You probably know it: you are sleeping well, but suddenly wake up in the middle of the night. This is of course very annoying and you would prefer to sleep through the night. But did you know there’s a reason why you often wake up at 3am?
Waking up at 3:00 am
Nothing is annoying when you can’t fall asleep at night because you’re worrying. And then it finally worked, only to wake up again in the middle of the night. Do you also often wake up at the same time – at 3 a.m.? So that has a reason.
Fear
The reason you suddenly wake up at 3 a.m. has to do with anxiety. Everyone has a stressful period in which they carry a lot of insecurities and worries. In other words, fears. And this is also reflected in your sleeping pattern. People who experience a lot of anxiety often wake up around 03:00 at night. Experts explain why this happens.
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Unconscious worries
Professor Greg Murray explains why you suddenly wake up at 03:00 in the morning. This has to do with your neurobiology making a sort of turning point between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. But before this happens, your body prepares for this. Your body temperature rises, your sleep drive decreases and your cortisol level – the hormone that causes stress – rises. This sounds a bit complicated, but this is our body’s way of preparing for the next day. And when you experience a lot of stress and anxiety, your body has more difficulty with this.
“With none of our human skills and capital, we are left alone in the dark with our thoughts“explains Murray.”So the mind is partly right when it concludes the problems it’s generated are unsolvable – at 3am, most problems literally would be.“