Waking up in the middle of the night isn’t anything unusual because it can happen to anyone. However, experts argue that waking up between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. repeatedly can signal underlying health issues.
Dr. Eric Berg DC, who is very popular on the social media, sharing advice on nutrition and healthy habits, admitted that the pattern of waking up in the middle of the night during this window once almost “wrecked” his own life.
In a recent video he posted on YouTube, Dr. Berg explained that cortisol, the stress hormone, should be lowest between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. However, at those people who wake up at this hour, cortisol in fact spikes, and that not only affects their sleep but also their daily functioning.
According to him, one way of trying to regulate cortisol levels is taking magnesium, since cortisol spikes in the middle of the night could be triggered by deficiency of this mineral.
Of course, he says that if you struggle with waking up in the middle of the night it would be best to consult your GP.
Further, Dr. Berg, who considers himself an “insomnia expert,” shared his personal experience of battling insomnia for a number of years.
“How do you fall back asleep if you wake up between 2 and 3 a.m.? I dealt with this for more than a decade, and it was destroying my life,” he said.
According to him, it wasn’t just a matter of waking up briefly during the night. There were nights when sleep never came at all, and he would lie awake until morning. “It felt like torture,” he said.
Dr. Berg went on to highlight why waking up between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. can be so disruptive, pointing to how the body’s internal clock is supposed to function.
Under normal conditions, cortisol levels are at their lowest around 2 a.m. and gradually rise to peak near 8 a.m. In his situation, that rhythm had flipped, leaving him wide awake at night and drained by morning. He also warned that chronic lack of sleep is associated with serious long-term health risks, including heart disease, dementia, and diabetes.
Despite magnesium deficiency, Dr. Berg explained that other causes that disrupt sleep could be low blood sugar, which also triggers cortisol levels to go up. This is especially true for people who consume a lot of carbs. When blood sugar drops during sleep, the body may increase cortisol to stabilize it.
He recommends keeping track of what you consumed the day before, since things like refined carbs, MSG, alcohol, late meals, and constant snacking can disrupt sleep.
Cortisol levels can also be affected by low sodium, so adding a bit of sea salt during the day might help. Dr. Berg also noted that the liver is most active between 1 and 3 a.m., so waking then could suggest liver strain, with milk thistle sometimes offering support. In that sense, sleep may be sending important signals about what’s going on in the body.
When it comes to people over 60 especially, waking up at this time during the night can signal underlying health issues.
1. A natural drop in melatonin
When people who reach certain age start waking up at 3 a.m., it doesn’t necessarily mean they experience issues with stress or poor sleep habit. On the contrary, one of the main reasons for waking up at this time, is the natural reduction of melatonin, which is the hormone that regulates your sleep-wake cycle.
When you are younger, your melatonin levels remain high throughout the night, which helps you sleep deep. However, as you age, your body produces less melatonin. By the early morning hours, your melatonin levels may be low enough to trigger your brain to wake up, even if you have not slept as long as you wanted or needed.
In short, your body may no longer be receiving the hormonal “stay asleep” call like it used to.
This is often made even worse with light exposure. We also become more sensitive to subtle environmental cues that tell our brain that morning is approaching. This cues include the light reaching to your room from the street lights, the screen of your phone, the lights of the clock, and similar, which further supress melatonin and stimulates your brain into the wake-up mode.
The outcome is that you will be sleeping lighter and shorter, and it’s not because anything is “wrong” with you but simply because your sleep biology has changed over time.
