You know that 4:17 AM moment.
Eyes open. Mind racing. Room still dark. You're not rested. You're not ready. And yet — here you are.
This isn't random.
Your cortisol, the hormone that should gently wake you up around sunrise, is spiking too early, and stealing your best sleep: that dreamy, memory-making, mood-regulating REM window between 4–6AM.
Here's the surprising part:
It's not just about stress.
It's about how your nervous system is recovering, your light exposure, your morning rituals.
And yes, I've been there myself in years past. But for now let me tell you about my patient, Christine, who was there too…
She's 42. Teaches yoga full time. Knows how to breathe, move, meditate - she does the work.
And yet… she kept waking up at exactly 4:13 AM, almost every night for nearly three months.
She tried all the usual things: magnesium, ashwagandha, the Calm app, even that lavender sleep spray someone left in the studio's lost-and-found bin.
Still wide awake. Every time.
She told me she'd lie there and start counting backwards from the hours she could maybe still sleep.
Then she'd reach for her phone. Scroll. Sigh. Think about coffee. Regret thinking about coffee.
She was exhausted by noon, wired at midnight, and more than anything just confused about what was going on because for someone who is in tune and lives in touch with their body every day… it just didn't make sense.
Until we walked through what was really going on with her cortisol. And how to stop fighting it.
💡 What to do when you wake up at 4AM (and it works):
Take a deep physiologic sigh: one long inhale, one short top-up inhale, slow exhale. I repeat it 2–3 times. (This calms the sympathetic system fast and there's science to back it up.)
Mimic REM by gently moving your eyes back and forth with your eyes closed. It sounds weird. But it works.
And if I'm still a little too alert? I turn on a sleep story on the Calm app their original one about a woman walking through a field of lavender in Provence.
But more importantly, stopping the 4AM wake up in the first place starts early in the day.
This comes from small, foundational shifts in the mornings:
☀️ Step outside for natural light within 45 minutes of waking.
💧Drink 10 oz of warm water before coffee.
☕ Delay caffeine for about an hour after waking so your cortisol can follow its natural arc without a caffeine spike.
If you're going through this, I see you.
You're not "crazy." Your body's not broken.
It's just asking for rhythm. And it's incredibly responsive when you give it the right cues.
I'd love to know if any of this hits home or if you've tried something else that works for you. Just hit reply.
✨ Here's to deeper sleep and smoother mornings,
Dr. Tracy
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