The truth is, our mind isn't really looking for a solution at 3am. We can't believe the solution of just ringing this person, postponing that thing, or checking such-and-such was overlooked in the wee hours. Once the Sun's up, we're listening to the radio, chewing our toast and pushing the cat off the bench, and our 3am problems are put in perspective. So the mind is partly right when it concludes the problems it's generated are unsolvable – at 3am, most problems literally would be. With none of our human skills and capital, we are left alone in the dark with our thoughts. From nature's viewpoint, this is meant to be a time of physical and emotional recovery, so it's understandable that our internal resources are low.īut we also lack other resources in the middle of the night – social connections, cultural assets, all the coping skills of an adult are unavailable at this time. Catastrophizing in the wee hoursĪs a cognitive therapist, I sometimes joke the only thing good about 3am waking is that it gives us all a vivid example of catastrophizing.Īround this time in the sleep cycle, we're at our lowest ebb physically and cognitively. There's also a strong link between sleep and depression, so it's important to speak to your doctor if you have any concerns about your sleep. If that sounds like you, be aware that insomnia responds well to psychological treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy. Stress also impacts sleep in insomnia, where people become hypervigilant about being awake.Ĭoncerns about being awake when one "should" be asleep can cause the person to jolt themselves into anxious wakefulness whenever they go through a light sleep phase. So if you're experiencing 3am wakings at the moment, you're definitely not alone. Not surprisingly, there is evidence the pandemic is a sleep-disturbing stressor. But add a bit of stress and there is a good chance that waking will become a fully self-aware state. When sleep is going well for us, we are simply unaware of these awakenings. We actually wake up many times each night, and light sleep is more common in the second half of the night. Remarkably, all this activity happens independent of cues from the environment such as dawn light – nature decided long ago that sunrise and sunset are so important that they must be predicted (hence the circadian system). In a normal night's sleep, our neurobiology reaches a turning point around 3 or 4am.Ĭore body temperature starts to rise, sleep drive is reducing (because we've had a chunk of sleep), secretion of melatonin (the sleep hormone) has peaked, and levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) are increasing as the body prepares to launch us into the day. Here's what the research says about what may be behind this common experience. I'm a psychology researcher with expertise in mood, sleep, and the circadian system (the internal clock regulating sleep). Strikingly, these concerns vaporize in the daylight, proving that the 3am thinking was completely irrational and unproductive. The thoughts are often distressing and punitive.
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