It’s that time of night again. It’s 3am and you’re wide awake, hit with a wave of dread as you blink at your phone and see there are still hours to go until morning. Only you can’t sleep at all now because you’re panicking about getting enough rest to function the next day. Your heart starts to race, thoughts spiral, and you’re trapped in a vicious circle. Sleep expert Professor Russell Foster explains just why these early-morning “witching hour” wakings happen – and how to sleep through the night.

It’s a natural part of your sleep cycle

It’s a familiar scene: the clock reads 3 a.m., and you’re wide awake, staring at your phone with a sense of dread. The looming question of how you’ll function tomorrow without sufficient rest only adds to your anxiety. Your heart races, your thoughts spiral, and you find yourself trapped in a sleepless cycle. Sleep expert Professor Russell Foster delves into why these unsettling early-morning awakenings occur and offers insights on how to maintain a restful night’s sleep.

Throughout your life, you’ve likely experienced multiple awakenings each night as part of a natural sleep cycle. These “micro-arousals” typically go unnoticed as you transition between deeper and lighter stages of sleep. However, as we age, shifts in our sleep patterns and stress hormones make it more likely for these awakenings to become pronounced, posing challenges in falling back asleep.

Why women especially wake in the witching hour

Research published in the journal Sleep indicates that by later life, about one in three adults over 60 report frequently waking too early or having difficulty staying asleep. Professor Foster, a leading figure in Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford and author of “Life Time: The New Science of the Body Clock,” emphasizes, “It’s not the waking itself that’s problematic; it’s the struggle to return to sleep that poses the real challenge.”

Women, particularly those nearing menopause, often face increased chances of these “witching hour” disruptions due to hormonal changes. As levels of oestrogen—a hormone crucial for deep, restorative sleep—begin to decline, sleep patterns can become irregular. Additionally, oestrogen’s role in regulating body temperature means its decrease can lead to temperature spikes, such as hot flushes, prompting the brain to misinterpret these as signals to wake up during the night.

Another contributing factor for women is the reduction in progesterone, the “calming hormone.” This decline can make midlife women feel more stressed upon waking, complicating their ability to fall back asleep.

Men, too, experience these early-morning awakenings, often attributing them to stress or overthinking. However, these disturbances are frequently rooted in biological rather than psychological causes. As men age, the physiological changes they undergo can also contribute to these nocturnal disruptions.

You need to go to the loo more

Another reason you are more likely to wake in midlife is a fuller bladder. As we age, the amount of urine our bladders can comfortably hold drops by as much as half. In women, falling levels of oestrogen after menopause thin the walls of the bladder and urethral tissue, making them more sensitive. In men, the prostate gland gradually enlarges, making it harder for the bladder to expand and sending messages it is already full.

For both sexes, levels of the hormone vasopressin, which dampens urine production during the night, also fall. This means the bladder fills more than it used to overnight, particularly in the early hours. Professor Foster explains: “At this stage of life, lighter sleep makes you more aware of signals from the bladder, and that will wake you up too.”

How to avoid waking in the witching hour

1. Keep your bedroom cooler

You can’t drop off to sleep until your core body temperature falls by roughly 0.3 to 0.5°C. This cooling sends messages to your brain that it’s time to wind down and for the nervous system to rest. But if hormonal fluctuations, like hot flushes, start to warm you up earlier, the brain interprets this as a cue to wake up. To give yourself a better chance of sleeping through the night, keep your room cooler — around 16 to 19°C. Choose lightweight natural fabrics for nightwear and bedding to regulate temperature so you don’t overheat.

2. Ditch the nightcaps

While it may feel like you need a drink to unwind, alcohol disrupts the second half of your sleep cycle. As alcohol breaks down in the liver, it creates a chemical with a stimulant effect, so you spend less time in deep sleep and are more likely to wake in the second half of the night. As it breaks down, it also raises skin temperature, which is another reason you may wake up. Professor Foster says: ‘Alcohol reduces REM sleep during the first part of the night, alters slow-wave sleep, decreases sleep quality. That results in a shorter sleep duration and produces more fragmented sleep.”

3. Shrink your problems back down to size

Clinical psychotherapist Dipti Tait of diptitait.com points out that your brain is not designed to problem-solve in the early hours. “When we wake in the small hours, the rational part of the brain is offline,” she explains. “The prefrontal cortex, which helps us weigh things sensibly, is quiet. Meanwhile, the amygdala, the brain’s alarm system, is far more active.

“In the dark and silence of night, it can become overprotective. Without logic, worries swell and distort. A small concern about tomorrow can turn into ‘I’m going to lose my job.’ A minor health niggle can feel catastrophic. It’s not that problems are bigger at 3am – it’s that our perspective is smaller.”

One powerful way to shrink worries back down to size is to remind yourself that your brain is simply doing what brains evolved to do – protect you, says Dipti. To calm anxious night-time thoughts, she advises giving your body reassurance that you are safe. “Place a hand on your heart or belly and say quietly, ‘Thank you, amygdala, for trying to keep me safe, but I don’t need to solve this right now.’ Then move from overthinking to feeling in control. The nervous system responds to the body more than to logic at night. When we feel in control, we feel calm, and vice versa.”

4. Slow your heart rate

To sleep, your heart rate needs to drop 20 to 30% from its daytime rate. To drop off again, it helps to take steps to slow it down. Psychotherapist Dipti Tait suggests this breathing exercise so you can fall back to sleep: “Inhale gently for four, exhale slowly for six, making the out-breath longer,” she advises. “This stimulates the vagus nerve — the body’s main nervous system superhighway — and signals safety to the body.”

5. Next relax your muscles from head to toe.

“Tense them for five seconds, then release them, silently repeating the word ‘soften’,” adds Dipti. But don’t try to force it, as that can make it worse. Instead see it as gently guiding the nervous system back into regulation. When the body feels safe, the mind usually follows.”

6. Go with the flow

Don’t tell yourself off if you’re having a bad night’s sleep, says Professor Foster. Ironically, it’s precisely this worry about how you will feel the next day that is likely to keep you awake. Instead, he says it helps to accept that some nights you will sleep better than others, and you can always catch up. Avoid sleep trackers too, which he advises can make you more anxious about your sleep.

7. Avoid checking your phone

To reduce your stress levels when you wake up, avoid checking the time on your phone, as the light it gives off will stimulate your brain even more, advises Professor Foster. If you have a digital alarm clock, consider turning its face to the wall so you don’t panic if you wake up.

8. Make the most of the early hours

If you are still awake after 15 minutes, instead of getting frustrated with yourself, Professor Foster advises getting up to do something non-stressful rather than lying there tossing and turning. Wait until you feel tired again.

9. Avoid tricky topics last thing at night

We often leave important conversations with our partners until the last thing at night. But try to deal with them earlier in the day if you want to sleep through, says Professor Foster. Otherwise raised levels of the stress chemicals cortisol and adrenaline may make it harder to stay asleep. Before bedtime, he advises avoiding stressful topics such as personal finances or current events – and choosing more relaxing topics. Instead, you could ask your partner about the best thing that happened to them during the day.”