Waking Up at 3AM Every Night? What Your Body Is Trying to Tell You

Waking up at 3am every night, and then you can't get back to sleep? For me, that hour has a reason. Three in the morning is when your body asks, am I safe? And it finds everything you carried and didn't release. I'll show you why, and at the end, a small practice for bed. I'm Fernanda. I've been an energy healer for over twenty years, and I've had my own struggle with mental health. One thing first. This is a complementary practice. It sits alongside your doctor, never instead of them. Here's what we'll go through. Five things, then the practice.

The first thing is your body. This part I read about. There's a hormone called cortisol. People often call it the body's main stress hormone. And it keeps a daily rhythm. As far as anyone can tell, cortisol naturally starts to rise in the early hours of the morning. That's how the body gets ready to wake us up. And sleep tends to get lighter toward morning. So it's easier to wake then. So at three, two things meet. Your sleep is light, and that stress hormone, cortisol, is starting to climb. That explains why you wake. It doesn't explain the thoughts that come rushing, and where your brain starts taking you.

The second thing is how I see it. For me, your nervous system is always listening. Day and night, it asks one question. Am I safe? Modern life is just so busy, so overwhelming. A lot of information, so many things our body has to process. We don't have the time to settle down, to calm down, to get back to ourselves. In my sessions, I often say people carry too much and they don't release enough. All those feelings, all the experiences they didn't manage. They hold it in their body. Call it energy, or call it tension. Somewhere between my definition and yours. It doesn't matter if you believe it or not. So this is the heart of it. Three in the morning is when your body asks, am I safe? And it finds everything you carried and didn't release. Stay with me. The two minutes for bed are at the end.

The third thing is what I see in my room. Each person perceives stress in a different way. Some people have headaches, some have shoulder pain, some have their chest very tight. Others feel their lower back. So I ask them to notice where they feel the tension. It's all about awareness. I know it in my own body too. When I'm getting agitated, my chest starts tightening up and my anxiety kicks in. Before, I exploded and went to the extreme. Now I notice in my body when the change starts happening. So a bad night becomes information.

The fourth thing is the moon. This week, the full moon is on Sunday, the twenty-fifth of October. I read about a sleep lab at the University of Basel, in 2013. Around the full moon, people slept less and had less deep sleep. Even in a room with no windows. Nobody knows exactly why. For me, the moon is fascinating. If the moon can affect the tides of the ocean, imagine what it can do with our body, since we are made of water as well. In my room, in the days before a full moon, people come in carrying more. More tension. More tears. The moon brings things to the surface, the way the tide brings things up onto the sand. So if you wake at three more often this week, it's bringing up what was already there.

The fifth thing is what to do when you wake. First, don't reach for the phone. Your body just asked, am I safe? And the phone answers with the news, the messages, the list that keeps growing. So, phone away. For me, naming it helps. You can name it out loud, or write it down and burn it, or just write it in a journal. It's how our brain absorbs the information and allows us to release. Before bed, in your shower, ask the water to wash away everything that happened today that you don't want to carry on. And before going to bed, you can put a little bit of salt beside the bed. And ask the salt to clear your body from everything that doesn't serve you. More on that one another day.

So here's the practice I promised. Stay in bed, in the dark. This time is yours. Nobody needs you for the next few minutes. Put one hand on your chest. Feel the weight of your body on the bed. Take a slow breath in. Four, three, two, one. Hold. Four, three, two, one. And out, longer than it came in, like the tide going out. Six, five, four, three, two, one. Again. In, four, three, two, one. Hold. And out, six, five, four, three, two, one. Now check. What are you carrying right now? Name it silently. And ask yourself, is this mine? On the next breath out, hand it over. Down your arms, out of your palms, into the ground. The earth has held mountains for millions and millions of years. Your night is not too heavy for it. Ask Mother Earth to look after it. Name one thing you're grateful for. Just one. Even something small. It's a way to tell your brain that you don't only have negative things happening to you. Then let your body be held. Just be.

Do that whenever you wake at three. It doesn't matter how long. It matters the intention you set. If you'd like more, I've put my ten-day journey together. It's called The Nature Reset. The link is below. And if you'd rather rest and let me do the work, there's a link to book a gentle session too. In person, or from anywhere. Three in the morning is when your body asks, am I safe? Now you know how to answer it. I'm Fernanda. Come as you are.