I wake up at the same time at night - a habit or a symptom? Frequent awakenings at night (interrupted sleep) Why at 3 am

"Observations on the circadian biorhythms of people are stated in texts on Chinese medicine and date back to the 13th century", – Gwei-Djen, L. (2002)

H It's okay if you wake up in the middle of the night. Sometimes this happens to everyone. Is it annoying? Of course, because we need 7-8 hours of sleep. But if you wake up at 2.3 am, this does not mean that you have health problems. However, only a few of us wake up at the same time every night. Coincidence? Maybe. After all, our brain lives by its own mind, but its “tick-tock” and strange internal warnings are not beyond our understanding.

When we have a certain routine, our brain adapts and reminds us what to do and when. This is a scientifically proven fact. When the brain and body suddenly go off course, including changes in the mysterious sleep/wake cycle, we notice it.

Chinese healers observed daily biorhythms as early as the 13th century, much earlier than Western ones. Our internal energy (called qi) passes through various points in the daily cycle. Violation of internal energy at any point during the daily cycle can manifest itself in emotional, mental or physical problems. This is a potential health issue, as every system in our body must have the ability to repair and regenerate.

Here we will focus on the theory of biorhythms in Chinese medicine. More precisely, on the Organ Clock in Traditional Chinese Medicine. We will discuss sleep disorders and reasonable explanations for them.

Reasons why you wake up at the same time at night:

“A circadian biorhythm is any biological process that takes approximately 24 hours…These 24-hour rhythms are driven by the circadian clock and have been studied a lot.”, - Edgar, R. & al (2012)

1. The problem with falling asleep from 21.00 to 23.00

During these two hours, the arteries and blood vessels are very active. Problems with the arteries or blood vessels can indicate a number of health problems. Problems with the adrenals, metabolism, immune system, or thyroid may be the true cause. From a psychological point of view, increased levels of stress, confusion or paranoia can have a negative impact on the process of falling asleep.

Possible solutions: meditation, breathing techniques, or other types of relaxation exercises.

2. Awakening from 23.00 to 1.00

Most people with advanced knowledge of anatomy and physiology (eg, internists) know that the gallbladder is most active at night, especially during this time period. From 23.00 to 01.00 the gallbladder is actively working with the fats consumed during the day.

From a psychological point of view, judgment of oneself or others, resentment and inability to forgive can cause insomnia during these hours.

Possible solutions: more restrictive diet, meditation, learning to accept and forgive both yourself and others.

3. Awakening from 01.00 to 3.00

From 1.00 to 3.00, the liver cleanses the body of harmful toxins. Some medications can dramatically activate liver function, which will affect sleep. Diet and eating habits are also extremely important.

Some believe that this period is associated with feelings of anger and guilt. When our mind and body experience feelings of anger and guilt, it is very difficult to fall asleep.

Possible solutions: eat healthier (eat less fat and carbohydrates); reduce alcohol consumption, especially before bedtime, learn to be attentive and caring.

4. Awakening from 3.00 to 5.00

The lungs distribute oxygen between systems and prepare our body for the day ahead. Like the liver, the lungs also work to eliminate accumulated toxins. People suffering from lung diseases are prone to coughing and wheezing during this period of time.

From a psychological point of view, awakening during these hours can be associated with melancholy and sadness. During this period, symptoms of depression may be triggered.

Possible solutions: eat healthier (eating foods that are good for lung health), stop smoking, find a healthy outlet for feeling sad, sad or depressed.

5. Awakening from 5.00 to 7.00

From 5 to 7 in the morning, our intestines are in cleansing mode. Have you ever wondered why you go to the toilet first thing after waking up? Here you go.

During this period of time, our mind goes into "work mode". Thoughts or feelings due to lack of progress or anxiety about the upcoming work day can become impulses for awakening.

Make sure you drink plenty of water as this helps to cleanse the colon. Your nutritional priorities should also be in order. For negative thoughts, practice mindfulness and gratitude, as this will help alleviate your anxieties.

A quality night's sleep is the key to high performance and excellent mood throughout the day. But lately the problem of insomnia has become very common. Many people complain of difficulty falling asleep. And sometimes they come with an even more serious problem: “I wake up at the same time at night and then I can’t fall asleep for a long time.” What kind of good rest can we talk about in such a situation?! If it recurs frequently, action should be taken immediately.

Causes of night awakenings

The reasons for nighttime awakenings can be different. Unfortunately, quite rarely they are caused only by physiology. More often, regular interruption of sleep at the same time signals that something is wrong with the body. Sometimes this is due to psychological problems, but more often it indicates pathologies of internal organs that work according to genetically programmed biological clocks.

Physiological

Physiological causes are more likely to create problems with falling asleep or sleep quality. It is difficult to get enough sleep in a stuffy room or fall asleep when the light, the feeling of hunger or the snoring of a neighbor interferes with you. With severe fatigue, a person turns off even with intense exposure to external stimuli. But after 1-2 cycles of REM sleep, when we sleep especially lightly, it can wake up.

Regularly wake up at night those who cannot fall asleep without a night light or TV turned on. Approximately 3-4 hours after falling asleep, light and sound begin to interfere, sleep is interrupted. But it is worth turning off their source, it returns and then the night passes quietly. If this is repeated regularly, a conditioned reflex will develop, and the person begins to wake up at night.

Another common cause of constant nighttime awakenings around the same time is lack of oxygen.

Even if you ventilate the room before going to bed, but there are heating devices in it or there are many flowers that absorb oxygen at night, then after a few hours the lack of fresh air will make you wake up.

At the same time, mothers of babies who are accustomed to a certain routine often wake up. The body remembers for a long time that it is necessary to feed the child or check if he is wet. A conditioned reflex, including awakening, is developed in about a month. But it takes a lot longer to break a habit.

Physiological factors also include age-related changes in the structure of sleep. Scientists have found that young people during the night are dominated by a slow phase, that is, a person sleeps soundly.

But gradually the structure of the cycles changes, and in the elderly, the fast phase of sleep begins to dominate from about the middle of the night. Therefore, the slightest noise wakes them up. And since the concentration of melatonin in the blood decreases markedly by morning, it is not always possible to fall asleep again. This is where the myth was born that older people need less sleep.

Psychological

Some psychological problems directly affect the quality of our sleep. Somnologists even have a special term that unites them - "intrasomnic disorders." Most often, nighttime awakenings provoke stress. It can be quite difficult to identify his chronic condition and sometimes it is not possible to cope with this without the help of an experienced specialist.

For stress, the most typical complaints are in the style of: "I wake up every night at 3 o'clock with a feeling of anxiety." Sometimes such people are tormented by nightmares or severe depressive dreams, the plots of which they may not remember.

Uncontrolled use of sleeping pills only exacerbates the problem and provokes the development of depressive states.

Emotional disorder is any hypertrophied emotions that a person cannot control. In this case, he is clearly aware of what exactly does not let him sleep: anger, fear, falling in love, envy, etc. But it is not possible to cope with these conditions. A qualified psychologist can help in such a situation.

Pathological

But in most cases, they complain that they wake up at 3 am and people with serious pathologies cannot fall asleep. By the way, it is this time (plus or minus half an hour) that is most often noted by people suffering from this form of insomnia. The people called it the "witch's hour", and not without reason. A healthy person at this time is fast asleep, which means that he is defenseless and easily suggestible. Come and do whatever.

Scientists are interested in what processes occur in our body during the night. Here is what their research results showed:

Naturally, these are generalized data, each organism is individual. But constant awakenings at the same time is one of the symptoms of the pathologies of those organs that are active during this period.

Diagnosis and treatment

If the physiological causes of regular nighttime rises are excluded, you need to seek help from specialists. There is nothing wrong with going to the doctor and asking him the question: “I don’t sleep well at night and wake up often - what should I do?”

This problem is common, and usually a person really needs qualified help. Anxiety should be caused by the presence of the following symptoms:

Most likely you will be asked to undergo an examination to identify pathologies of the internal organs. Do not give up on it - the sooner the disease is detected, the greater the likelihood of a complete cure. When the disease recedes, sleep quickly returns to normal.

Vegetovascular dystonia and emotional disorders are treated with auto-training and breathing exercises. Usually it is possible to solve the problem without the use of drugs. But with difficulty falling asleep, mild sedatives may be prescribed.

If insomnia is caused by severe or chronic stress, a psychologist should be consulted. The suppression of such conditions leads to serious neurological disorders and cardiovascular diseases.

Sometimes sleeping pills or antidepressants are prescribed for a short period. But it is important to remember that such drugs are quickly addictive. Therefore, if you are able to do without them, look for other ways to relieve stress.

Possible problems

Being ashamed to seek advice, you exacerbate the problem every day. Night sleep deprivation affects the work of the whole organism:

performance is sharply reduced;
there is rapid fatigue;
attention is scattered;
there are failures in the hormonal system;
drowsiness is constantly present;
dry skin and mucous membranes;
deep wrinkles appear;
loss of appetite;
there is anxiety and fear of the night.

The longer unwanted nightly rises continue, the worse for the body.. In addition, a person subconsciously begins to wait for them and thus involuntarily sets his “internal alarm clock” on this watch. And sometimes, to turn it off, you have to resort to neuro-linguistic therapy or hypnosis.

What to do?

Since the psychological state directly affects our sleep, do not panic. Often you can normalize it, even if you just pay attention to the mood with which you go to bed.

First of all, try to calmly analyze why you wake up at night. Perhaps you are tormented by anxious thoughts about an unresolved problem or conflict situation. Or maybe you just feel uncomfortable sleeping, so:

check if there is enough air in the room, and make it a habit to ventilate the bedroom;
create a calm environment for yourself - you need to sleep in darkness and silence;
master the elementary techniques of psychotherapy: auto-training, meditation;
come up with a pleasant ritual that precedes falling asleep: a bath, a foot or head massage, aromatherapy;
learn to let go of bad and disturbing thoughts before going to bed - better dream about something pleasant;
try to master relaxing yoga exercises and relaxing breathing;
if you can't sleep without a night light, buy a model with a timer so that it turns off some time after falling asleep.

But the main thing - do not start the problem! If night awakenings occur more often than 2-3 times a month, this is already a cause for concern and consultation with specialists.

There are no insoluble problems, and even in the presence of chronic diseases, sleep can be normalized. There will be no result only if you do not take any action to protect your own body and nervous system from gradual destruction due to regular lack of sleep.

Waking up at 3 am is often tormented by a strange feeling of incomprehensible anxiety. When this happens often people start looking for mystical excuses. Is it true that this time is connected with mysticism. There may be another reason for such nocturnal awakenings.

Why 3 a.m. is a mystical time, true or not, why you wake up for no reason: the time of the devil and witches

3 nights - the time when all the dark forces get the most power, the witches awaken in order to give their own slanders power and realize them. Indeed, between 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning, the first rays of the sun begin to break through to the Earth. Since ancient times, it was considered the time of the devil, and when you wake up during this period, you should try to fall asleep immediately so as not to bring trouble into your life.

It is at this time that he wakes up at night with anxiety and anxiety.

In connection with all this, many tell their terrible nightly adventures. Almost all of them are connected with the other world or simply inexplicable phenomena.

“The first time I woke up at night from thirst. I looked at the clock (3.10) and went to the kitchen. She returned, again lay down in a warm bed, closed her eyes. And now I see the whole room, attention is focused on the door. She is pushed with crazy force, and a dark clot bursts into the room! It smells bad from him ... With lightning speed he approaches my back ... I jump up, already awake, look around. There is no one, but the feeling of anxiety does not leave. At 3:25 am, I grab my phone and look for the Our Father prayer. I calm down, but I can not sleep until morning. I turned on the light in the room and began to study this phenomenon. - says the girl

Why 3 a.m. is a mystical time, true or not, why you wake up for no reason: scientific explanations for night awakenings

Scientists explain this by the fact that a sleeping person at 3 a.m. begins to be in the phase of REM sleep. It is characterized by increased brain activity.

In reality, the whole body is in relaxation at this time - the heartbeat, heart pressure and pulse rate are irregular. And waking up suddenly in this state always comes a feeling of anxiety.

This stage can awaken psychological modeling - so that the awakened person may feel extremely unusual, and this is a normal state. Simple physiology of the human body and without mysticism.

Experts were also able to explain the sensations of cold and discomfort during the period of nocturnal awakening. The fact is that the temperature of the human body during REM sleep cannot be regulated at all.

Experts say that 3 am is the ideal time to wake up if you go to bed early. Such awakenings can be caused by stresses in life, horrors, long pastime in front of the monitor, or unresolved problems at work that sit in your head and prevent you from relaxing.

You still can’t solve problems at night, so you should drink herbal tea and relax a little.

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There is a horror story on the Internet, the essence of which is that if a person suddenly wakes up in the middle of the night, for example, in the interval from 03:00 to 04:00 (witch hour), then someone is looking at him. According to statistics, it follows that a large number of awakenings are indeed observed at this time. And there are different points of view as to why this is happening.

Reasons for awakenings in the middle of the night from the point of view of science

Very often, a person who has encountered some traumatic, negative, frightening events at night begins to sleep poorly. His sleep becomes intermittent, he can wake up abruptly at certain times, usually between two or three in the morning and four or five in the morning. Psychologists attribute this to an increase in anxiety. The reason may lie in an undiagnosed or incompletely cured post-traumatic (stress) disorder.

Often, various diseases are exacerbated precisely at night. A burst of soreness may occur just in the interval from 03:00 to 04:00. In addition, it is at this time that many people feel the urge to go to the toilet, which, of course, disturbs sleep.

Constant awakenings, including at a certain - specified - time, may indicate depression, insomnia, or other sleep disorders. With age, such awakenings often become more frequent or even occur regularly. This can be explained by the fact that a person gradually changes the duration of sleep. A broken regimen, a period of menopause, hormonal diseases also contribute to the fact that a person begins to wake up in the middle of the night.

In Eastern medicine, there is an opinion that if a person wakes up at the witching hour, then active cleansing and treatment of the lungs and liver begins. Along with this, there is an increased release of unrealized energy, as well as such emotions as anger, denial, anger, sadness, longing, anxiety, sadness. All this makes it difficult to relax and be in the land of dreams.

It is important to understand that if intermittent sleep was a “one-time event” and is due to overexertion or stress, then there is no danger in this. In addition, going to bed early can also turn into a kind of similar situation. However, if, along with intermittent sleep, which constantly haunts, there are still any additional disturbing symptoms, then it is worth visiting a doctor and trying to establish a possible physiological cause. Or go to a psychologist, for example.

Why a person wakes up at night: explanations from the point of view of magic and esotericism

As part of the interpretation from the point of view of esotericism and magic, it follows that if a person constantly wakes up at the witch's (devil's) hour, if at the same time he is visited by nightmares, he feels bad, problems arise in all areas of life, then this indicates a third-party magical effect . As a rule, such an impact is negative, aimed at worsening the life of the “victim”.

People who are possessed by entities, demons, and so on, usually sleep restlessly between three in the morning and four in the morning. They can wake up or balance on the verge of sleep and reality, walk or talk in a half-sleep.

In the witching hour, the connection with entities and spirits is especially strong. They can appear to a person for any specific purpose, which is not always negative. Awakenings from sleep can occur due to the desire of such entities or spirits to get in touch, to convey any information, to warn about something.

Some esotericists believe that the witch hour is perceived extremely negatively in vain. During this period of time, the so-called renewal and purification takes place on a subtle - spiritual - level. There is growth, the development of the soul is carried out. At this time, it is very useful to meditate, perform other esoteric (or magical) practices, it is useful to dive inside yourself, do breathing exercises, and so on. All this can contribute to personal growth and development. If a person wakes up regularly, even for a short time, at a specified time interval, this may mean that his “reboot” and growth are happening very rapidly, intensively. And soon the fruits of such renewal will be noticeable in everyday life.