Why You Keep Waking Up in the Middle of the Night

“Waking up once or twice in the middle of the night is nothing to worry about,” says Dr. Chester Wu, a double board-certified doctor in psychiatry and sleep medicine. 

“But if it’s happening so much you can’t get the sleep you need, it can be 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. 

Why You Might Be Waking Up in the Middle of the Night 

Here’s why you might wake up every night at 3 A.M., 4 A.M., or several points throughout the night. 

1. Something in Your Sleep Environment 

Something in your bedroom could be waking you up in the middle of the night, such as: 

• A noise — like a snoring partner or traffic 
• A light — like light from electronic devices or morning light coming through the blinds
• Your bedroom getting too warm 
• An uncomfortable mattress, pillow, or sleeping position 

Depending on the disruption, you may struggle to fall asleep again. 

2. Bad Sleep Habits 

Sleep hygiene is the name for the habits that can influence your sleep. If you have poor sleep hygiene, you may wake up more often during the night — and you may struggle to fall asleep in the first place and fall back asleep once you’re awake!

Poor sleep hygiene includes: 

• Drinking alcohol or caffeine, eating a large meal, or doing intense exercise too close to bedtime 
• Having an irregular sleep schedule 
• Not getting enough natural light exposure in the morning and daytime 
• Getting too much light exposure close to bedtime 
• Smoking 

3. Stress and Anxiety 

Stress and anxiety can wake you up in the night and make it hard to fall back to sleep. 

In fact, RISE users say stress and anxiety are their biggest barriers to getting a good night’s sleep. 

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. 

4. Hormones and Menopause 

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: 

• On or before your period 
• Pregnant 
• Going through menopause and perimenopause 

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.

5. Needing the Bathroom 

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: 

• You drank a lot of fluids during the day 
• You drank too close to bedtime 
• You’ve consumed diuretics, like caffeine, alcohol, or salty foods 
• You’ve got a health condition like diabetes, heart disease, a urinary tract infection, or an overactive bladder 

We’ve covered more reasons you pee so much at night here. 

6. Sleep Disorders 

Sleep disorders can cause you to wake up in the night, including: 

• Insomnia
• Sleep apnea 
• Periodic limb movement disorder
• Narcolepsy
• Parasomnias, like night terrors, sleepwalking, and sleeptalking  

Heads-up: There are a few different types of insomnia, including: 

• Sleep onset insomnia — when you have trouble falling asleep. 
• Sleep maintenance insomnia (or middle insomnia) — when you struggle to stay asleep.
• Early morning awakening insomnia — when you wake up too early.
• Mixed insomnia — when you’ve got a combination of the above. 

7. Health Conditions and Medications 

Some health issues can cause you to wake up in the night, including: 

• Mental health issues like depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or bipolar disorder 
• Digestive issues like acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), or stomach pain
• Breathing issues like asthma, snoring, allergies, or even mouth breathing
• Pain or discomfort from injuries or health issues like arthritis, heart failure, or cancer 

Certain medications can also mess with your sleep and wake you up, including:

• Antidepressants
• Beta-blockers 
• ADHD drugs 
• Decongestants 
• Diuretics 

8. Aging 

As we age, many factors that can cause nighttime awakenings get worse. These include: 

• You may have more health issues  
• You may be on more medication 
• Pain can be worse  
• Age is a risk factor for snoring, sleep apnea, and insomnia 
• Your circadian rhythm (or body clock) shifts earlier, so you may find yourself waking up earlier
• Your circadian rhythm “flattens,” so sleep-wake signals become weaker, causing more awakenings 

9. Natural Body Rhythms 

Natural changes in your sleep could be waking you up in the night. 

You may wake up briefly at the end of every sleep cycle when you’ve moved through light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. You may not remember all of these awakenings.

You may also wake up more often — or seemingly every hour — in the second half of the night as you spend more time in REM sleep. REM is easier to get woken up from than deep sleep (which happens mostly in the first half of the night). 

Your body has less adenosine in its system in the second half of the night — this is a chemical that makes you feel sleepy, which is cleared while you’re sleeping.

If you find yourself waking up at 3 A.M. every night — or 2 A.M. or 4 A.M. — this may be the point you switch over to spending more time in lighter sleep stages. 

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How to Stop Waking Up in the Middle of the Night? 

Want to make it through the night without waking up? A few lifestyle changes may help. 

Try improving your sleep hygiene, which should help you fall asleep faster and wake up less often. Plus, with good sleep hygiene, you’ll be less vulnerable to sleep disruptors you can’t control, like a noisy neighbor or health issue. 

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Here are the good sleep habits to develop: 

• Get bright light first thing: Sunlight signals to the brain that it's time to wake up, which helps keep your sleep cycle in check. Aim for at least 10 minutes of light as soon as possible after waking up or 15 to 20 minutes if it's overcast or you’re getting light through a window. 
• Avoid light close to bedtime: About 90 minutes before bed, dim the lights and put on blue-light blocking glasses (we recommend these glasses).
• Avoid caffeine, large meals, intense exercise, and alcohol too late in the day: You don’t have to give them up altogether — check RISE for when to avoid each one daily. 
• Do a calming bedtime routine: This helps reduce stress and anxiety. Try reading, listening to music, journaling, or doing yoga or breathing exercises before bed. RISE can guide you through relaxation techniques, too. 
• Keep your bedroom dark, cool, and quiet: Aim for 65 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit, as dark as possible, and keep noises below 35 decibels, which is about the sound of a whisper. To help, use blackout curtains, an eye mask, earplugs, and RISE’s soothing sleep sounds.
• Avoid sleep aids: As tempting as it can be to turn to sleeping pills to sleep through the night, they come with many risks and side effects, and they can make insomnia worse when you stop taking them. 
• Keep a consistent sleep schedule: Find the best time to go to sleep and wake up for you, and then try to stick to it, even on your days off. 

To help you remember all this, RISE can guide you through 20+ sleep hygiene habits each day and tell you the ideal time to do them.

Users notice the difference: 

“Just becoming more aware of when’s the best time to drink caffeine, eat dinner, and get sunlight according to my circadian rhythm has helped my sleep quality tremendously.” Read the review.

And it doesn’t take long — 80% of RISE users get better sleep in five days. 

Expert tip: Don’t just stay awake in bed if you can’t sleep. If you can’t sleep after about 20 minutes, get up and do a sleep reset. This involves doing something relaxing in low lighting until you feel sleepy again. Only get back into bed when you feel sleepy.

We’ve covered more tips on how to fall back asleep here.

When to Speak to a Doctor About Waking Up in the Middle of the Night? 

Waking up in the middle of the night once or twice is normal and nothing to worry about, especially if you can fall back asleep easily. But if it’s happening often, it can stop you from getting enough sleep. 

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 you stay asleep. 

Expert tip: Check RISE to see how much sleep debt you have. This is the amount of sleep you need to catch up on. If waking up in the middle of the night is causing your sleep debt to creep up, it might be worth speaking to a doctor to find out why you can’t sleep. 

RISE works out your sleep debt by comparing how much sleep you get to how much sleep you need. We all need a different amount of sleep. 

For example, among 1.95 million RISE users aged 24 and up, we found users need five hours to 11 hours 30 minutes of sleep.