Do you ever find yourself regularly waking-up in the middle of the night and manically wondering how to get back to sleep? More specifically between 2am and 4am?
However frustrating, it’s actually very normal to wake-up throughout the night and, if we weren’t innately programmed for nocturnal awakenings, we’d probably be extinct as a species.
That being said, we’d still like to learn some practical tips on how to stop waking-up at inconvenient times and, with National Sleep Awareness Week upon us, there’s no time like the present. We asked leading sleep therapist and author of Fast Asleep Wide Awake, Dr Nerina Ramlakhan, to shed some light…
Why do we wake in the night?
Our sleep engineering dates back to the days of being a hunter-gatherer when our world wasn’t as safe as it is today and we had to maintain a degree of vigilance in order to survive.
Originally, it’s likely that cavemen would have woken-up between 2am and 4am to check for danger and it’s a habit that is still engrained for some of us. However, with us relatively safe from danger in modern life, it is now more likely to be because our mind and body may feel as if we’ve had enough sleep already. It’s also a time when, if there are unresolved emotional issues and stresses going on in our lives, they’ll often surface for a look-in. It’s as if our problems and worries pop-up when we are being quiet and still enough to deal with them.
The idea of the hours between 2am and 4am being emotionally important is supported by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which dictates that this period of sleep is about emotional rebalancing and dealing with fear, anger and frustration.
Ironically, if we habitually miss out on these vital, rebalancing hours of sleep, we can wake-up feeling more anxious and less happy. TCM also highlights these hours as being a vital time for liver detoxification so, if our diet is laden with stimulants such as refined sugars, caffeine and alcohol, this can overwork the liver causing waking and overheating (typically waking-up feeling restless, hot and maybe even in sweats).
How to prevent ourselves from waking up in the middle of the night
- If you do wake up, do not check the time. This actually creates a subconscious habit of waking at the same time every night. It can also cause stress if you know you have to get up soon or have an important day ahead.
- Keep your bedroom technology-free and definitely don’t check emails/ social media or news during this time.
- Give yourself an hour of tech-free time before bed to calm the nervous system.
- Avoid caffeine after 3pm.
- Avoid alcohol in the evenings.
- Deal with your problems and worries, as much you can, in your waking hours. Follow our guide on natural ways to avoid anxiety.
- When you wake up, know that it’s normal. If you have to go to the bathroom, do so and then get back into bed and allow yourself to rest and breathe deeply into your belly to calm your nervous system.
- Gratitude is a powerful antidote to stress – when you get back into bed, think of what/who you are grateful for in your life. Breathe into the feeling of gratitude and feel yourself settling.
