The Wellness Almanac

The Small Hours · our sleep desk

• You've Been Asking The Wrong Question About Your 3 AM Wake-UpsAdvertorial

  Waking up at 3 AM isn't the problem. What happens next is — and it turns out to be a different question than the one most people ask.

• The coffee you drank at two is still working at ten

  Caffeine leaves the body far more slowly than most people assume, and the arithmetic is easier than it sounds.

• Where magnesium actually comes from

  Before anyone reaches for a bottle, it is worth knowing which foods carry it and roughly how much.

• Light is the only clock the body fully trusts

  Ten minutes outside in the morning does more for the night ahead than almost anything done at bedtime.

• Why it tends to be the same time every night

  A body waking at random would wake at random times. Waking at the same hour means something is running on a schedule.

• The part of poor sleep that isn't tiredness

  The fatigue is the obvious cost. What takes far longer to notice is what happens to patience, judgment and memory.