Waking up a few minutes before our alarm
Imagine: you set your alarm for 7 a.m., but you wake up at 6:55 a.m. A frustrating situation that happens often. Our first interpretation is usually the same: our body “knew” it was time to get up before the alarm even went off.
What may seem surprising is that this is indeed the case. Indeed, you have certainly already heard of the biological clock, this internal system of our body which organizes and rhythms numerous biological functions according to a cycle of approximately 24 hours, called circadian rhythm.
Controlled by an area of the brain called the “suprachiasmatic nucleus,” this natural mechanism helps our body know when to sleep, be awake, eat or produce certain hormones. It’s the circadian rhythm that somehow makes you a “morning person” or a “night owl.”
The biological clock prepares the body for waking up
When we wake up, several things happen in our body. Behind the mechanical opening of our eyelids, an apparent sign that we are awake, lies the “wake-up cortisol response”, a biological phenomenon characterized by a sharp increase in cortisol levels.
As Yaqoot Fatima and Alexandra Metse, professor of sleep health and lecturer in psychology respectively at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia, explain, cortisol is a hormone that helps us prepare for the day and feel energized.
When a person is accustomed to getting up early all their life, their biological clock adopts “morning habits”. It enters a phase of preparation for waking up a few moments before the alarm sounds, by increasing body temperature and cortisol levels and decreasing the level of melatonin, the sleep hormone.
Is the biological clock the only culprit in waking up early?
These awakenings are often considered a good thing, because it means that you have had enough sleep and that your body clock is healthy and well tuned.
But if our biological clock is most often the cause of us waking up a few minutes before the alarm sounds, other factors can also explain this phenomenon.
Indeed, stress and anxiety elevate cortisol, the hormone that normally helps you wake up in the morning, which can disrupt sleep or cause you to wake up too early. Anticipation of exciting events can also make it difficult to sleep because brain activation keeps you awake, causing light sleep and waking up too early, experts say.
Source: ScienceAlert
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