Sleep experts say that waking up minutes or even hours before your alarm is not new. However, it can cause terrible inconvenience. The additional stressors of the ongoing pandemic have exacerbated our collective struggle to sleep.
More than a third of Americans sleep fewer hours at night than the recommended minimum, which is seven hours, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Studies worldwide show that between 10% and 30% of the population suffers from insomnia, which is defined as the persistent difficulty of falling asleep and the inability to fall back asleep after going to bed.
One study found that insomniacs can experience a combination of "nocturnal awakening" and what's categorized as "early morning awakening." It was also found that some people may experience early awakening without other insomnia symptoms, such as difficulty initiating sleep, nocturnal awakening, and uncomfortable sleep, meaning sleep that is not enough even with the recommended hours.
“It's a bit of a myth that insomnia is only related to falling asleep, and a common complaint is excessive sleepiness and feeling unrefreshed after waking up,” says Rebecca Robbins, a sleep specialist and trainer in the Department of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
While insomnia treatments include cognitive behavioral therapy and medication, other daily tips can have an impact on early morning wakefulness, and severe sleep disturbances can play a role in someone who doesn't suffer from chronic insomnia but wakes up early.
“Sleep is affected by what we experience in our lives, so if you are experiencing distress or trauma or something upsetting happens, these events prevent us from sleeping,” Robbins says.
Constant awakening before the alarm rings is associated with the overwhelming frustration of not being able to get back to sleep, and stress can cause feelings of isolation and exhaustion. It has a higher priority than the primary sleep problem.
“You start to think about it and then you start doing things that make the insomnia worse; don't force yourself to stay in bed until you fall asleep." says Dr. Rajkumar Dasgupta, associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.
What can you do about it?
Here are some tips:
1. Do not look at your clock or phone
If you get up all of a sudden—in the early morning hours—refrain from checking the clock. Finding out that it's 3 a.m. when your alarm is set to 7 a.m. can make you more nervous about the hours of sleep you've been hoping for.
“Anxiety and frustration build up gradually, and it becomes a habit to watch the clock,” says sleep therapist Wendy Troxel. “This habitual response of frustration and anxiety also causes a stress response in the body.”
When stress prevails, cortisol levels increase, and the body becomes alert. This process is counterproductive to maintaining drowsiness, and the brain becomes overly busy.
"You look at the clock; it's exactly 3 a.m., and you can get stressed out and think about all the problems and how terrible it would be when you're sleep deprived." Troxell says, "All this mental processing and emotion are incompatible with the state of sleep. It makes you more alert and irritable rather than sending a signal to the brain that it's okay to sleep."
If your alarm is on the phone, checking the watch can be an even more important motivator. So consider getting an alarm clock separate from the phone.
“Our phone is our strongest signal to our waking life,” Troxell says. “You’re exposed to light from your phone, which can directly stimulate the circadian wakefulness signal. Whether it is browsing social media or reading the news, the content of what we consume on our phones can be highly energizing. All of this can stimulate emotional states that are more energizing than relaxing.”
2. Get out of bed
The irony is that experts recommend getting out of bed even at 3 a.m. "Give up the idea of going back to sleep; when you do and you get rid of the idea that sleep takes effort, you're more likely to go back to sleep," Troxell says.
With the stimulus control technique, you can distract your mind with a regular task to help you recover from sleepiness faster than staying frustrated in bed. "Once you wake up, change the environment, get out of bed, and try to reset your mind and keep the lights dim," says Robbins.
Making the bed a place for sleep only helps people associate positive sleep thoughts with their space. Leaving the room when stressed can separate frustration from the bed. Anything from reading a book to knitting or listening to soothing music—but not using the phone—can distract the brain. As soon as you feel sleepy again, go back to bed.
3. Write down what works and what doesn't
Dasgupta recommends monitoring your bed and wake up times on a particular night, the calming techniques, environmental factors, and even nutrition and exercise routines that seem to help you sleep that day.
Doctors in England now have an alternative prescription for insomnia patients
"Perfect sleep is like a puzzle and you need all the right pieces," Dasgupta says. "People with insomnia miss out on one of the healthy pieces of sleep, and muscle relaxation advice might not be what they're missing. The sound probably isn't the main part; you might need the warmth of your bed."
It also depends on the specific circadian rhythm, or 24-hour solar cycle, that the body operates in and that alerts us when nighttime sleepiness begins. Dasgupta stresses that if any environmental factors, such as travel, work schedule, or lighting, change, the body's circadian rhythm can be disrupted, which indicates an uncomfortable early awakening before an alarm, in which case changing the lighting in a particular room or getting alternate lighting can help.
Gradual muscle relaxation may work. Start at the toes and tense the muscles for three seconds, then release and breathe in the process. Dasgupta says that the 4-7-8 breathing exercise combined with muscle relaxation can be successful. So take an inhale for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds.
4. Act calmly
Others may find that yoga, meditation, or reading can help when they wake up before the alarm, and the key here again is to get out of bed.
In conclusion
The same techniques don't work for everyone, but practicing different strategies that may affect sleep is critical and ultimately builds a good routine.
"Take it easy," Robbins says. "That's why we consciously use the word bedtime ritual because they're perfect strategies to include in your routine; they're your toolkit."
If the problem persists more than three times a week for three months, Robbins recommends talking to a sleep specialist, and it may require more than a simple habit change.
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