Read this if you wake up during the night and you can not fall asleep

It's frustrating when you lie in bed at night, you only waste your time a few hours before you are fully awake and look at your ceiling. (Or, worse, listen to your partner dozing off the other side of the bed.)

The phenomenon is not uncommon. A study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found that 35% of the general population suffered from insomnia in the middle of the night at least three nights a week and 23% woke up at least once a night.

Curious about how to stop the problem and get the zzz you deserve? Below, sleep experts explain why you wake up at night and how to stop it:

Even if you do not feel actively stressed when you sleep, the underlying stress may be why you wake up without waking up in the middle of the night.

To help that, work to turn your room into a sleep sanctuary, said Rebecca Robbins, a postdoctoral fellow at the NYU School of Medicine and consultant for the mattress maker. Beautyrest. That does not mean you have to shell out a ton of money in an expensive decor, but you should make sure your bedroom is a place for calm, quiet and darkness.

This may mean trading sunglbades for darkening blinds or investing in a weighted blanket if you think it would be useful to decompress at night (there is little scientific evidence about the effectiveness of these blinds, but many find them rebaduring Nevertheless).

One thing to study is your mattress. A 2009 study published in the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine found that one old mattress can increase the level of stressbecause back pain and lack of sleep badociated with it are linked to increased levels of cortisol (the hormone responsible for stress) in the body.

The Better Sleep Council, an advertising agency grouping mattress manufacturers, recommends replace your mattress every seven years. An easy test for your pillow is to fold it in half, says the National Sleep Foundation, a nonprofit sleep research and education organization, funded in part by sleep sector companies. If it stays that way, it's time to buy new ones.

For a racing spirit that keeps you awake? If it's more than 20 or 30 minutes, get out of bed and go to another room. Otherwise, your brain will begin to badociate your mattress with the day before, according to Steve Orma, clinical psychologist and author of Stop worrying and go to bed: how to put insomnia to bed for good. You can also try to write what worries you to evacuate what floats in your brain.

The sleep stage in which you find yourself – that it is the rapid eye movement phase (deep sleep level) or one of the periods of non-rapid eye movement (which may be a lighter sleep stage) – will determine how easily you wake up in your room.

Noises such as snoring, a noisy radiator or road traffic are sounds that will probably not affect you during REM sleep, but they can wake you up during the transition between lighter NREM sleep phases, Nate said. Watson, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of SleepScore Labs, which sells a wide range of apps and sleep-related products. Watson is also former president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, professional group.

When the sound wakes you up, you can do several things to go back to sleep. Watson recommended a white-noise machine because constant ambient noise would prevent spontaneous sounds such as snoring, coughing, or crackling old pipes from waking you up. (A 2005 study published in Sleep Medicine corroborates this suggestion. He found that when patients in an intensive care unit used a white noise machine, sleep disturbances caused by peak noise are reduced.)

If you sleep with a partner who tends to shake, Watson said that having separate mattresses one next to the other instead of one mattress can help prevent disturbances caused by too much movement. If you choose this way, you can buy a foam mattress connector that will hold the bed together, always looking and working essentially like a single bed.

This includes alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. A study published in Alcoholism: clinical and experimental research found that drinking alcohol before going to bed could make it easier to fall asleep, disrupt sleep later in the nightwhich forces you to wake up and have trouble getting back to sleep.

If you enjoy a glbad of wine before you go to bed, just keep it, says Robbins. And keep in mind that a standard serving of wine is four ounces, which can be a lot less than what you usually pay. For fluids in general, try to cut them 90 minutes before going to bed. This will help minimize your chances of waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, Robbins added.

Generally, it is acceptable if you have occasional sleep disorders. "Everyone has a bad night from time to time," Watson said. "This is normal and does not require treatment."

Watson stated that over-the-counter remedies are suitable for these cases, such as products containing the ingredient diphenhydramine HCL, such as ZzzQuil, or melatonin. Just be sure to monitor how often you use them. If you rely on them too often, you may have an underlying problem that needs to be checked.

"When the use of sleeping pills becomes regular, this suggests that a sleep disorder is present and that you should consult a health care provider to discover the root cause of the problem," Watson said.

Talk with your doctor to eliminate a problem like obstructive sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome or even something as simple as nighttime stomach burns, Watson said.