relaxed state, you sleep more peacefully. This eventually reduces the overall probability of waking up at night. (2)
Trick 6: Do Something Relaxing
Please understand that you’re not training yourself to only sleep faster, but to not wake up in the middle of the night. Relaxing before sleep can help you sleep for a longer duration. Reading a light-hearted book, listening to soothing music, meditating, taking a walk, or even knitting can all help you unwind and prepare your mind for sleep.
Trick 6: Create A Calm Environment
Use dim lighting, soft colors, and white noise (like running water or ocean waves). As soon as you induce calmness in your head, you expect yourself to be dozing yourself up for a longer period of time.
Trick 7: Keep Your Bedroom Cool
Keeping your room cool at 68 degrees F or less can help promote deep sleep. You can use smart mattresses like Chilipad or Ooler to sleep long.
Trick 8: Don’t Watch Tv Or Use Electronic Devices Right Before Bedtime
The light emitted by TV or electronic devices can make it difficult to fall asleep. In fact, if you consume too much blue light, you can expect things to go downward spiral for you. You may keep waking up at random hours, wanting to go for some more blue light. Wanting a blue light is an addiction. Try to avoid it at least an hour before sleeping.
Trick 9: Eat Healthy Foods
Eating a balanced diet rich in protein, fiber, and essential vitamins and minerals can help you feel more rested the entire night. BistroMD or Balance by BistroMD is good options to go with if you want to sleep tight at night without waking up.
Trick 10: Drink Lots Of Fluids
Drinking water before bed can help you sleep better. In fact, it’s said staying hydrated before sleep calms your body and keeps you asleep for a longer period. So, don’t avoid fluid intake.
Trick 11: Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness means focusing on the present moment without judgment. Practicing mindfulness can help you become aware of what is happening in your life, whether good or bad. You can do it exactly at the moment you wake up at night. Take a deep breath. Chant some peaceful mantras, or use devices like BrainTap or Muse to increase mindfulness.
Trick 12: Relax Your Muscles
Stretching your arms over your head and gently rolling your shoulders forward and backward can help loosen tight muscles. Sometimes, tight muscles are stopping you from having a prolonged sleep. So stretch it when you wake up at night. This might soothe your muscles and make you rest for a few more hours.
Trick 13: Have Sex
Sex releases endorphins, which are natural relievers. Endorphins also increase serotonin levels, which can reduce feelings of depression and anxiety. When you wake up in the middle of the night, you know what to do. This way you will feel a bit tired, a bit satisfied, and more importantly, a bit more sleepy. :p
Trick 14: Meditate
Meditation can improve focus, concentration, and memory. In addition, it can decrease stress and anxiety. Coincidentally, meditation can help you focus on sleep as well. As soon as you wake up at night, consider looking at the center of your forehead and focusing on it. You will find yourself falling asleep soon.
Trick 15: Exercise
Exercising regularly. Exercising helps regulate your circadian rhythm, which ultimately leads to better-quality sleep. You can exercise 5 days per week, typically doing cardio exercises first thing in the morning.
If you’ve tried everything mentioned above and still find yourself awake at night, you may need to see a doctor. There are many medical conditions that can cause insomnia. Some examples include depression, anxiety disorders, thyroid problems, diabetes, and others.
Bonus Trick: Fulfill Your Magnesium Quota
Bitoptimizer Magnesium is a highly absorbable magnesium supplement that can be taken as either an oral or sublingual tablet. It is designed to help support the body’s natural ability to maintain healthy levels of magnesium in the blood and tissues, which is essential for energy production and other metabolic processes.
Magnesium is one of the most important minerals for maintaining optimal health and wellness, especially when it comes to cardiovascular function and muscle tone. The recommended daily intake of magnesium ranges from 400 mg to 420 mg per day depending on age and gender.
The Bioptimizer Magnesium formula contains only pure, bioavailable magnesium, which is easily absorbed by the body without any side effects. This means that you will not experience the symptoms associated with taking high doses. Fulfilling your Magnesium quota would mean you’ll have quality sleep throughout the night.
Summary
It’s important to sleep early and wake up early. But it’s even more important to have a quality sleep at least for 7-8 hours. If you find yourself waking up at the night at odd hours, maybe you’d want to follow the routines we mentioned above. You never know if you can address your sleep cycle in a week. Until then, keep sleeping well. 🙂
To learn more about interesting sleeping aid, keep a check on our Ageless Body Blog.
You may also be interested in reading
- Wake up and stay awake for long
- How to Make Yourself Fall Asleep Fast
- How to keep cool while sleeping
Sources
- https://www.healthline.com/health/sleep/why-do-i-keep-waking-up-at-3-am
- https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/shower-before-bed