How to Fall Back Asleep in the Middle of the Night

On this page

1. Why the clock is the first thing to go
2. Should you get out of bed or stay put?
3. What to do while you’re lying there
4. If your mind is racing
5. What not to do at 3 am
6. Why you keep waking up in the first place
7. How long is too long to be awake?
8. Common questions

Waking up in the night is normal. Your sleep runs in cycles of roughly 80 to 100 minutes, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute notes that you may wake up briefly between cycles. Most of those wake-ups are so short you never remember them. The trouble starts when one of them turns into an hour of staring at the ceiling.

These steps are built from the same behavioral rules sleep clinics use for insomnia. Use them in order.

1. Don’t look at the clock. Turn it to face the wall before bed. Knowing it’s 3:12 am starts the math (“if I fall asleep now I’ll get four hours”) and the math keeps you up.
2. Leave your phone where it is. No email, no news, no “just checking.” Screen light and whatever’s on the screen both work against you.
3. Keep the room dark. If you need to get up for the bathroom, use the dimmest light that lets you walk safely.
4. Slow your breathing. Breathe in gently for a count of about five and out for the same count. Keep it up for five minutes.
5. Give your mind a boring job. Relax one muscle group at a time from your feet up, or picture a series of random, unrelated objects. Aim for occupied, not for asleep.
6. If you’re still awake after roughly 20 minutes, get up. Estimate, don’t time it. Go to another room, keep lights low, and do something dull and screen-free: a paper book, folding laundry, a puzzle.
7. Go back to bed when you feel sleepy, meaning heavy eyelids and nodding off, not just tired. If you’re wide awake again after another stretch, repeat step 6.
8. Get up at your normal time. Even after a bad night. Sleeping in shifts tomorrow night’s sleepiness later and makes the next wake-up more likely.

Why the clock is the first thing to go

Checking the time feels harmless. In a pair of experiments, people told to watch a clock while trying to sleep reported more worry and took longer to fall asleep than people who weren’t, and that held for good sleepers as well as poor ones. People with insomnia who watched a clock also overestimated how long they’d been awake.

That last point matters at 3 am. The night almost always feels longer than it is. Without a clock, you lose the number you’d otherwise lie there worrying about.

Should you get out of bed or stay put?

Get up, if you’ve been awake a while and you’re getting frustrated. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s advice is that if you don’t fall asleep after 20 minutes, get out of bed, do a quiet activity without much light, and especially don’t get on electronics.

The reason is conditioning. Hours of lying awake teach your brain that bed is a place for being awake and annoyed. Getting up breaks that link. This approach, called stimulus control, is one of the treatments the AASM’s 2021 guideline suggests for chronic insomnia on its own, and it’s a core part of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).

If you’re calm, drowsy and drifting, stay where you are. The rule is for when lying there has become a fight.

What to do while you’re lying there

Trying to force sleep, or trying to push thoughts away, tends to backfire. Giving your mind something specific and low-stakes to do works better. In a study of 41 people with insomnia, those taught to distract themselves with a detailed, engaging imagery task fell asleep faster than people given no instructions. People told only to “distract yourself” in general didn’t get that benefit.

A few options that fit that description:

• Cognitive shuffling. Pick a word, then picture unrelated objects starting with each of its letters. Our cognitive shuffling guide has steps and a word list.
• Progressive muscle relaxation. Tense a muscle group for about five seconds, release, notice the difference, move on. The AASM guideline also suggests relaxation therapy for chronic insomnia.
• Slow breathing. The NHS version is simple: breathe in counting from 1 to 5, then out for the same count, for at least five minutes.
• The military method stacks relaxation, breathing and a calm image. There’s no proof behind its two-minute claim, but the parts are sound. See the military sleep method.

If your mind is racing

Worry is the most common reason a short wake-up turns into a long one. Two things help in the moment. First, write it down: keep paper by the bed, jot the thought in a few words, and tell yourself it’s parked until morning. Second, switch to one of the mental tasks above, which take up enough attention that the worry has less room.

If the same worries wake you most nights, deal with them earlier. A short to-do list at bedtime is one cheap option; our guide to falling asleep fast covers the small study behind it.

What not to do at 3 am

• Don’t scroll. The AASM specifically says not to get on electronics when you get up at night.
• Don’t eat a big snack or have a drink. Alcohol speeds up falling asleep but increases sleep disruption in the second half of the night, so a nightcap at 3 am trades a short gain for a worse early morning. If a stomach growl is keeping you up, a light snack is fine.
• Don’t start work. Answering email or “getting a head start” tells your brain the day has begun.
• Don’t turn on bright overhead lights. The NHLBI notes that bright light may signal the brain that it’s time to be awake.
• Don’t lie in late to make up for it. Same wake time, every day.

Why you keep waking up in the first place

Falling back asleep is the short-term fix. If you wake up most nights, look at the cause. Common ones:

• Alcohol in the evening, for the second-half-of-the-night reason above.
• Caffeine late in the day. Its effects can last up to 8 hours, according to the NHLBI. Our caffeine calculator estimates how much is still in your system at bedtime.
• A warm or noisy room. See the best temperature for sleep.
• Needing to pee. Cleveland Clinic says getting up once or twice can be normal, but regularly waking more than once to urinate has a name, nocturia, and causes worth checking, including diabetes, some medications and sleep apnea.
• Stress, a new baby, pain, a snoring partner or a bedtime set earlier than your body clock wants.

Waking at the same hour every night, especially around 3 or 4 am, has its own set of usual suspects. We cover them in why you wake up at 3 am.

How long is too long to be awake?

There’s no hard number for a single night. What matters is the pattern. Trouble sleeping at least three nights a week for three months or more meets the definition of chronic insomnia, and that’s treatable. The AASM strongly recommends CBT-I as the first treatment, ahead of sleeping pills.

If it’s only been a rough week or two, the steps above plus a steady wake time usually settle things. Short bouts of poor sleep during stressful stretches are common and often pass on their own.

For the daytime habits that make night wakings less likely, work through our sleep hygiene checklist, or browse more guides in Fall Asleep.

Common questions

Is it normal to wake up in the middle of the night?

Yes. Brief awakenings between sleep cycles are normal, and most are too short to remember. It becomes a problem when you regularly can't get back to sleep.

Should I get out of bed if I can't fall back asleep?

If you've been awake for roughly 20 minutes and feel frustrated, yes. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine advises getting up, doing something quiet in dim light without electronics, and returning to bed when you feel sleepy.

Why can't I fall back asleep after waking up to pee?

Bright bathroom light, checking your phone or looking at the clock can wake you up fully. Use a dim light, skip the screen, and go straight back to bed. If you wake up more than once or twice a night to urinate, talk to a doctor.

Should I check the time when I wake up at night?

No. In experiments, people who watched a clock while trying to sleep worried more and took longer to fall asleep. Turn the clock away from the bed.