“Everyone wakes up multiple times per night,” says Wu. “It's very common for people to wake up around 2 or 3 a.m. because this is when our sleep architecture (the pattern of our sleep stage cycles throughout the night) naturally has a shift from more deep sleep to more REM sleep.
02/10Sleep disturbances and liver scarring
Brian Lun, Integrative and Functional Medicine Specialist and Chiropractor, Kansas City, suggests that “the most common cause of waking up between 1 and 4am is a liver problem,” as quoted by Express UK.
Waking up in the middle of the night is common. The most common cause is a liver problem, but there may be other reasons why your sleep is disrupted including sleep apnea, nocturnal hypoglycemia, viral infection, urinary issues, digestive issues, potential food allergies or stress.
There are several different types of sleep-wake disorders, of which insomnia is the most common. Other sleep-wake disorders include obstructive sleep apnea, parasomnias, narcolepsy, and restless leg syndrome. Sleep difficulties are linked to both physical and emotional problems.
Some of the signs and symptoms of sleep disorders include excessive daytime sleepiness, irregular breathing or increased movement during sleep. Other signs and symptoms include an irregular sleep and wake cycle and difficulty falling asleep.
Stress can make it hard to get to sleep in the first place (that's called sleep-onset insomnia). But anxiety can also cause you to wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble getting back to sleep (called middle insomnia, or sleep-maintenance insomnia).
Waking up between 11pm and 1am
As your gall bladder works to break down all the fats you've consumed during the day, waking up between these hours could suggest that you need to review what you're eating before bed – or that you need to have your dinner earlier in the evening.
If you are under acute stress, or you have been under chronic stress, you may notice that you tend to wake up between 2-4 am and have difficulty falling back asleep. Sometimes, this can also be experienced as waking up earlier than you would naturally want to, like 4 or 5 am.
Waking up between 3am and 5am is associated with the energy meridian that runs through the lungs and is connected to the emotion of sadness. Sometimes in the middle age range of our lives, we can feel a quiet and seemingly unexplained sadness.
Disturbed sleep is common and results from various causes like stress, health conditions, and medications. The hormones melatonin and cortisol regulate our sleep cycle. The rising cortisol levels around 3 AM or 4 AM with emotional sorting by the brain are probable causes why you wake up around the same time every day.
Get some exercise.
Avoid caffeine starting about six hours before your bedtime. Studies have shown it can keep you awake or affect your sleep quality. Turn off the electronics – laptops, tablets and phones emit blue light that can keep you awake, and they're a distraction from sleep. Sleep in a cave.
One study. View Source of older adults with insomnia found that magnesium supplementation at a dose of 500 milligrams daily for eight weeks helped them fall asleep fast, stay asleep longer, reduced nighttime awakenings, and increased their levels of naturally circulating melatonin.
Waking up a few times during the night is common and completely normal. If you struggle to fall back asleep or wake up frequently, other factors might be keeping you from a good night's rest. Environment, diet, medication, mental health or physical health could impact your sleep quality.
Because there are so many different things that can wake you up, there's no specific number of awakenings that is a cause for concern, Brandon Peters, M.D., a board-certified neurologist and sleep medicine specialist, tells SELF. “[The number can] vary night by night due to different reasons,” he says.
Kleine–Levin syndrome (KLS) is a rare disease characterized by recurrent episodes of hypersomnia and to various degrees, behavioral or cognitive disturbances, compulsive eating behavior, and hypersexuality. [1] The disease predominantly affects adolescent males.
Insomnia - being unable to fall asleep and stay asleep. This is the most common sleep disorder. Sleep apnea - a breathing disorder in which you stop breathing for 10 seconds or more during sleep. Restless leg syndrome (RLS) - a tingling or prickly sensation in your legs, along with a powerful urge to move them.