Waking Up At Night Can Be Normal

Was there a time in the past, perhaps at a younger age, when you seemed to sleep more soundly through the night? Do you now find yourself waking up a few times for no reason, or does it seem like you wake up every couple of hours or so?

This is common, especially as we age. One of the reasons why you might be waking up has to do with how normal sleep works. Throughout the course of the night, we move through the different stages of sleep in a cyclical pattern. Each cycle lasts about 90 to 120 minutes and ends with an arousal or brief awakening. These arousals are much more likely to turn into brief awakenings as we get older. So, “normal” might mean that every couple of hours, we may have a brief “wake up,” perhaps to use the restroom or to roll over. It’s not unusual to wake up 3 or 4 times a night! Waking up during the night only becomes a problem when you can’t get back to sleep or if you’re waking up multiple times a night and there doesn’t seem to be a pattern to it. In these cases, you may have insomnia or another sleep disorder disrupting your sleep.

Try This Challenge:

The next time you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night, try to have the thought, “Oh, I probably just finished another sleep cycle. No big deal.” Think of it as a completely normal event. Don’t check what time it is. Just make yourself comfortable, go to the restroom if needed (but don’t turn on any bright lights!), flip the pillow to the cool side, and allow yourself to fall back into the next sleep cycle.