Did anyone else wake up at 3AM this morning?

It’s called the ‘witching hour’ because of some old, silly superstition, but I’m convinced that it is evil.

Wake up at 3AM and before you know it, you’ve done the maths to figure out how quickly you need to fall back asleep to get those last few precious hours. While you were doing said maths, you only further decreased your chances of getting back to sleep.

Now you’re awake, and the day ahead is looking pretty daunting.

We’ve become known as the ‘sleepless generation’, and are so deprived of decent shut-eye that even Carte Blanche felt the need to do an investigative report on it.

But, even though it might feel like your body is betraying you when it jolts you awake, Alice Gregory, a psychology professor at the University of London, says it’s quite normal to wake up during the night.

The Guardian spoke to her about why she thinks this, and what we can do about it.

“The night is punctuated by brief awakenings,” says Gregory. “Typically, people return to sleep without realising that they had ever been awake.”

But sometimes we might at least be more aware of it, or pulled entirely awake. Reasons range from the fairly obvious (being too hot or cold, needing the loo, having a nightmare, a crying baby) to the medical (disordered breathing such as sleep apnoea, or nocturia: excessive night-time urination).

Apart from this, you go through different stages of the sleep cycle as the night goes on. Each sleep cycle takes roughly 90 minutes to complete, and speeds up towards morning.

Waking up during the night doesn’t necessarily mean that you have insomnia, but you should mention it to your GP to rule out any underlying causes.

“It’s a misconception that we sleep the night through – nobody ever does,” says the sleep coach Katie Fischer. Waking as much as five or seven times a night is not necessarily a cause for concern – the most important thing is how you feel when you get up.

“In the morning, do you feel refreshed, or groggy and unable to function, 30 minutes after waking?”

If you’re one of those people who wakes up sprightly after only a few hours of sleep, you probably aren’t reading this article. For the rest of us, who can barely make it through a morning without a serious caffeine infusion, here’s what we can do about it:

Lifestyle changes can make a big difference, even for people suffering from sleep apnoea (although that should be treated by a specialist). It is hackneyed to point the finger at caffeine, but people tend to underestimate how long its effects can last – Fischer says to stop consuming it by 2pm or 3pm.

Water intake during the day is also a factor: “Even going to bed mildly dehydrated can disrupt our sleep.”

Alcohol isn’t a good idea, either. While it might help you to fall asleep, it will also wake you up.

A “pro-sleep” bedtime snack is a small amount of complex carbohydrates and protein, such as wholegrain cereal with milk, or toast with peanut butter, says Fischer.

An “anti-inflammatory” diet favouring fruits, vegetables, lean protein, nuts, seeds and healthy fats (and limiting processed foods, red meats and alcohol) has been shown to improve sleep apnoea.

Exercise during the day can help with sleep, but should be avoided just before bedtime because it gets those endorphins going.  Then there’s how you manage your ‘sleep hygiene’.

A lot of advice for preventing night-time “awakenings” falls under the umbrella of what has come to be known as “good sleep hygiene”: restrict the bedroom to sleep and sex, ban screens emitting blue light, keep to regular bedtimes and so on.

Finally, if you are really struggling, remember that there is professional help at hand for those who want to take that step.

Right, it’s time for a nap.

[source:guardian]