Do you keep waking up at 3 a.m.? This is why it happens according to sleep experts

Are you experiencing chronic sleep issues? If so, you have plenty of company according to the National Institutes of Health. In the US it’s believed that between 50 and 70 million people are plagued by an inability to get a good night’s sleep.

One condition that people are struggling with is consistently waking up around 3 am according to trends of Google searches. There are many theories but here’s what one expert said could be behind the broken slumber.

Importance of good sleep habits: Why you keep waking up at 3 am

Dr. Ana Krieger, director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian recently spoke to CNBC Make It where she explained that people are often overlooking what they are doing before they go to bed to explain the sleep disturbances in the middle of the night.

You may also be interested in: Say goodbye to sleepless nights

Krieger says that she frequently hears people say, “Oh, I don’t have difficulty falling asleep. I just have difficulty staying asleep.” However, it could actually be pre-bedtime habits or not properly preparing your sleeping environment that is causing those 3 am wakeups. In order to enhance the quality and quantity of your slumber you should do the following:

Conditions that may be disturbing your sleep

If the above is already part of your routine and you are still experiencing wakeups in the middle of the night, Krieger says that there are other conditions that you may affecting your sleep.

One of those is “stressors or anxieties that seep in through their sleep cycles and interfere with [one’s] ability to sleep through the night.” There are also conditions like “sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome or insomnia,” each of which can mess with your sleep.

She recommends seeing a sleep medicine doctor to see if one of these conditions is affecting your sleep.

“Try not to do much” if you wake up at 3 am

As far as what to do when you wake up at 3 am she says, “try not to do much. Try to feel relaxed and embrace that.” She explains that “if [you] start worrying about sleep, you’re going to make your sleep worse.”

Besides avoiding any stimulating activities like reading an interesting book or checking your phone, you can try the ‘478 breathing technique’. This involves breathing in 4 seconds, holding your breath for seven and then exhaling for eight seconds.

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