If This Hormone Is Waking You up at Night, Here’s What to Do

We all have nights where we don’t get perfect sleep—whether it’s a quick bathroom trip, your partner snoring, or a little one needing some TLC. But what happens if you’re waking up seemingly for no reason in the middle of the night, and unable to get back to sleep? Around 2 or 3 am there’s an important hormone that may be to blame for this sudden alertness. When it’s out of whack, it makes it harder to get deep, restful sleep and can also sound the alarm to wake you up. There’s actually a reason for this, and we’ll dive into what you can do to help resolve your middle-of-the-night waking.

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Why do I wake up at 3am?

No matter what time it is when you wake up at night, losing out on much needed sleep is a frustrating experience. Many people seem to wake up between the hours of 2 to 4 am seemingly without reason. It’s fortunate if you’re able to make it back to sleep, but a lot of times you’re not so lucky.

One study found that about 35% of adults wake up more than 3 nights a week and aren’t always able to get back to sleep (1). If you do the math, that’s almost 10 hours of sleep lost per week. This sleep loss can add up to big issues, like anxiety, hormone imbalances, inflammation, and even heart problems.

There’s often one common culprit for nighttime waking, and it’s a hormone you’ve probably heard of before.

Low blood sugar triggers cortisol

A common reason people wake up in the middle of the night is actually a surge of adrenaline and cortisol triggered by low blood sugar (2). When your blood sugar drops a little too low overnight, your body tries to protect you by trying to raise it. Enter: the stress hormone cortisol, which obviously doesn’t mix well with a peaceful snooze.

Everyday stressors can cause elevated cortisol, too, making it harder to fall asleep (and this is especially common around bedtime, further inhibiting dozing off) (3).

If low blood sugar is waking you up in the middle of the night, there’s a good chance you won’t actually feel hungry, so it’s unlikely you’ll connect the dots. Luckily, there’s some easy advice should cortisol be responsible for your sleep disruption—and it’s in the form of a tasty midnight snack.

What to do about waking up at 3 am

To reduce early morning awakenings we’ll first focus on your last meal or snack of the evening. Try a protein-packed snack rather than succumbing to the cravings that a late-night cortisol spike can often elicit. Think things like a handful of almonds or a hard-boiled egg, instead of something carb-heavy or sweet (4).

You can also keep magnesium-rich foods like cashews, pumpkin seeds, and dark chocolate in mind. They’ll be able to take the edge off your nighttime hunger while providing magnesium, which is known to support sleep.

If you want to get a healthy serving of calming magnesium, along with magnolia bark to keep cortisol levels in check, you can also make Sleep Savior part of your bedtime routine. It’s a natural supplement for sleep support to give your body the rest and relaxation it needs.

Other things that wake you up in the middle of the night

There are also a few other common reasons you may find yourself waking up at 3 am on a regular basis. If you’re able to go back to sleep, it’s not always something to worry about, but if you’re missing out on sleep you’ll want to minimize sleep disruptions and focus on supporting a healthy circadian rhythm, or your natural sleep-wake cycle.

You’re shifting from deep sleep to light sleep

Humans sleep in cycles where we go from deep REM sleep, to lighter sleep over the course of 60 to 120 minutes. We go through about 4 sleep cycles each night.

At the end of each cycle, when sleep is the lightest, it’s not uncommon to wake briefly before dozing off into the next sleep cycle. If something disturbs your sleep near the end of a cycle, you may wake up and feel quite awake. This explains why many people tend to wake up at the same time each night, or regularly ever hour and a half or so.

This type of waking isn’t always something to be concerned about, especially if you’re able to fall asleep again after waking up.

Menopause

Ahh, we all love hormone changes that can mess with sleep quality. Hormonal changes in women who are perimenopausal or already in menopause can cause some pretty disrupted sleep patterns. Hormone fluctuations are a common cause of age-related sleep changes.

This is because reproductive hormones estrogen and progesterone are entwined with sleep and relaxation hormones melatonin and serotonin. So when estrogen begins to drop before and during menopause, it can create a disturbance in melatonin where this sleep-promoting hormone can’t properly balance out cortisol. When this happens, you’ll have trouble falling and staying asleep.

See also: hot flashes and night sweats that are common with hormonal changes during menopause, and definitely don’t make for a restful night.

Watch: Estrogen Dominance, Causes, & Symptoms

Stress and adrenal fatigue

Many people suffer from insomnia or trouble sleeping during stressful periods. And if your stress is chronic, it could put you in a position of adrenal fatigue or cortisol dysregulation.

As mentioned above, cortisol should be lower at night to promote drifting off to sleep, and it’s generally highest just after waking to help you become fully alert. But when cortisol becomes disrupted as a result of chronic stress, it can interfere with melatonin production, which means you’ll have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or both.

Read: Magnolia Bark | Antidote for Stress & Anxiety

Alcohol

A nightcap before bed may help you doze off quicker, but this tactic will likely backfire a few hours later when you’re unable to fall into a deep sleep. Alcohol interferes with REM sleep, which includes dreaming. Therefore, you may have trouble reaching deep, restorative sleep, and wake still feeling tired. Sleep experts recommend avoiding alcohol up to 4 hours before bedtime (5).

Try some of these nutritious tonics instead.

Bathroom breaks

Making a trip to the restroom in the middle of the night isn’t an unusual occurrence for many. And in fact, most of the time it’s not indicative of any problem. However, in some instances there may be a reason behind it.

For one, as we age, your body produces less of the hormone that helps you retain fluid, called antidiuretic hormone. This makes your bladder fill up faster and triggers the urge to use the restroom in the middle of the night.

Pregnancy, age, and childbirth can also weaken the pelvic floor muscles, which make it harder to make it through the night. Try reducing the amount of liquids you drink in the couple of hours before bedtime, or adding a magnesium supplement in the evening for better sleep.

Alcohol or caffeinated drinks are also diuretics, which increase fluid output. Drinking them too close to bedtime can definitely disrupt your sleep.

It’s all connected

No matter why you’re waking up at night, a lot of the components that trigger sleep disturbances are connected. In other words, there’s often not one simple fix to getting a better night’s sleep.

Stress management is important to support healthy cortisol levels, but so is opting for a blood-sugar-balancing snack instead of sugar before bed.

Your other hormones, like estrogen, serotonin, and melatonin all rely on each other for balance, too. In the brain, estrogen regulates serotonin, which then, in turn, produces melatonin. So you see, if you’re waking up at night, it’s about a multitude of factors—but fortunately, we have control over a lot of them!

Calming the body down – tips for sleeping through the night

There are many ways to promote healthy cortisol levels throughout the night, as well as healthy production of melatonin to help you fall asleep and stay asleep.

Deep breathing

Activate your parasympathetic nervous system (the part of your nervous system responsible for rest and digest functions) with deep breathing exercises.

I like the 4-7-8 breath, but any variation that involves deep belly breathing with long, slow exhales will be beneficial to activate calming receptors in your nervous system.

Protein snack

To support a healthy blood sugar balance all night, try adding a snack about an hour before bedtime. Look for something reasonably high in protein and healthy fats, with a moderate amount of carbohydrates.

A handful of walnuts
Cottage cheese
Greek yogurt (with or without a little fruit)
Peanut butter and crackers
Hummus and carrots
Sliced deli meat and/or cheese

How much protein do you really need? Read more.

Herbs and supplements

Magnolia bark promotes sleep and may even help to reduce cortisol, thanks to special, naturally-occurring bioactive compounds (6). This can help with anxious feelings at night, and help you wake feeling rested.

More than half of all people don’t get enough magnesium in their diets (7). This mineral promotes healthy sleep and a sense of calm. Melatonin production also decreases with age, which makes it harder to fall asleep, and may disrupt your natural sleep-wake cycles, or circadian rhythm.

You can find all three of these sleep-promoting ingredients in Sleep Savior, a natural sleep support supplement.

Sandalwood or chamomile essential oils

Tap into aromatherapy with a little help from soothing essential oils. Olfactory (smell) receptors send messages to the brain, and adding some of the right scents to your bedroom can help facilitate relaxation and a clear mind to help you sleep. Also try:

Orange or tangerine
Ylang ylang
Lavender
Sweet marjoram
Bergamot

A better night’s sleep naturally

While there are many potential causes of middle-of-the-night awakenings, fortunately there are also a number of solutions. By managing stress throughout the day, eating a protein-rich snack before bed, and avoiding alcohol and caffeine in the evening, you can help your body relax and prepare for sleep. If you’re still struggling with sleepless nights, try implementing some of the tips we’ve shared here to calm your body and mind. With a little bit of patience and effort, you should start to notice an improvement in your quality of sleep. Sweet dreams!

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