Waking up once or twice during the night is normal and, most of the time, nothing to worry about. But when you find yourself spending hours staring at the ceiling, or waking up so much you can’t get the sleep you need, it’s a problem.
Below, we’ll dive into the reasons you’re waking up in the middle of the night and what you can do to stop it from happening. Plus, we’ll share how the RISE app can help you get a good night of uninterrupted sleep.
Here’s what could be waking you up in the night.
Something in your bedroom could be waking you up in the middle of the night. This could be something obvious, like a snoring partner, or something you don’t even think about, like your bedroom getting too warm.
For undisturbed sleep, you need your sleep environment to be:
When one of these factors is wrong, it’s easy for your sleep to be disturbed. This is even more likely to happen when you’re in the light sleep stage of sleep.
Alcohol may make you feel sleepy, but it fragments sleep, meaning you wake up during the night.
A 2021 paper states, “while alcohol is initially sedating, this effect disappears after a few hours, resulting in a fragmented and disturbed sleep in the second half of the night.”
Alcohol can also be a trigger for night sweats and it’s a diuretic, meaning it increases urination. Both night sweats and needing the bathroom could add to your nighttime awakenings.
We’ve covered more on how long before bed to stop drinking alcohol here.
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You may think coffee makes it harder to drift off, but it can also wake you up once you’ve fallen asleep, too.
One 2017 paper says caffeine can:
Think coffee may be your problem? We’ve covered when to stop drinking coffee here.
If you sleep with the lights on, research shows this can lead to more nighttime awakenings. And beyond awakenings, research from 2022 suggests light exposure during sleep can lead to health issues.
But your light exposure before bed and during the day could also be to blame. Getting light exposure in the evening can suppress melatonin production, your body’s natural sleep hormone. This can make it harder to fall and stay asleep.
A 2017 sleep study found evening exposure to short wavelength light — like that you’d get from electronic devices — can disrupt sleep continuity.
When you get light in the morning also makes a difference. Research shows those who get later first exposure to more than 10 lux of light had more awakenings when they next slept.
For reference, an overcast day is about 1,000 lux and a very dark day would be about 100 lux, so getting outside in the morning should give you the light exposure you need.
We’ve covered when to get light and what color light is best for sleep here.
RISE can take the guesswork out of it and tell you when to get and avoid light each day.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click here to set up their get bright light reminder.
Stress — from work deadlines, family obligations, or financial worries — can wake you up in the night and then make it hard to fall back to sleep.
And stress affects us all differently. The higher your sleep reactivity, the more stress is likely to disrupt your sleep, and the more at risk you are for insomnia.
Research suggests once you’ve been exposed to stress and developed insomnia, your sleep reactivity may increase and not return to pre-insomnia levels — meaning even more nighttime awakenings.
You may have digestive problems if you eat too close to bedtime. A large meal before laying down can increase your risk of acid reflux, for example. But that’s not all.
A 2021 study found eating or drinking an hour or less before bed increased the odds of waking up during the night.
It’s not clear why, but eating can lower your arousal threshold, which is how easily you’re woken up from sleep. So if your arousal threshold is lowered by a late-night dinner, you may find things that don’t usually wake you up — a warm bedroom, a noise outside, etc. — do.
On the flip side, hunger pangs can wake you up in the middle of the night, too.
Not sure when to eat dinner? We’ve covered what time to stop eating before bed here, including what to eat if you need a pre-bed snack.
When it comes to sleep, women (and those assigned female at birth) have drawn the short straw.
Fluctuating hormones can cause hot flashes, insomnia, sleep-disordered breathing, mood changes, and an increased body temperature — all of which can wake you up in the night.
You may have trouble sleeping when:
Women are also more likely to have a sleep disorder or mental health disorder (which makes it harder to sleep).
We’ve covered the many factors impacting women’s sleep here.
Insomnia comes in many forms.
Insomnia can be caused by many factors including caffeine, alcohol, late-night light exposure, poor health, pregnancy, pain, daytime naps, and shift work.
Sleep apnea is when your airways close and your breathing is cut off during the night. When your brain detects low oxygen levels, it wakes you up to kickstart your breathing.
You may notice some of these awakenings and struggle to get back to sleep.
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Beyond insomnia and sleep apnea, other sleep problems can cause you to wake up in the middle of the night.
These include:
Certain medications can mess with your sleep and wake you up.
These include:
Whether it’s from laying on an injured shoulder or rolling over in the night and tweaking your back, pain can wake you up from sleep.
You may also have a painful health condition that gets worse at night such as:
Sometimes it’s not full-on pain waking you up, it’s discomfort. But this can be enough to disrupt your shut-eye.
You may get discomfort from:
Digestive problems can wake you up, either in pain or needing to use the bathroom. Once you’re awake, discomfort and anxiety over these digestive issues can make it hard to fall back asleep.
These include:
Waking up needing to pee is called nocturia. When it happens once or even twice, it’s nothing to worry about, but if it happens regularly, it can easily add up to sleep loss.
You may need to pee a lot at night because:
We’ve covered more reasons you pee so much at night here.
Mental health issues can make it hard to stay asleep through the night. These include:
Some mental health conditions can become a vicious circle, too. For example, anxiety can make it harder to fall and stay asleep. But sleep loss can increase anxiety.
Medications to treat mental health issues, like beta-blockers and antidepressants, can also mess with your sleep.
Smoking can affect your sleep in more ways than one.
Research shows smoking can lead to:
Smokers are also more likely to report daytime sleepiness as well as depression and a high caffeine intake (which may add to your nighttime awakenings).
The good news is former smokers report sleep disturbances similar to non-smokers.
Breathing disorders like asthma or bronchitis could wake you up, as can snoring, sleep apnea, congestion, or allergies.
But even the simple act of mouth breathing can wake you up as it lowers your arousal threshold, making you more vulnerable to other factors disrupting your sleep.
We’ve covered more on mouth breathing here, including how to break the bad habit (mouth taping may help).
Your circadian rhythm is your body’s natural internal clock. It runs on a roughly 24-hour cycle and helps to control your sleep-wake cycle. If you’re out of sync with it, you may find yourself waking up at odd times and struggling to fall asleep when you want to.
You may be out of sync if:
RISE can predict your circadian rhythm each day and show you when your body naturally wants to go to sleep and wake up. If you try to sleep in beyond your natural wake-up time, you may find yourself waking up.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click here to see their circadian rhythm on the Energy screen.
As we age, many factors that can cause nighttime awakenings get worse. These include:
Want to make it through the night without waking up? A few lifestyle changes may help.
This is where good sleep hygiene comes in. Sleep hygiene is the name for the set of daily habits you can do to fall and stay asleep at night. With good sleep hygiene, you’ll be avoiding many of the triggers for nighttime awakenings we’ve mentioned above.
Plus, you’ll be less vulnerable to sleep disruptors you can’t control, like a noisy neighbor or health issue.
Here are the good sleep habits to develop:
To help you remember all this and prevent poor sleep, RISE can guide you through 20+ sleep hygiene habits each day and tell you the ideal time to do them.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click here to set up their 20+ in-app habit notifications.
Improving your sleep hygiene can help reduce how often you wake up in the night, but here’s what to do when it does happen.
We’ve covered more tips on how to fall back asleep here.
Yes, waking up in the middle of the night once or twice is normal. In fact, most of us experience micro-awakenings (sometimes up to 10 to 20 per hour) that we often don’t remember.
You may wake up because you need the bathroom, because you’ve changed sleeping position, or just naturally in the second half of the night.
You’re more likely to wake up in the second half of the night because:
As long as you’re meeting your sleep need (the genetically determined number of hours of sleep you need), waking up once or twice isn’t anything to worry about.
If you’re not meeting your sleep need, you’ll be building up sleep debt, the measure of how much sleep you owe your body. And this can cause low energy, mood, and productivity the next day, as well as long-term health issues, like diabetes, obesity, and depression.
RISE can work out your sleep need and how much sleep debt you have, so you can see if your nighttime awakenings are causing sleep deprivation.
For a sleep doctor’s take, we turned to our sleep advisor and medical reviewer, Dr. Chester Wu.
“Waking up once or twice in the middle of the night is nothing to worry about. But if it’s happening so much you can’t get the sleep you need, it can be a problem. Try cutting down on caffeine and alcohol, getting light in the morning, and making sure your bedroom is comfortable to help you sleep through the night.” Rise Science Medical Reviewer Dr. Chester Wu
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click here to view their sleep need and here to view their sleep debt.
Waking up in the middle of the night can stop you from getting enough sleep if it happens often.
If you’ve improved your sleep hygiene and still find yourself waking up often throughout the night, it may be worth speaking with your healthcare provider or a sleep specialist.
They can test for an underlying sleep disorder or medical condition and recommend treatment options to help.
Waking up once or twice throughout the night is nothing to worry about. In fact, it’s normal! But when you wake up regularly, it can be hard to get the sleep you need.
Try improving your sleep hygiene to cut out many of the things that can cause nighttime awakenings. This includes getting light at the right times, avoiding caffeine, alcohol, and large meals close to bedtime, and making sure your bedroom is dark, cool, and quiet.
To stay on top of everything, the RISE app can tell you when to do 20+ sleep hygiene habits. The win-win of sleep hygiene is it’ll help you fall asleep quicker, too, meaning even more sleep and better energy day after day.
You don’t need to wait long to see the benefits — 80% of RISE users report better sleep within five days.
If you’re waking up in the middle of the night, it’s probably due to caffeine, alcohol, light exposure, stress, anxiety, discomfort, eating too close to bedtime, or being out of sync with your circadian rhythm. Improve your sleep hygiene to reduce how often you wake up at night.
Waking up in the middle of the night to pee is called nocturia. It’s normal to wake up once or twice. But waking up often to pee can happen when you drink too much fluid, drink too close to bedtime, or have a medical issue or bladder problem.
Waking up in the middle of the night with anxiety or with a panic attack can be caused by stress, mental health issues, or medical conditions. To fall back to sleep, try doing a sleep reset where you do a relaxing low-lit activity until you feel sleepy again.
If you wake up in the middle of the night hungry, you may not have eaten enough during the day. Sleep deprivation can also increase the hunger hormone, ghrelin. Try having a light and healthy snack before bed such as a piece of fruit or portion of Greek yogurt.
You may keep waking up in the middle of the night due to getting light exposure or having caffeine, meals, or alcohol too close to bedtime; having a bedroom that’s too bright, noisy, or warm; stress, anxiety, or hormones. Improve your sleep hygiene to reduce how often you wake up at night.
Stop waking up in the middle of the night by improving your sleep hygiene. This includes getting light first thing and avoiding light, caffeine, large meals, and alcohol close to bedtime; keeping a consistent sleep pattern; and making sure your bedroom is cool, dark, and quiet.
RISE makes it easy to improve your sleep and daily energy to reach your potential
RISE makes it easy to improve your sleep and daily energy to reach your potential
