3AM Wake-Ups… What’s Actually Going On?

This subscriber episode is a real-time look at something I’m currently going through—waking up in the middle of the night, wide awake, and trying to figure out why.

If you’ve been waking up at 2, 3, or 4AM lately… you’re not alone.

In this episode, I talk through what this has been feeling like for me and what I’ve been exploring behind it, including:

•  cortisol patterns and how stress hormones may be affecting sleep 
•  blood sugar dips during the night 
•  hormonal changes in midlife (including temperature shifts and night sweats) 

I also share what I’m personally trying right now—from nutrition adjustments to small changes in my nighttime routine—and what seems to be helping (and what’s not).

This isn’t a “perfect plan”—it’s a real-life look at figuring this out as I go.

If this has been happening to you too, this episode will feel very familiar.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to another subscriber only episode where I'm going to go a little deeper, talk honestly about what I'm personally going through. And right now I am in a phase of waking up at like two, three, sometimes four in the morning. And I'm talking wide awake, ready for the day. And I know that I'm not the only one because I feel like every woman I talk to lately has been saying the same thing. So what is it? Why are we waking up the wee hours of the morning? For me, it's not even about feeling anxious per se. I mean, yes, sometimes I wake up and my thoughts are racing. But sometimes I just wake up. Sometimes I feel a little bit warm. It's not full night sweats yet. I'm not there, but it's just enough where I'm noticing it. And then of course, you look at the clock and you know that it's 3.07 and I have to get up in three more hours. And this is not great. So I've been trying to figure out what is this? Is it stress? Is it cortisol? Is it blood sugar? Is it my hormones? Am I going into full-blown perimenopause? It's not just the night sweats and sweating. It just seems like something more. And as I try to narrow it down, I don't think it's just one thing. From everything I've been reading, and also from conversations that I've had on many episodes of the podcast, a few things could be happening here. Could be cortisol. Cortisol is a stretch stress hormone and it naturally starts to rise in the early morning hours. So if your body is a little dysregulated, if you have teenagers or drive in traffic or live your life, you probably get a little dysregulated. And that rise can actually wake you up. Blood sugar also apparently plays a role. It drops in the middle of the night, and your body can release stress hormones to try to bring it back up, which is what is waking you up. And then, of course, there's hormones in midlife. Changes in our estrogen and progesterone can affect our sleep quality, our body temperature, and the ability to stay asleep, which is where like this warm feeling or night sweats can come from. So honestly, I don't have it all figured out yet, but here's the things that I've been trying. I've been trying to pay attention to eating more during the day, especially protein. No longer can I skip a meal and feel okay about it. I'm trying to continuously regulate my blood sugar throughout the day. So cannot under eat because I know that that's going to cause me to have lower blood sugar and maybe wake me up. I'm also trying to make sure that I'm not eating late at night because going to bed on a full stomach sometimes can dysregulate you as well. I am trying to pay attention to things like alcohol and sugar because I know that those affect sleep a lot. And environment-wise, I'm sorry, but I have turned on a fan. I said I'm sorry to my husband, that is. I've been turning on fans and I've been dropping the AC. And I'm just trying to have a cooler night's sleep. I would say probably the biggest thing that I've been trying to do lately is not spiral when it happens. My new favorite addiction, well, I've had this addiction for some time, has been reading and specifically romanticity. And if you don't know what romanticy is, it is a mixture of like romance and fantasy novels. If you have ever heard of A Court Thorn and Rose, I didn't read that one, the Avatar one. I read other series, but I'm addicted to them. And if I wake up at three, it's just a little bit more time to read. So I've been trying to make the most of it. Because when you wake up and you look at the clock and you do the math, all the sleep you are losing, that to me just makes me feel more anxious and I can't get to sleep. So I've been trying to stay calm, read a great book, not check my phone, because that spikes my cortisol, and just allowing for myself to naturally go back to sleep. Some nights it works, some nights it doesn't. So I don't have the perfect answer, but I did want to share this because I know I'm not the only one. I have been waking up in the middle of the night, and if you have two, same. Pay attention to your eating, pay attention to the room temperature, and pay attention to what stresses you out and how can you calm yourself. Those are the tips that I've been trying for these 3 a.m. wake up calls. Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to my little story and being a subscriber here to the podcast. It means so much to me. So thank you so much for being here. Until next time, this is Wellness After 40.