Health

Doctor Warns Waking Up At 3am Every Night Isn’t Normal—You May Need Medical Attention

Published on October 9, 2025

According to a doctor, getting up at three in the morning every night might “not be normal,” and you might need to get help.

Your entire day may be ruined just by waking up from a restless night’s sleep. After barely obtaining a decent night’s sleep the night before, nobody wants to sit through countless meetings at work.

For many people, having a bad night’s sleep might also mean that they are constantly waking up at random and checking their phones to see that it is still early in the morning.

However, this expert cautions that it might be a sign of underlying health problems, especially if it happens between roughly two and three o’clock.

Dr Eric Berg DC raised the concerns on YouTube with a video titled “This was DESTROYING my life.”

Yes, I am aware that the title is rather YouTube-like, but the wellness expert did make some pretty intriguing points.

He is an instructor renowned for his work in weight control, natural health, and nutritional science. He holds a doctor of chiropractic degree and specializes in healthy ketosis and intermittent fasting.

In the video, he described sleeplessness as “torture,” provided holistic advice, and explained why people could be having trouble. He is now retired from clinical practice and focuses on sharing his views online.

According to Dr. Berg, cortisol should be at its lowest at two in the morning, yet for certain people, it seems to be at its highest.

“This can cause night waking and other sleep problems that can really interfere with your day,” he explains.

According to the expert, magnesium glycinate taken before bed can help lower cortisol and improve sleep quality, while sleep aids may be making the problem worse.

“How do you go back to sleep if for some reason you wake up between 2-3am in the middle of the night?” he says.

“I would consider myself an expert in insomnia because I had this for over a decade and it was destroying my life. It was not just getting up at 2-3am in the morning, sometimes I wouldn’t even sleep for one minute the entire night, I would lay there.”

“It was basically torture.”

Often referred to as the “stress hormone,” cortisol is essentially our “body clock” that wakes us up in the morning. However, your body creates more of it when you are anxious or agitated, which can cause sleep disturbances.

In order to alleviate stress, NHS trusts advise establishing a “calming bedtime routine” and allowing one to one and a half hours to wind down before bed.

As Dr. Berg points out, insufficient magnesium can make it more difficult to cope with stress and raise cortisol levels, which may result in symptoms like irritability and anxiety.

Unusual magnesium levels might cause symptoms like nausea, weakness, twitching, cramping, or an erratic heartbeat. Cushing’s syndrome is an uncommon disorder that can be brought on by an excess of cortisol, according to the NHS.

If you are worried about your magnesium and cortisol levels or your sleep, you should consult a healthcare provider.