Tired and Wired: Why You Wake Up at 3 AM and How to Fix It

Tired and Wired: Why You Wake Up at 3 AM and How to Fix It

If your **cortisol is high in the afternoon or high in the evening**, you might feel tired and wired. You'll want to sleep but you can't. Or, you might fall asleep because you're really tired and then you wake up in the middle of the night.

Today we're going to talk about **sleep**, and not just sleep problems in general, but why we may wake up between one and four in the morning and how you can fix that. A lot of times, people have **restless sleep**; they wake up at night but can go back to sleep, and it really affects the quality of your health, your life, and everything else.

**Sleep is critical** to our health, to longevity, to our mental health, and to basically every physiological function we have. It really is important to fix it. So let's talk about what you can do to stay asleep and to **sleep more deeply**.

 The High Cost of Poor Sleep

We know that **poor sleep** makes us less productive and makes us tired, hard to focus. Basically, having **sleep deprivation** is basically equivalent of being drunk in terms of your performance.

I read a study once where there were snipers who were excellent shots. On eight hours sleep they were 100% accurate. If they had seven hours of sleep, they were like 95% accurate. If they had six hours sleep, they were like 70% accurate. And if they had less than six hours sleep, they were basically like 50%—it's almost hit and miss. So not good. Even when you're an expert in something, you can't function when you're tired.

Next to nutrition and exercise, and maybe even before it, **sleep is the fundamental foundation** of health, disease prevention, and even weight control.

The Cortisol Roller Coaster

So why is it so important? How does **sleep dysfunction** lead to changes? Well, it's a very important hormone called **cortisol**, which is your **stress hormone**. When it's in balance, it goes up in the morning to get you energetic and focused to do the things you need to do for the day. And at night, it's supposed to go down, and you're supposed to calm down and relax.

Now, a lot of people have an inversion where their cortisol is low in the morning—they can't get out of bed—and at night they're tired and wired. Sound familiar? I bet you've had some experience with that; I certainly have at different moments in my life. When you get down to bed, you're exhausted but you can't fall asleep because you're just wired.

It has to do with your adrenal glands. They're designed to keep things in balance: to regulate your weight, to moderate your **stress response**, to control blood sugar, regulate inflammation, and regulate **sleep and wake cycles**. So when we're constantly in a state of stress, we're often struggling with sleep because of the way it affects us.

When your **cortisol is high**, you're running from a tiger; you're in danger. You don't want to be sleepy, you want to be alert. And that's the problem.

 The Perfect Storm for a 3 AM Wake-Up

If your **cortisol levels are balanced**—high in the morning and then low at night—and your blood sugar stays even (we'll talk about why that's important, because fluctuations in blood sugar often will cause midnight or middle-of-the-night awakening), you'll sleep. But when your cortisols and your body's **stress response** are imbalanced, and your pineal gland produces something called melatonin that pulses really strong in the afternoon and the evening to get you ready for sleep, your cortisol won't drop off. Then you can't feel calm and go to sleep at night and feel sleepy.

If you're healthy and balanced in your **circadian rhythms** and your cortisol-melatonin cycles, you'll be fine. But if your **cortisol is high in the afternoon or high in the evening**, you might feel tired and wired. You want to sleep but you can't. Or you might fall asleep because you're really tired and then you wake up in the middle of the night, like between one and four. That happens when you go, go, go, go, go—do your email, you're working, working, and busy—and then you go to bed and fall asleep exhausted, but you end up waking up because your body is still in a stress state. There's still high levels of cortisol.

What's Throwing Your Sleep Cycle Off Balance?

So how does **stress affect your sleep-wake cycles**? Well, it works in a lot of different ways. Psychological stress can be a big factor—worries about family, work, money. Physical stresses: lack of exercise is a stress, believe it or not. Too much screen time, junk food, toxic lifestyles, hormonal imbalances, environmental toxins—all these drive increased inflammation, increased brain inflammation, and also increase cortisol.

Because, by the way, did you know that when you eat sugar or starch, your body responds by jerking up the adrenaline and cortisol levels? So literally, **eating sugar is a stressful experience** to your body, even if you're getting pleasure and you don't think it's stressful. If you're meditating while you're eating sugar, you're still going to have a high cortisol and high adrenaline.

So one of the things, the two most common things that are screwing up your **sleep-wake cycles**, are probably **blood sugar imbalances** and spikes and crashes in blood sugar, and **chronic stress**.

 How to Fix Your Sleep: Actionable Steps

So what should you do to optimize nutrition so you can regulate your **stress hormones** through food and lifestyle, and how do you deal with actually regulating sleep throughout the whole night to get **high-quality sleep**?

**1. Live in Rhythm with Your Circadian Clock**
First thing is, our bodies are biological organisms and they run in **circadian rhythms**. I experienced the dangers of not being in rhythm when I worked in the emergency room with shifting schedules. My whole system became disregulated and it led to chronic fatigue syndrome. Our bodies are designed to do better if we go to bed at the same time, wake at the same time, and eat at the same time.

**2. Master Your Eating Habits for Better Sleep**
*   **Don't eat before bed:** This is the worst thing you can do. Don't eat three hours before bed; don't eat a heavy meal before bed.
*   **Time your carbs:** If you want to eat starchy things like sweet potatoes, do it at night. Serotonin levels go up and it helps with sleep. But avoid white flour, sugar, and all processed food.
*   **Don't undereat:** Not eating enough is also stressful. If your body's not getting enough food, it's considered a stress and will increase cortisol, causing you to wake up.

**3. Calm Your Mind**
Get stuff out of your head. Write your thoughts down at night in a journal or on your phone. Write down all your worries and organize your next day to free up your mind so you can let go and go into a deep, **restful sleep**.

**4. Consider Helpful Supplements**
*   **Magnesium:** This is the relaxation mineral. It helps regulate the **stress response** and cortisol, and relaxes your muscles. I recommend 200-400mg of magnesium glycinate before bed.
*   **Glycine:** Also helps with sleep and relaxes the nervous system.
*   **Melatonin:** Can help reset your **circadian rhythms**. Use 0.5 to 3mg at night.
*   **Ashwagandha:** An Ayurvedic herb powerful for resetting cortisol. A product like "Cortisol Manager" can help reduce the stress response at night.

**5. Optimize Your Sleep Hygiene and Environment**
*   **Consistent Schedule:** Try to go to sleep before 10 PM (the best sleep is before midnight) and wake up at the same time every day.
*   **Bedroom Environment:** Make your bedroom sleep-supportive. Use blackout shades or an eye mask, and earplugs if it's noisy.
*   **Limit Caffeine and Alcohol:** Stop caffeine after breakfast, or quit altogether if you struggle. Alcohol definitely screws up sleep and creates poor **sleep quality**—quit it if you want to sleep well.
*   **Get Morning Sunlight:** 20 minutes of sunlight in the morning without sunglasses on, outdoors, has a big effect on your **circadian rhythm**. We are photo-biomodulating organisms; light regulates our biology.

When to Seek Further Help

Often, if you're having crashes, hot flashes at night, and night sweats, that can be low blood sugar. It's important to balance your insulin and blood sugar.

If you're still having **trouble sleeping**, there are many other reasons. It could be inflammation from food sensitivities, thyroid issues, menopausal stuff, toxins, heavy metals, depression, fibromyalgia, or chronic fatigue. Make sure you work with a functional medicine doctor to get to the root cause.

By addressing your **stress response**, balancing your blood sugar, and living in sync with your natural rhythms, you can finally break the cycle of waking up at night and achieve the deep, restorative sleep your body needs to thrive.

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*If you found these tips on managing cortisol and improving sleep quality helpful, please share this article with a friend or family member who might benefit from a better night's rest.*