Here’s what your body trying to tell you when you wake up at 3 AM
According to traditional Chinese medicine, if something happens at the same time each day, then there is an imbalance in the body. For example, waking up at 4 am indicates that there is an underlying problem with your lungs.
Below is a schedule linking the organs to specific times of the day.
Large intestine: 5am-7am
Stomach: 7am-9am
Spleen: 9am-11am
Heart: 11am-1pm
Small Intestines: 1pm-3pm
Bladder: 3pm-5pm
Kidneys: 5pm-7pm
Circulation: 7pm-9pm
Endocrine system/pancreas: 9pm-11pm
Gallbladder: 11pm -1am
Liver: 1am-3am
Lungs: 3am-5am
If you look at the schedule, you can see that 3am is tied to both the liver and the lungs. Let’s start by looking at ‘liver time’.
The Liver
For your liver to meet its energy needs to keep functioning, it uses glycogen from your body’s sugar stores.
Yet, if you are stressed, the glycogen stores get used up in adrenaline production.
Accordingly, if you are stressed the whole day, and your sugar is on one long roller-coaster ride, there won’t be enough glycogen for your liver to use when 3am comes, and it’s time for it to regenerate.
After that, your body is forced to produce adrenaline, and since adrenaline is intended to keep us awake, you will wake up.
Your body is actually not supposed to generate adrenaline often, but in the stressful times we live in, what else can we expect.
This overproduction of adrenaline and yo-yo effect on your sugar causes a major disruption in sleeping patterns.
Stress can make it hard for you to sleep or stay asleep in other ways too. If you stress a lot during the day, you may carry this into the night in the form of nocturnal habits that include clenching or grinding of your teeth.
This may disrupt your sleep in the middle of the night too.
Emotionally, anger and irritability are linked to the liver and can impact your sleep.
Bottled up emotions, outbursts of anger, high blood pressure, a bitter taste in your mouth, etc. all indicate that there is an emotional imbalance that is interrupting your sleep.
Consider exercising to deal with your anger and frustrations.
The Lungs
If you wake up at 3 am, this could be due to an imbalance in your lungs.
Something might be blocking your airway in the middle of the night, causing you to wake up and not be able to fall asleep again.
You can try to do some deep abdominal breathing exercises to help you fall asleep again, or you can meditate or practice yoga daily to improve your overall lung health.
It’s interesting to note that feelings of sadness or grief can lead to shortness of breath, sweating, fatigue and other breathing-related issues.
So, if you’re going through a period of sadness, it may be the cause of you waking up in the middle of the night, every night.
If grief is the reason for you waking up the same time every night and then not being able to sleep again, consider writing down your emotions in your journal before going to bed to clear your feelings before falling asleep.
