Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you’ve gone to bed at a certain time, set an alarm clock for a particular time, and had enough sleep…that when the alarm goes off in the morning, you wake up around the same time as always? You might wonder: Why do I keep waking up (almost) every day at this exact same time, no matter how early or late I go to bed?
The answer is simple: your body loves habits! It becomes very comfortable doing routine things on a regular schedule. In fact, it’s so comfortable with the routine that it doesn’t even need you there to remind it what to do. This is especially true of your body while you’re asleep—it can take care of itself just fine without you!
Circadian Rhythm
It turns out that layers of tissue around your brain stem emit exceptionally high levels of adenosine while you sleep, so when these tissues break down adenosine during the night, it serves as an internal signal to start getting ready for waking up again. This begins with gradual changes like feeling warmer than usual or thirsty, followed by more intense sensations like the feeling of your bladder being full or an increased heart rate.
Mammals can’t go back to sleep after waking up, so this is likely a natural evolutionary response to prevent our early ancestors from being eaten by predators since they were more vulnerable while eating their pre-dawn meal. Many animals are not affected by this adenosine buildup because they don’t have as much tissue in that area surrounding their brain stem.
Some other theories on why people wake up at night, though; some think you might be having nightmares or dreams, others say it could be caused by outside stimuli like sudden noises or your partner snoring. These all make sense, too, but there hasn’t been any proof of these assumptions yet.
Having a consistent sleep schedule is good for your health, though, so if you’re waking up at the same time every night, it’s probably best not to mess with that.
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Most common causes of sleep disturbance
One of the most common causes of sleep disturbance is sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a condition where you stop breathing or experience shallow breaths for short periods during your sleep cycle and usually leads to gasping and snoring.
When someone has sleep apnea, their airways can collapse, which stops breathing and leads to a drop in oxygen levels. This hypoxia (low oxygen) level is what typically wakes people up with sudden jolts, even if they’re not experiencing heavy snoring or gasping for breath during the night.
If you regularly feel tired during the day, have trouble concentrating, snore loudly, or periodically feel unrefreshed after waking up, it might be worth visiting your doctor to see if you have sleep apnea.
People who are not experiencing sleep apnea symptoms but still wake up at night should visit their doctor just in case because there could be another underlying cause that is easily treatable. The most common causes of disrupted sleep are restless leg syndrome, acid reflux, and asthma.
If you’re regularly waking up at night, it’s best to get checked by your doctor to see if anything medical is causing the problem, so it doesn’t become a chronic condition or something worse.
Another cause of sleep disturbance is insomnia, which is the most common sleep problem. For some people, insomnia can be caused by psychological factors like stress and anxiety, while others may be suffering from physical conditions like arthritis or chronic pain.
If you have insomnia, it’s best to visit your doctor instead of figuring out how to get rid of the problem on your own because there are a lot of medications and therapies that could help someone with insomnia fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.
If this doesn’t work, then further treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), counseling, and other mind-body programs could help reduce your sleeping time and improve your quality of sleep over time without any dangerous side effects that medication would cause since CBT doesn’t use drugs or supplements—just good old behavioral therapy.
There are also some other simple changes you can make in your daily routine that could help improve your sleep quality, like changing when you eat, exercising regularly, setting a regular sleeping schedule (consistent bedtime and wake time), avoiding caffeine late in the day, making sure your bedroom is dark and quiet (no TVs or phones!), and thinking about what stresses you out so you can get rid of them if possible to give yourself the best chance at having a good night’s rest.
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Stages of sleep
Stage One: This is when your brain waves start to slow their activity, and you’re not awake or asleep yet. You’re half aware of what’s going on around you but can still wake up quickly if need be.
Stage Two: This is when your brain waves start to slow down even more, and you become less aware of what’s going on around you — your body temperature, heart rate, and breathing slow for a restful sleep.
REM Sleep: This phase is characterized by faster brain waves and increased blood pressure, breathing, and heart rate similar to what’s seen in the waking state. It can be hard to wake someone from this stage because they’re not experiencing any muscle paralysis during deep sleep.
Dreaming occurs during REM, which has been coined as the “paradoxical” stage of sleep since it looks like our brains are awake while we’re asleep.
We cycle between these stages at different intervals throughout the night, and every person has a unique sleep cycle. Usually, however, we’ll go through four to six complete sleep cycles in one night and typically end up in REM for about 90 minutes each time we do.
If you’re waking up at the same time repeatedly, it’s likely because your brain is cycling into that stage again and again—so there’s no need to worry if you wake up when this happens. If it gets uncomfortable, don’t panic; try to fall back asleep until it becomes more restful because disrupting this process too much won’t help anything.
Don’t bother checking when you wake up during these stages or sit upright since you can easily disrupt your body even further by doing so. Just falling right back to sleep is the best thing you can do.
If it happens too many times in one night, however, or if you’re not getting enough hours of sleep overall, then consider changing your bedtime to one that allows for a better quality rest.
Sleep timing
We all have a natural sleep timing that means we will be tired at a particular time. However, sleeping at the wrong time is not good because it may create problems with your circadian rhythm.
If you are having trouble waking up in the morning, there are some things you can do to help yourself wake up simultaneously.
For example, you can make an alarm or try to wake up after 7 hours of sleep. Another thing you can do is set a “wake” time for when you know you need to get up and keep your room light on for an hour before the time you want to wake up. If you do these things, you can wake up at the same time every day.
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Summary
If you’re waking up at night, there could be several causes that can all be treated easily. The most common causes of disrupted sleep are restless leg syndrome, acid reflux, and asthma.
If you’re regularly waking up at night, it’s best to get checked by your doctor to see if anything medical is causing the problem, so it doesn’t become a chronic condition or something worse.