If you’re someone who keeps jolting awake at 3:00AM — staring at the ceiling while your alarm creeps closer — you’re not alone.

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!

Waking in the middle of the night and struggling to drift back off is a common frustration, particularly when you know 7:00AM isn’t going to wait for you. The tossing, the turning, the clock-watching — and just as you finally doze off again, it’s time to get up.

And, oddly enough, it is something that MANY of us suffer with. In fact, there are countless Reddit threads – boasting hundreds of comments – from people who all, for one reason or another, wake up at around 3:00AM and cannot doze back off.

One thread is titled: “Why 3AM? Why do I and so many others wake up regularly at 3 AM?” Another reads: “Anyone else keep waking up at the SAME time every night? like 3–4AM no matter what?”

Now, TV doctor Amir Khan has shared a simple technique that could help during what he calls the “sad hours”.

In a video posted to Instagram, Dr Khan — who regularly appears on ITV breakfast and daytime television — addressed the flood of questions he received after previously discussing why so many people wake at 3:00AM.

“Guys, I shared a reel about why people wake up at 3am in the morning, and hundreds of thousands of people have watched it, but lots of people have asked ‘well, what do you do when you wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning? How do you get back off to sleep?’

“Let’s talk about a technique called cognitive shuffling. You know that I’ve talked at length about the health benefits of sleep.”

According to Dr Khan, the problem isn’t always physical — it’s mental.

He explained: “But what if you just can’t get off to sleep because your brain won’t let you? Imagine it. Everyone else is asleep, the house is quiet, you’re lying there in bed, but your mind won’t stop churning out stressful thoughts.

“Work, money, kids, planning, scheduling, problem solving. Your brain is too active to let you sleep. In fact, the stress of all these thoughts tells the brain it’s not safe to sleep, and you have to stay on high alert.”

For many people, the go-to solution is counting sheep. But Dr Khan suggests trying something different.

“It’s called cognitive shuffling, and the idea is it interrupts your racing mind, and instead scrambles your thoughts, inviting your brain to go into sleep mode, and assuring it that it is safe to sleep,” he says in the video.

So how does it actually work?

The method is simple — and requires nothing but your imagination.

First, think of a completely random word.

Then focus on the first letter of that word and begin listing other random words that start with the same letter. As you think of each word, take a moment to visualise it clearly in your mind.

Once you’ve exhausted that letter, move on to the second letter of your original word and repeat the process. Continue working through each letter in turn.

The aim isn’t to create logical connections or solve problems — it’s to gently scramble your thoughts. By focusing on neutral, random imagery rather than stressful to-do lists, the brain is nudged out of “high alert” mode and into a calmer, sleep-ready state.

For those stuck in a cycle of 3:00AM wake-ups, it could be a small shift that makes a big difference.

Featured image credit: WorldManual/ITV/This Morning (screenshot)