I’m Often Wide Awake at 3 A.M. How Do I Get Back to Sleep?

I've got a friend pushing 80 who says his trick is to get up, get a book (not a phone or tablet), and just try to do a little reading. Puts him right back to sleep.

Yes, as we age many of us do find ourselves not sleeping well. That said, I'd look hard at your pre-sleep rituals. Sugar (in the form of alcohol or dessert) can be a factor. Similarly, eating too close to bedtime gives your body excess energy to burn off and can keep you awake. Sleep apnea is obviously a problem that awakens some people, but for others it can be allergies / excess particles in the air that cause you to cough or not breath easily and wake you up - worth considering allergy issues, air quality, etc in regard to sleep.

I have two methods to fall asleep after I wake up at night. 1) I close my eyes and focus on tracing an imaginary square with my eyes. I do this over and over. I'm usually out within 5 mins. 2) I focus on my breathing and count 1 for in 2 for out, repeat. I do that and I'm usually asleep within a few minutes. These are just tricks to quiet my mind enough to go to sleep.

I, like other people, just pick up my Kindle and read a few pages until I fall back asleep.

I’ve noticed that I don’t wake up so much during the night anymore since I stopped drinking coffee regularly 3 months ago - I now drink a cup or two per week, down from 2 per day. For me it was life-altering stuff. I used to wake up drowsy regardless of how much I slept and it really didn’t work out right with my habit of going to the office at 6 in the morning. Now I can jump out of bed at 05:45 fully awake and be in the bus totally prepared at 05:59. I feel like a human being for the first time in my adult life.

Getting back to sleep is less about what you do at 3am, and more about what you do during the day:

  * Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj8FTWCb010
  * Make a point of getting outside under the sun each day, and sunshine on your skin and your retinas, preferrably the same time each morning
  * If the above does not raise vitamin D sufficiently, supplement
  * Supplement the B vitamins, or get more in your food
  * Exercise, preferrably the same time each day.

It worked for me (ᵀᴹ).

I often wake up at about 4am. In most cases I just accept it as a sign that body had enough sleep (I usually go to sleep 9pm-10pm) and proceed to my business. This usually means making a cup of tea and working.

The hours between 4am-8am (kids get up at ~8am) are usually the most productive for work.

Don't?

I often now wake up at 3 or 4am. I just get up, do things, and perhaps have a nap later. That's the nice thing about working from home. Or I don't have a nap, but go to bed super early (8pm!!), that way, 3 or 4am still give me 6+ hours sleep anyway.

I get my best work done early in the morning too. I can work until perhaps 11, and I can then goof off, take the dogs for a long walk, go fishing etc. Then perhaps sit back at my desk later mid afternoon on for another couple of hours.

For years I would wake up every night around 2:30am and struggle to fall asleep again. When I finally spent a night at a sleep clinic, they told me it is a common symptom of sleep apnea. Once I started treatment with a CPAP machine, not only I was able to sleep through the night consistently, but also my chronic anxiety went away. The treatment is a bit of a hassle, but so very worth it.

I try to practice a form of meditation when I wake up at night. I try to avoid having any verbal thoughts, to silence that yammering voice in my head, and keep things at the level of sensory impressions. If my thoughts turn towards my traditional sources of worry, I mentally say "We'll deal with that tomorrow" and shut it down.

My cat loves it when I'm up at 3. I take the opportunity to read a little. I usually get drowsy after a dozen or two pages, and get back to sleep.

But here's the wierd one... if I wake up an hour before my alarm, I'll get up, drink a coffee, and go straight back to bed. I reliably wake up a minute before my alarm goes off, feeling amazing.

The good thing if that if I wake up at 4am, it's prime time in the US. So I can fire up a VPN on my ipad and live stream some US broadcast TV. And then, after a few minutes, so back to bed.

Reading something dry and technical puts me right to sleep.

Stay up a few minutes or an hour, letting tiredness grow and caffeine decline until you're on the right side of that curve again?

I take a small amount (500 μg) of melatonin. Works every time.

My method: sleeping pill!

2021