7 Ways to stop waking up during the night

35.5% of people wake up in the middle of the night at least three times a week.

It's not uncommon. However, is it OK?

Most of us wake up briefly during the night—no big deal—if we can fall back asleep.

But when you can’t, it starts messing with your performance, focus, and energy. That’s when it becomes a problem.

Let’s be totally honest. Sleep isn’t sexy or a very popular topic.

So here’s the deal: this article isn't about sleep. It’s about improving your life. No longer being tired in front of your kid. Not skipping gym sessions or needing a coffee to get through the day. 

These are the 7 key factors you need to know if you want to reduce waking up in the middle of the night. 

If you would rather see video content or listen to this, you can watch it here on YouTube.

1. The 4 Horsemen of the sleep apocalypse

Alcohol, Caffeine, Nicotine, and Sugar

If there's anything I've learned in life, it's that people don't like being told what to do. So I’m just here to share some of the evidence and what worked for me. 

This 2014 study showed that alcohol 'leads to decreased sleep-onset latency and changes in sleep architecture early in the night.

Here are some other studies you can check out.

General conclusion?

Alcohol wrecks sleep. You are nearly guaranteed to get poorer quality sleep when you consume alcohol. 

Personally, for me, I stopped drinking nearly 2 years ago. I was never a heavy drinker, but I’d still have a few beers 1 day a week. It sounds innocent, but I was always tired the next day and what happens is that it impacted me for the day after that and the day after that. 1 day a week is 14.29% of your life by the way.

The main benefit I found, was fewer wake-ups and best of all. I honestly can’t remember the last time I woke up feeling like shit. It just doesn’t happen. 

Caffeine

Caffeine sticks around in your system longer than you think. The half-life of coffee can be from 2-12 hours, depending on your metabolism.

This very recent study from October 2024 shows that even 12 hours after consumption, you can still have significant amounts in your system.

This showed the coffee reduced total sleep time in participants by 45 minutes, which is quite a lot! 

I mentioned earlier the range is 2-12 hours this is because there is a big genetic component to caffeine. If you have poor genetics for it, it can be hurting you badly!

Even if you have the best coffee genetics ever, coffee drunk at 6pm can still very much be in your system. 

Ps, remember it's not just coffee. It’s sodas, pre-workout, chocolate and even medications. A lot of things contain caffeine that you might not realize. 

My story is, I’m caffeine sensitive and I know that because I have had a DNA test. I always wondered why strong coffees messed me up so much, now I know why. So I’m really careful these days, I will never drink caffeine after 1200. I totally respect it can be hard if you are knackered and stuck in a caffeine dependence loop.

Nicotine

I’ll be honest, I’ve never really been into smoking. This study is quite damning in its verdict.

Nicotine can impact sleep, so be aware. 

Sugar I will cover partly below, but in short, please avoid heavy amounts of sugar, especially in the evening!

2. Blood Sugar and Insulin

Ultimately our body is still very active when we sleep and it needs energy. So if we have an imbalance here or the body is stressed with digestion, it can be a common reason for wake-ups. 

High blood sugar for example can mean you need to pee more. 

Insulin impacts our sympathetic nervous system, this also impacting needing to pee but also your stress levels. 

There are a number of studies linking sleep to diabetes by the way!

Now one thing that can happen.

Your blood sugar levels are dropping to the point during the night where you are hungry and it’s waking you up.

The conventional advice here is to have food before sleep, such as honey or milk, to avoid this drop during the night. If that works for you great. 

But let's use logic for a moment, many people do fasting and they don’t wake up in the middle of the night all the time. 

Many wake up because their bodies are used to being fed carbs and sugars regularly, even at night.

So if you find you eat a lot of carbs and you are waking up in the night. Better longer term advice is to slowly reduce your carb intake. Start having more protein and fat in your diet. Over time your body will adapt and your insulin levels should calm down. 

This advice may not just improve your sleep; it could also help prevent diabetes.

Actionable steps.

Reduce carb intake.

Experiment with eating less late in the night before bed.

3. Sleep Apnea

For the record, I have mild sleep apnea, and I’ve been working over the last three years to reduce the symptoms as much as possible.

In this study it is estimated that 936 million people have sleep apnea.

That is about 12% of the population. Some estimates go as high as 20%. Long story short, a lot of people reading this will have sleep apnea and not even realize it. 

Apnea means a lack of breath. So sleep apnea in really basic terms is where you stop breathing during the night. 

It’s highly related to snoring and it has different levels of severity. 

Imagine this, you are struggling to breathe during the night. Sometimes several times per hour.

What do you think will happen? 

Even if it doesn’t wake you up, it will damage the quality of your sleep.

If you are often snoring, you have dreams of drowning, or choking, maybe your partner tells you you are struggling or snoring. You often wake up feeling like shit.

Go see your doctor and I mean this in a serious way. If you have even a light form of sleep apnea and decide to do nothing about it, you are potentially losing decades of your life. Don’t do it for me, do it for you! 

It is a super common reason why people wake up and even impacts the need to pee. 

4. Your Bedroom Environment

Your bedroom setup matters more than you think. Light, temperature, noise—it all affects your ability to stay asleep.

• Blackout curtains can make a huge difference. Even small amounts of light can tell your brain to wake up. So make sure you have no random lights on. 
• Keep the room cool—around 18°C (65°F) 
• Finally, reduce noise. Whether it’s a fan for white noise or earplugs, blocking out distractions can keep your sleep uninterrupted.

5. Stress Management

We are living in a stress epidemic. Never in human history have our brains been so over-engaged. Life isn’t as simple as it used to be.

It’s not all bad, but if your brain is constantly in fight, flight, or freeze mode, then it will impact sleep.

Stress impacts cortisol levels and it can also make your dreams more severe. It can also impact your breathing, sleep apnea, and nearly everything. 

Therefore it is a major cause of wake-ups.

Now the question is what can you do about it. Here are a few alternative tips.

Have goals.

Take some time to work on your goals. Many people are pulling themselves in 10 different directions because they don’t know what they want in their life. Sitting down, and taking some real time to think about what you want can be a huge game changer. Once you know what you want, you’ll stop trying to do 10 things at once, because you’ll just be focused on what matters. 

Easier said than done, but you can’t go wrong with goal setting. 

Journaling

Now I know a lot of people hate journaling but hear me out. 

If you want to get good at maths, what do you do? You write it out and do homework.

Languages, same thing. 

End of the day our ability to remember and process information isn’t that great. But when we use different learning methods like typing and writing, we are much more likely to remember.

Think of journaling as a way of dealing with your life. By writing stuff down, you remember more, you don't have it swimming in the back of your head. Many of the most famous and successful people in history were avid writers. It’s not a coincidence. 

Bedtime routine

A lot of people overcomplicate this, so I’m sharing mine. 

• An hour before bed, I reduce the lights.
• 30 minutes before, no more phone, I put it on a charger away from my bed.
• In bed, I do 5-15 mins of journaling and reading. 

That is it. 

6. Circadian Rhythm

Your body runs on a 24-hour internal clock called the suprachiasmatic nucleus and ignoring it is a recipe for disaster. If you’re not synced up with your circadian rhythm, your body simply can get confused and out of sync

• Get sunlight early in the day. Every day I get into clothes as soon as I can, I might drink a glass of water quickly and then go out to a little park for 5 minutes. Nothing complex. The key is to get some natural sunlight so it helps to get my body working in a natural way
• When I’m back I’ll drink more water as this helps again. Then a cup of tea or coffee if I feel like it., 
• I do my best to go to bed at the same time most days. I’m not a monk, you see all my daily sleep scores on Instagram, but I do my best. The smaller the gap the better your rhythm will get. 

7. Water intake. 

This is honestly what most people believe is waking them up, but, it rarely is the main reason. That said, there are a few quick wins I can share.

1. Try to drink more water in the morning and drink less at night.
2. You can try keggle exercises to strengthen your groin muscles.
3. Look at adding magnesium and other key minerals to your diet or supplement list, it can often help. 
4. Obvious but needs to be said, to always go to the toilet before sleep. 

All that said, even though you are waking up to pee, this is rarely the reason why. 

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PS, I write these and do all the research myself. No AI is involved other than for the odd picture generation.