Waking at 3am isn't a sleep problem. It's often a fuel problem.
Waking at 3am isn't a sleep problem. It's often a fuel problem.
You fall asleep easily enough. Then, somewhere between two and four in the morning, you are wide awake — heart going a little faster than it should be, mind suddenly full of tomorrow.
Most people file that under insomnia and try to fix it at bedtime.
But look at the timing. It is the same hour, night after night. Bodies do not do that by accident.
What is happening at 3am?
Through the night your blood sugar slowly drops. That is normal, and a well-fuelled body simply tops itself up from the stores in the liver.
If that store is low — an unbalanced dinner, a long gap, a day of coffee instead of food — or if your stress is already running the show, the body reaches for the other tool it has - It sends out adrenaline and cortisol to raise blood sugar.
They do the job effectively. They also wake you up.
So the racing mind is not the cause. It is what happens when you are awake at 3am with adrenaline on board and nothing else to think about.
What tends to help?
Eat a proper dinner with protein, healthy fats and some veg; try for 3 hours before bed. Eat enough to feel satisfied but don't over-eat.
If the gap to breakfast is very long, a small protein-containing snack in the evening is often the whole fix.
Look honestly at alcohol. It puts you to sleep and then fragments the second half of the night.
Get sun light in the morning (before phone light). The 3am pattern is often a daytime rhythm problem showing up at night.
And if you are wired at midnight and flattened at 7am, that is worth a proper conversation about your stress pattern rather than another sleep supplement.
Your One Small Step take-away : Your body is not malfunctioning at 3am. It is trying to solve a problem in the only way it has left.
Feed it, steady it, and it stops having to shout at 3am
Take one Small Step: look at your dinner before you look at your bedtime.
—
Michelle Kaminer — 1 Small Step
Email: healthcoach@1smallstep.co.za
WhatsApp: 084 214 2127
www.1smallstep.co.za