Fortunately, there are plenty of expert-backed ways to sleep through the entire night without waking up. Wake-ups generally take place during light sleep, or the second of the four phases of sleep when the body’s core temperature starts to rise, explains sleep expert Michael J. Breus, Ph.D. Unlike in deeper sleep stages like REM sleep, the brain can easily be awakened during light sleep. But what causes these middle-of-the-night awakenings? “Sometimes simply going through a stressful time can cause people to wake in the middle of the night,” says Teitelbaum. He adds that another common reason people wake up in the middle of the night is their body is experiencing an adrenaline rush triggered by something like low blood sugar or a hormonal flux. (Learn more about middle sleep here.) In order to put a stop to your late-night stirring, the first step is to identify why it’s happening in the first place. If there’s an obvious answer—i.e. you’re feeling stressed or you’re dealing with a stuffy nose—great. If not, something is, most likely, going on either subconsciously or physiologically, so you’ll have to dig a little deeper to get to the root of the issue. If you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night consistently for more than two months, it’s important to talk to a physician for professional help and guidance. Think about it: If you eat breakfast at 9 a.m. every morning, over time your body will start giving off hunger cues around this time out of habit. The same goes for your sleep schedule. If you get into the habit of going to bed at 10 p.m. every night and waking up at 7 a.m. every morning, your body is likely to get into a rhythm of falling asleep and staying asleep until it’s time to rise and shine. So, rather than a chocolate chip cookie or bowl of ice cream for dessert, Teitelbaum suggests reaching for something like a hard-boiled egg or a handful of almonds to balance blood sugar and make it easier for you to fall and stay asleep. (Or opt for one of these five magnesium-rich bedtime snacks.) Incorporate stress management tools like meditation, breathwork, journaling, or a calming supplement into your nightly routine to set yourself up for uninterrupted slumber.* If racing thoughts still continue to affect your ability to sleep or your quality of life, consider recruiting the help of a physician or specialist. Of course, meditation can be practiced in a myriad of ways, so if sitting pretzel-style on the floor, in silence, isn’t exactly your idea of calm, you might want to give guided practices or even meditative yoga sequences a try. By mimicking daylight, blue light can suppress the production of melatonin (aka your sleep hormone) and therefore make it harder for your body to shut down properly. To limit your exposure, Breus suggests leaving your phone in another room, eliminating the temptation to scroll altogether. “Since medical school, I have slept with earplugs and blackout curtains, and I make sure my room is 68 degrees Fahrenheit or cooler,” she tells mbg. Making sure your bedroom is dark, quiet, and cool, she says, will help your body feel tired and ready for a long night’s sleep. “Use your bed just for sleep—meaning don’t watch TV or work in bed if you have a hard time falling asleep or staying asleep,” she tells mbg. Instead, “Do something which relaxes you, like read a boring book, listen to calming music, or drink caffeine-free tea. When you feel sleepy, go back to bed.” Sleep expert and head of content at Saatva, Christina Heiser previously told mbg that white noise “remains consistent across all hearable frequencies” and “creates a masking effect, blocking out the sudden changes in noise—like snoring or the dog barking or a truck rumbling down the street.” Some machines also have pink, brown, and blue noise options—all of which are slightly different sound frequencies that achieve the same goal: to mask the noises in your environment that are keeping you from staying asleep.
