Keep waking up at 3 a.m.? Tips to fall back asleep faster — and how to know if you’ve got SMI

Is late-night tossing and turning stealing your shut-eye? You’re not alone.

Nearly one in five US adults struggle to stay asleep until sunrise — turning the dream of 8 hours of uninterrupted rest into a nightmare.

“Waking up in the middle of the night can be annoying, but this is not necessarily abnormal,” Dr. Dennis Auckley, director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at MetroHealth, told The Post.

In fact, it’s a nuisance that becomes more common with age. Sleep naturally gets lighter in our later years, leading to more frequent awakenings.

But experts say there’s a big difference between briefly waking up and lying wide-eyed for hours.

“It becomes a problem when an individual has problems falling back asleep, leading to what is known as sleep-maintenance insomnia (SMI),” Auckley explained.

Short-term SMI is often tied to a stressful life event or a change in your sleep setup, he said. But sometimes, the culprit runs deeper.

Mental health issues like anxiety, physical problems like heartburn or COPD, hormonal shifts such as perimenopause, and sleep disorders like restless leg syndrome or sleep apnea can all leave you desperate for just one solid stretch of sleep.

Certain medications — especially those with stimulating effects taken too late in the day — can also stir you from your slumber. So can late-night scrolling, smoking, drinking or drug use.

But even when you’ve ditched the bad habits, your brain can still betray you.

“It’s like going to a restaurant that makes you sick over and over; eventually, just thinking about it makes your stomach turn,” Dr. Meredith Broderick, a sleep neurologist, told The Post. “The same happens with sleep.”

This phenomenon, called conditional arousal, happens when your bed, bedroom or even the act of trying to fall asleep becomes a cue for your brain to wake up, making it harder to doze off or stay asleep.

“After enough rough nights, you start expecting bad sleep — and that expectation keeps the cycle alive,” Broderick explained.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to stop SMI from ruining your rest.

“Sleep hygiene is the best tool to prevent this from happening,” Broderick said. “Think of it as training your brain to trust bedtime again.”

That means sticking to a consistent sleep schedule, cutting out caffeine, alcohol and nicotine before bed, and avoiding late-night meals or workouts — all of which can also help you fall asleep more easily in the first place.

“Keep naps short and make your bed a no-work, no-scroll zone — reserved only for sleep and intimacy,” Broderick advised.

Auckley also recommends winding down with a calming pre-bed ritual, like a warm bath, light stretching, journaling or reading, and only hitting the hay when you’re truly drowsy.

“Most cases of chronic insomnia can be managed without the use of sleep-inducing medications, all of which have the potential for side effects and are more like using a ‘band aid; to cover the problem and not address the underlying cause,” he said. 

When a clear cause of SMI can be identified, Auckley said treatment should focus directly on that underlying issue.

“Oftentimes, behavioral therapy can be very effective for patients whose insomnia is the result of a poor sleep environment, poor sleep habits or psychological conditions,” he noted.

If you’re still staring at the ceiling at 3 a.m. after trying everything, Broderick recommends getting out of bed you’ve been awake 20 minutes.

“Don’t just lie there stewing,” she said. “Do something calm and pleasant until sleepiness returns.”

Her favorite trick: reading a book under a dim light.

“I tell my patients all the time: you can either stare at the clock, get more frustrated, and make the problem worse — or you can pass the time peacefully and let sleep find you naturally,” Broderick said.