Wake up in the middle of the night while sleeping

As people age, their sleep quality will become worse and worse. They often go to bed later and later at night and wake up earlier and earlier in the morning. Some people often wake up at night, even three or four times a night, and they will be very energetic after waking up. When encountering such a situation, it means that the patient's nerves are very excited. So what should you do if you wake up in the middle of the night?

It’s actually not uncommon for someone to wake up in the middle of the night, even 3-4 times per night. Normal human sleep cycles are approximately every 90-120 minutes. According to sleep expert Dr. Michael Breus, most people experience three to four "sleep bouts" each night. At the end of each cycle, sleep is less deep and your likelihood of being awakened is higher. Sometimes we don’t realize we’re even awake because we’ve just gone back to sleep, and that’s normal. This is probably the main reason why many people rarely get a true, uninterrupted eight hours of sleep. This becomes a problem when we have trouble falling back asleep. If you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night and unable to get back to sleep, this could be a sign of a problem that may need to be addressed.

If you find yourself waking up at about the same time every night, don't panic. This may actually be a sign of a healthy, reliable sleep cycle. Many people tend to find that they most often sleep about 4-6 hours longer than their normal sleep duration.

Let’s look at the top 5 most common reasons: Maybe you had a tough day at the office or had some other form of stress. When you do this, the pressure won't rest. Many times, stress follows you back to your home and eventually makes its way into your sleep unless you deal with it. If you don’t manage your stress properly, you’ll end up lying in bed ruminating about your stress for hours, whether you’re consciously aware that this is happening or not. Our brain tends to ruminate on our stress and it ends up keeping us from deep sleep because of it or it wakes us up in the middle of the night.

Having too much cortisol in our bodies, especially as we get closer to the end of the day, can negatively impact our sleep and can cause us to wake up in the middle of the night when we really should be sleeping. You might be surprised to learn that many of the everyday foods we eat trigger a stress response in our brain by producing inflammation. Our brains are very sensitive to inflammation, and inflammation makes the brain more sensitive to stress.

Some of the top foods that could be ruining your sleep could be: Trans fats, which are a highly processed and highly inflammatory source of fat that you should avoid at all costs if you want to get a good night’s sleep. Wine is seen as a way to calm down after a long day, and many people believe it helps them get a good night's sleep. It turns out that alcohol can actually do more harm than good. Alcohol has been shown to increase alertness during the second half of sleep, while also increasing cortisol levels. Be sure to get rid of these foods before bed to avoid disrupted sleep.