I am not superstitious, but…
Quote from Wiki “In folklore, the witching hour or devil’s hour is a time of night that is associated with supernatural events, whereby witches, demons and ghosts are thought to appear and be at their most powerful. Definitions vary, and include the hour immediately after midnight and the time between 3:00 am and 4:00 am. The term now has a widespread colloquial and idiomatic usage that is associated with human physiology and behaviour to more superstitious phenomena, such as luck.”
Every night like clockwork I wake between 3 and 4am. EVERY PIGGIN’ night! I don’t know why I wake from a deep sleep but I just do. And I’m WIDE awake! Sometimes I fall straight back to sleep but on other occassions I’m left counting sheep for hours.
Anyone else regulary wake betweem 3 and 4am?
If so how do you persuade your mind to settle so your body can sleep?
Piglet in Portugal 
I solved my sleep problems and waking up in the middle of the night by doing the following:
– Going to bed at a consistent time and getting up at a consistent time, even if I hadn’t had a good night. By doing this, my body will get used to a sleep “routine.”
– I never slept outside of these hours.
– When I woke up in the middle of the night, I didn’t stay awake for hours. If I was still awake 15 or 20 minutes later, I would get up and do simple things. No screens. What worked best was reading a boring, difficult book that I didn’t enjoy. Sleep would quickly come, I would go to bed and then fall asleep.
It worked beautifully!
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Thank you for the advice, dulced. I will give it a try. I think I will cut out the siesta and reading a boring book when I can’t get back off to sleep is a great idea LoL Love it. Thank you!
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Ugh… I know all about this! I used to wake up every night between 2 and 3am. When I finally talked to my doctor about it, he mentioned that it could be blood sugar related and suggested I have a small snack before bed, like a handful of nuts or something similar. I saw immediate relief! It’s worth trying 🙂 Now I just wake up because I have to pee. Aging is a whole other thing.
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Hi MElissa, interesting re blood sugar related and your body needing a small snack before bed. I am going to try a handful of nuts. Good idea. It’s worth a try ..
And yes, aging is a whole new thing,
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Sometimes I get stuck in a pattern of being awake for an hour or so at night, and it’s terribly annoying. It usually lasts a week or so then stops. I hope your streak ends soon!
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Hi Tracy, it is curious how our body gets stuck in a pattern. And yes, it is annoying. I am trying sleep mediatation to break the cycle. Have you tried it?
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My sleep isn’t anything to judge by as it’s wacky from shift work. I go to bed around 11:00/11:30 & get up around 7:30/8:00. I only pee if I wake up, I never wake up to pee. My work life gave me a great bladder control. I take magnesium with melatonin in hopes of keeping the leg cramps at bay.
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Bernie, your bedtime/wak routine is similar to mine. Sounds like your bladder is less demanding than mine 🙂 I don’t get leg cramps (thank goodness) but I do suffer from restless legs syndrome.
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It is very common and it’s a circadian rhythm. I looked up and found this additional info why: your core body temperature drops and melatonin levels decrease while cortisol (a stress hormone) begins to rise, potentially triggering wakefulness.
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thanks, Lana. That makes more sense than the folklore. Do you wake at the same time every night like Terry or mor like Laurie as and when you need the bathroom?
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I am up once a night more times than not. I never look at time but must be middle of night. I watched this sleep expert a while back and she said it is not that we wake because we need the toilet, we just wake up and then go because we have woken up and feel the need. Annoying, as pre meno I would sleep straight through always!
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Yep, that makes sense.
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Once a night, I get up to use the bathroom. The time varies, and usually I am able to get back to sleep.
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Hi Laurie so it is your bladder that dictactes your wake time rather than a particular rhythm every night.
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Yes, my bladder.
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Haha…we should rename it the bladder hour 🙂
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🙂
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That’s definitely my waking time almost every single night, Carole – often for a bathroom visit. Like you, sometimes I get right back to sleep, but often, that’s not in the cards for me, and I’ve come to a point where I recognize the symptoms and just get up for the day. I’ve come to love that time of day because I can do all of my daily “techy stuff” : advance blog posts, Spanish lessons, reading in my e-reader, photography and photo editing lessons – anything that requires a screen gets done and out of the way at that time. After three or more hours of those things, I’m ready to get at the physical part of my day. By 7-8pm, I’m ready for bed.
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How strange, Terry. I never realised until Lana said above it’s the circadian rhythm. I found an interesting info here
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/circadian-rhythm
My rhythm I go to bed between 11pm and midnight. I always wake betwee 3am and 4am. Always get up at 7.30ish and have and afternoon nap about 14.00ish . These are my sleep wake times.
I don’t think I could get up at 3am ish…although I’ve never tried it. Don’t you feel sleepy when working on something like Spanish. Does your brain take in the new skill?
In the winter I do try and cut out the midday nap so I can maximise the daylight hours and go to bed earlier.
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I don’t feel sleepy because with such an early bed time, I’ve usually had around 7 hours of sleep by 3 am. Thanks for the link to the sleep foundation, Carole.
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Yes, of course. Your rehycthm is different and you are getting a good night’s sleep.
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