Why Do I Keep Waking Up at Night?

Insomnia isn’t just lying in bed at night, tossing and turning as you struggle to fall or stay asleep. Insomnia is the inability to sleep well, fully, and without interruption throughout the night. One of the most common forms of insomnia is waking up before you’re ready and having trouble falling asleep again.

Sleep-maintenance insomnia — waking up too early, aroused by racing thoughts — is more common in women than men. So is struggling to fall asleep, known as sleep-onset insomnia. However, men are affected by sleep-maintenance insomnia, too, especially as they age and need to urinate more frequently at night.

At Advanced Medical Care in Queens and Brooklyn, New York, neurologist and sleep medicine specialist Maria Dolgovina, MD, helps you find the source of your sleep disturbance through a variety of diagnostic tests and then designs a customized treatment plan.

Do you wake up at night and find it hard to fall back asleep? Following are a few factors that could be at the root of your sleep-maintenance insomnia.

You have bad sleep habits

The first thing you should consider when you’re struggling to stay asleep is your sleep hygiene. If you don’t have a steady routine and create an atmosphere conducive to sleep, your body may not get the signals it needs to wind down and go into repair mode. Make sure you:

• Go to bed and get up the same time, seven days a week
• Finish your last meal several hours before bedtime
• Don’t drink alcohol near bedtime
• Don’t consume caffeine after 2 pm
• Keep your bedroom dark and cool
• Avoid watching your clock
• Go outside in the sun in the morning

If you do wake up and can’t fall asleep within about 20 minutes — by your estimation, not clock watching — get up and go to another room, because even reading in bed signals your body that you don’t have to sleep when you’re in bed. 

Sit in a comfortable chair or sofa in low light or red lights to read, knit, or do another relaxing activity. Avoid work and devices; the blue light from screens can wake you up. Once you’re tired, return to bed.

You’re getting older

You might need less sleep after you pass middle age than you did as a youngster, so you may need to go to sleep later in the night so you don’t wake up too early. Try to compress your sleep by limiting your in-bed time. Eventually your body learns to stay asleep during that window.

Downward shifts in hormones can also disturb sleep. Talk to your doctor about hormone therapy.

You’re too stressed

If you go to bed carrying the weight of your world on your shoulders, your brain may not feel relaxed enough to wind down. Try journaling before you go to sleep. 

Write down everything you’re worried about and worst-case scenarios. Then propose a solution or two. You can also end your session by writing down a few things that you’re grateful for. Gratitude sends signals of relaxation throughout your body. 

You have an underlying medical condition

Men with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), or an enlarged prostate, frequently have trouble sleeping through the night, and you may need to schedule an appointment with a urologist. Lifestyle changes, medications, and procedures can help reduce the size of an enlarged prostate and the pressure it puts on your bladder so you can stay asleep.

A common source of unrestful, interrupted sleep is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). If you have OSA, you stop breathing hundreds of times a night due to blocked airways, and this can jolt you awake when you gasp for breath, grind your teeth, or snore.

During your sleep evaluation at Advanced Medical Care, we also test you for OSA. If this condition is at least partially responsible for your interrupted sleep, we may recommend using a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine to keep your blood-oxygen levels high and protect your brain and other organs from oxygen deprivation. 

Would you like to sleep through the night again? Our sleep medicine specialist can help. Simply call us or book an appointment online.