The short answer
Usually a normal end-of-sleep-cycle awakening that you have started noticing, made worse by looking at the clock. Alcohol and a warm room are the two commonest aggravators.
- Everyone surfaces between sleep cycles, several times a night. Normally you do not remember it.
- Do not look at the clock. Knowing the time converts a brief awakening into arithmetic about how much sleep is left, and that is what keeps you awake.
- Alcohol helps you fall asleep and then fragments the second half of the night substantially.
- If you are awake more than about twenty minutes, get up, go to another room, do something dull in low light, and go back when sleepy.
What will ruin it
Regular early waking with low mood, loss of interest or appetite change is worth discussing with a GP rather than treating as a sleep problem on its own.
Why it works
Sleep runs in cycles of roughly ninety minutes with a brief arousal at the end of each. The problem is almost never the waking, it is what the mind does with it once it has noticed.
This is general information, not medical advice, and it does not replace a GP, a pharmacist or NHS 111. Call 999 in an emergency. Full disclaimer.