Waking up once or twice throughout the night is normal. But spending eight hours tossing and turning, and getting restless sleep night after night, can lead to low energy, trouble focusing, and poor health — and that’s not to mention how unenjoyable a night of restless sleep is.
Below, we’ve covered everything you need to know about restless sleep, including the causes, symptoms, and how to fix it. Plus, we’ve shared how the RISE app can help you sleep through the night.
“A night of restless sleep every now and again is nothing to worry about," says Dr. Chester Wu. "If it’s happening regularly, look at your sleep hygiene. That includes avoiding caffeine and alcohol close to bedtime, keeping a consistent sleep schedule, and taking time to wind down before bed.”
Dr. Chester Wu is double board certified in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine, and provides sleep medicine services, medication management, and psychotherapy to adults at his private sleep medicine and psychiatry practice.
There’s no clinical definition for restless sleep, but restless sleep can be when you:
A night of restless sleep every now and again is normal.
It’s also normal to take some time to fall asleep. If you fall asleep instantly it may actually be a sign of sleep deprivation. And it’s normal to wake up once or twice throughout the night, too.
But if you regularly find yourself tossing and turning all night and not getting the sleep you need, this can start affecting your energy levels, productivity, mood, and mental and physical health.
Restless sleep may also be a sign of a sleep issue like insomnia or a medical condition.
There’s no set amount of restless sleep that’s normal. Waking up once or twice during the night or shifting positions is normal, and a night of tossing and turning every now and again isn’t cause for alarm.
But if you find you’re regularly getting restless nights of sleep or struggling to get enough sleep, speak to a healthcare provider or sleep specialist to determine the root cause and best course of action.
You can check RISE to see if restless sleep is making you sleep deprived. RISE can work out how much sleep you should be aiming for each night (known as your sleep need) and whether you’ve got any sleep debt (the amount of sleep you owe your body).
You can check your sleep debt each morning to assess whether restless sleep is causing sleep loss.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can view their sleep debt here.
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There are no set symptoms of restless sleep. But, in general, the symptoms of restless sleep include:
Restless sleep isn’t classified as a sleep disorder, so the symptoms are subjective and they may change for you from night to night.
However, restless sleep disorder (RSD) is a newly described disorder in kids. The symptoms include:
Restless sleep may be caused by sleep disorders and medical conditions, which will have their own set of symptoms.
For example, if restless sleep is caused by sleep apnea, symptoms may include:
Restless sleep can also lead to sleep debt. If you need to wake up at a set time each morning, as many of us do, a night of tossing and turning can cut into your sleep time, causing sleep debt.
The symptoms of short-term sleep debt include:
Long-term sleep debt can lead to:
Heads-up: We all need a different amount of sleep each night. When we looked at how much sleep 1.95 million RISE users aged 24 and up needed, the amount ranged from five hours to 11 hours 30 minutes, with eight hours of sleep being the median.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can view their sleep need here.
Even if you’re getting enough sleep overall, restless sleep can still cause symptoms like low energy and poor mood.
Unbroken sleep is more restorative than broken sleep. And research shows sleep interruptions have a bigger impact on your mood than getting the same shortened amount of sleep without interruptions.
Plus, how you feel about your sleep makes a difference to your energy levels the next day. So if you got enough sleep, but felt like you were tossing and turning a lot to get it, this may be enough to make you feel tired.
Research from 2021 found how people feel about their sleep had a bigger impact on their daytime fatigue than how much sleep they got. And a 2022 study found more light sleep and less time awake at night are linked to better sleep satisfaction. A 2023 study found the more satisfied you are with your sleep, the better your mood and overall life satisfaction will be the next day.
The same goes if you’ve got insomnia — one of the causes of restless sleep. A 2019 study on those with insomnia found there were no links between fatigue levels and polysomnography (PSG) measures, which are objective measures of sleep done via a sleep study. Fatigue was linked to insomnia symptoms, depressive symptoms, and longer habitual sleep duration (which could mean lots of broken sleep).
Another study found more severe fatigue in insomniacs wasn’t necessarily linked to poor PSG-defined sleep. But it was linked to worse health-related quality of life.
Those with insomnia tend to think they slept less than they actually did. So if you feel like you had a night with insomnia symptoms — perhaps restless sleep — this may cause fatigue, even if your sleep was objectively fine.
We’ve covered more on whether it matters what time you sleep here.
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There are many different causes of restless sleep, including drinking caffeine or alcohol too close to bedtime, having a warm bedroom, or being stressed and anxious.
Let’s dive into the common causes in more detail.
Caffeine doesn’t just keep you up. A 2023 meta-analysis found caffeine can:
And caffeine can last in your system for more than 12 hours, meaning a seemingly innocent afternoon coffee can cause sleep disruption.
Alcohol acts as a sedative at first, but this effect wears off after a few hours. This leads to fragmented sleep in the second half of the night.
Alcohol can also trigger night sweats, sleep apnea, and the need to pee more often — all of which can add to a night of tossing and turning.
If you have dinner close to bedtime, digestive issues like acid reflux, bloating, or IBS may cause a troubled night of sleep.
And even if digestion goes smoothly, late-night eating can still cause restlessness.
Research from 2021 found eating or drinking within an hour of bedtime increases the odds of waking up during the night.
Exercise can help you fall and stay asleep, but if you do intense exercise close to bedtime, it may have the opposite effect.
Research shows vigorous exercise within an hour of bedtime can lead to taking longer to fall asleep, getting less sleep overall, and having a lower sleep efficiency (the measure of how long you spend sleeping while in bed, which takes into account falling asleep and waking up in the night).
Light, noise, or a too-warm bedroom can make it harder to fall asleep and could be the reason you’re waking up often during the night and struggling to get back to sleep.
Sleep disturbances could come from a snoring partner, noisy neighbor, or hot summer’s night. But there are also disruptions you might not think of.
For example, research shows sleeping with the lights on can lead to more nighttime awakenings and a 2023 study found owning a dog was linked to higher odds of having trouble sleeping. Having a restless dog in bed will certainly lead to a restless night for you, too.
The light you get, or don’t get, during the day can also mess with your sleep.
One study found evening exposure to short-wavelength light — the light you get from screens — can disrupt sleep continuity.
And research shows those who get later first exposure to more than 10 lux of light each day had more awakenings the next night.
FYI, an overcast day is about 1,000 lux. So getting outside in the morning, even on dark days, can help improve restless nights.
Among RISE users, stress and anxiety are the biggest challenges stopping them from getting a good night’s sleep.
If you’re feeling stressed and anxious, you may struggle to switch off and relax, and racing thoughts may keep you awake either at the start of the night or in the middle of the night once you’ve woken up.
If stress easily affects your sleep and causes insomnia, you may have high sleep reactivity. Research shows once you’ve been exposed to stress and developed insomnia, your sleep reactivity can increase even more and it may not return to pre-insomnia levels.
In short, more stress = more restless nights.
Pain and discomfort may stop you from falling asleep, wake you up, and cause you to frequently change positions to try and get comfortable.
This can be caused by your body — like lower back pain, an injured shoulder, or arthritis — or something in your bed — like a lumpy mattress or too-firm pillow.
Tossing and turning can be a sign of insomnia.
Types of insomnia include:
If you often have restless nights, you may develop conditioned arousal. This is when your brain makes the link between your bed and being awake at night.
And worrying about restless sleep may cause even more restless sleep.
Counterintuitively, the more you try to control sleep (known as sleep effort), the worse your sleep can get. Sleep effort can even cause and perpetuate insomnia.
You may also suffer from orthosomnia, which is when you obsess over sleep data you get from your wearable device or sleep tracker. It’s easy to get so caught up trying to get a perfect night of sleep that you add to your restlessness.
That’s one reason we keep things simple at RISE and only track sleep debt, instead of time spent in deep sleep or REM. Sleep debt is one of the biggest predictors of how you’ll feel and function on a given day. We measure it over 14 nights, too, as one bad night doesn’t make or break your sleep health.
Sleep apnea is another sleep disorder that can cause restless nights. Sleep apnea is when your breathing is cut off during the night and your brain has to wake you up to kickstart it again.
You may be woken up several times an hour and struggle to get back to sleep once you’re awake.
Beyond insomnia and sleep apnea, restless sleep can be caused by sleep disorders such as:
Medical conditions could be waking you up in the night or making it harder to sleep.
These include:
Medications for certain medical conditions can also cause restless sleep. These include:
Hormone changes can cause:
And all of these symptoms can get in the way of restful sleep.
You might experience hormone-related restless nights when:
Your circadian rhythm is your internal body clock. It runs on a roughly 24-hour cycle and helps to control your sleep cycle.
If you’re trying to sleep out of sync with your circadian rhythm — i.e. during the day if you work night shifts or at different times each night — you may struggle to sleep soundly.
You might also be out of sync if you’re suffering from jet lag or battling against your chronotype (like when a night owl tries to sleep early).
RISE predicts the timing of your circadian rhythm and shows you when your body naturally wants to go to sleep and wake up.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can see their circadian rhythm on the Energy screen here.
We’ve covered more reasons you wake up in the middle of the night here.
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Restless sleep can look different at every age, and it can be caused by different things, too.
Here’s what restless sleep looks like by age group:
We looked at how much sleep RISE users got by age group and found 18-to-23-year-olds have more sleep debt on average than any other age group. Those under 30 tend to have more sleep debt than those over 30. And those aged 40 to 49 had the lowest sleep debt on average.
How you stop tossing and turning at night will depend on what’s causing your restless sleep. One of the first things to address should be your sleep hygiene. This is the name for the daily behaviors that can help you fall and stay asleep.
Here’s how to sleep soundly through the night.
Caffeine can last in your system for more than 12 hours. Avoid coffee, tea, energy drinks, and anything else with caffeine about 12 hours before bed. This should give your body enough time to break it all down by bedtime.
We’ve covered more on when to stop drinking coffee here.
RISE can give you a personalized caffeine cutoff time each day based on your circadian rhythm.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can set up their limit caffeine reminder here.
Give your body three to four hours to break down any alcohol in your system before sleep.
RISE can give you an exact time to switch to soft drinks. And we’ve covered more on how long before bed you should stop drinking alcohol here.
Aim to be done with dinner two to three hours before bed. Avoid anything too spicy, rich, or fatty, too.
If hunger pangs keep you up, eat a small snack like Greek yogurt or fruit and peanut butter. Eating a balanced diet overall can also help to improve your sleep.
We’ve covered more on what time to stop eating before bed here. And RISE can give you a personalized time for when to be done with dinner each day.
Prioritize working out during the day — it can help you fall and stay asleep — but be sure to avoid intense workouts within an hour of bed.
If you do want to exercise during this time, opt for gentle physical activity like yoga, and keep the lights as dim as possible.
Planning your workouts for the week? You can learn more about the best time to work out here.
Before crawling into bed, make sure your sleep environment is cool, dark, and quiet.
Set your thermostat to 65 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit, invest in blackout curtains and use an eye mask, and wear earplugs or listen to a white noise machine or sleep sounds in the RISE app.
Experiment with different sleeping positions and pillow positions (or sleeping without a pillow at all).
Don’t be afraid to switch it up during the night to find a new comfortable sleeping position if you feel some discomfort.
Consider a new mattress that suits your sleeping position or get a new one if yours is old. And make sure your nightwear isn’t too tight or restrictive.
Morning light can reset your circadian rhythm and help you fall and stay asleep that evening.
Aim for 10 minutes of light as soon as possible after waking up. Get 15 to 20 minutes of light if it’s overcast or you’re getting light through a window.
If it’s dark outside when you wake up, use a 10,000 lux light therapy lamp instead.
Evening light suppresses the sleep hormone melatonin and pushes back the timing of your circadian rhythm, making it harder to fall asleep at bedtime.
About 90 minutes before bed, turn down the lights and put on blue-light blocking glasses.
Expert tip: If you wake up in the middle of the night, keep the lights off or as low as possible. If you’re regularly up during the night, invest in a red light night light, which can be less disruptive to your melatonin levels.
Wind down before bed to stop stress, anxiety, and racing thoughts from causing a restless night.
Your pre-sleep routine could include:
Check out RISE’s audio guides on diaphragmatic breathing and progressive muscle relaxation to help you drift off.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can go right to their relaxation audio guide homepage and get started here.
Aim to go to bed and wake up at roughly the same times each day. Yes, that means resisting the snooze button on weekends.
Regular sleep patterns can help you keep your circadian rhythm in check and help you stay asleep through the night.
If you need to sleep in, keep this to an hour or so. Catch up on sleep with short afternoon naps instead of long lay-ins at the weekend.
To get started with your sleep schedule, you can find out the best time to sleep and wake up for you here.
Bonus: We found RISE users with regular sleep times have lower sleep debt than those with irregular sleep times. So keeping a consistent schedule can help you get enough sleep, which can boost your energy, mood, and productivity.
If insomnia is behind your tossing and turning, cognitive behavioral therapy could help. CBT-I is often a first-line treatment for insomnia. It helps you rewire how you think about sleep.
You can do CBT-I through face-to-face therapy sessions, online, or through a CBT-I app.
If you’re regularly tossing and turning at night, reach out to your doctor or a sleep specialist. They can test you for sleep disorders, like sleep apnea, or health conditions, like depression, and recommend the best treatment options to help.
RISE can help you stop tossing and turning by:
Laying in bed tossing and turning, here’s what to do in the moment when you can’t fall asleep or when you find yourself awake at 3 a.m:
Try not to panic about a restless night of sleep. This only makes it harder to fall asleep.
Remind yourself that it’s normal to have a bad night of sleep every now and again.
Try doing some breathing exercises to take your mind off it, or doing a brain dump, which is when you write down everything you’re worrying about, if racing thoughts are keeping you awake.
Expert tip: Try writing out your to-do list for tomorrow. Research shows writing about tasks you need to do can help you fall asleep faster than writing about what you’ve already done.
Do your brain dump in RISE and the app can remind you of everything you write down the next day.
Resist the urge to grab your phone, flick on the lights, or check the time.
These activities, just like panicking, will only wake you up further and make it harder to fall back asleep.
If you’ve been tossing and turning for 20 minutes, get out of bed and do a sleep reset.
Do a calming activity with the lights as low as possible until you feel sleepy again.
Think of this time as bonus me-time and choose a relaxing activity to make yourself tired such as:
RISE can guide you through a sleep reset when you can’t sleep.
We’ve covered more on what to do when you can’t sleep here.
A restless night of sleep every now and again is nothing to worry about, and waking up once or twice during the night is normal.
But if you regularly find yourself tossing and turning, and improving your sleep hygiene hasn’t helped, seek medical advice.
There are no tests to determine the cause of restless sleep. But a doctor can check for underlying conditions or sleep disorders that may be to blame and suggest the best lifestyle changes or treatment options to help.
Expert tip: Check your sleep debt and see if this is creeping up night after night. We recommend keeping sleep debt below five hours to feel your best. If restless nights are causing you to rack up sleep debt, talk to an expert to stop the problem from getting worse.
Restless sleep can be caused by many things, ranging from late-night meals and bright light to sleep disorders and stress.
How you can stop tossing and turning also varies, but improving your sleep hygiene is the best place to start as this addresses many of the common causes of restless sleep.
RISE guides you through 20+ good sleep hygiene habits each day to help you get a good night’s rest. The app also tracks your sleep debt, so you know when restless nights are contributing to sleep loss, and predicts your circadian rhythm, so you can sync up and sleep better.
You don’t have to suffer through restless nights — 80% of RISE users get better sleep within five days.
Restless sleep is sleep that’s broken and unrestful. You may struggle to fall asleep, wake up often during the night and struggle to get back to sleep, have trouble getting comfortable, have a racing mind, and feel tired and unrested the next day.
Restless sleep can be caused by caffeine, alcohol, large meals, intense exercise, and bright light close to bedtime; not getting bright light during the day; stress; anxiety; sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnea; and medical conditions like diabetes and depression.
Experiencing some restlessness at night is normal. Whether it's 30 minutes or even an hour of nighttime wakefulness on a semi-regular basis or the odd night of fitful sleep — restless sleep is not usually cause for alarm. If you’re regularly having restless nights, however, or it’s stopping you from getting enough sleep, look for a solution.
Stop tossing and turning at night by avoiding caffeine, alcohol, large meals, bright light, and intense exercise close to bedtime; getting bright light first thing in the morning; keeping a consistent sleep schedule; doing a calming bedtime routine; making sure your bedroom is cool, dark, and quiet; and getting checked for sleep disorders and medical conditions.
Tossing and turning can be a sign of insomnia. But tossing and turning at night can also be caused by caffeine, alcohol, light, a warm bedroom, stress, or another sleep disorder like sleep apnea.
Tossing and turning can be a sign of sleep apnea. But tossing and turning at night can also be caused by caffeine, alcohol, light, a warm bedroom, stress, or another sleep disorder like insomnia.
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