Why some people wake up at 03:00 every night: psychologist's explanation

Most people wake up several times a night due to sleep cycles. But not everyone realizes this unless they fall into the trap of a spiral of negative thoughts, which most often happens after four hours of sleep.

According to Ifl Science, according to psychologist and cognitive therapist Greg Murray, if you usually go to bed around 11:00 p.m., you will be conscious again at three o'clock. Ideally, this short break will not last longer than a few minutes.

Most people go through several sleep cycles during the night. Each of them starts with light sleep, which then gives way to deeper sleep as we enter REM sleep. This is followed by a more active phase known as rapid eye movement (REM). And then, a person is likely to wake up for a while before falling back asleep.

This whole process takes about four hours. That is, if a person goes to bed at about 11 p.m., he or she is likely to wake up at 3 a.m. And either he or she will fall asleep right away, or he or she may fall into the trap of a spiral of negative thoughts that will keep him or her awake for a long time.

In other words, stress is not always to blame for waking up in the middle of the night, but it can turn a momentary wakefulness into a long-lasting crisis. In addition, people tend to be less rational in their nighttime thoughts than during the day, so problems always seem much more dire at three in the morning. During the day, people are able to be proactive in solving certain problems. But at night, all we can do is worry - and that's exactly what our minds are prone to do.

Psychologist Murray recommends practicing mindfulness meditation, whereby focusing on your breath or sensations helps to calm your mind and reduce the chances of increasing your anxiety. If you're lucky, it will help you fall asleep again, but if nothing else works, Murray suggests reading a book to distract yourself from obsessive thoughts.

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