For the last week or so, I’ve been waking up several hours earlier than normal and not being able to get back to restful sleep. I’ve never had this problem before, I’m just getting more exhausted by the day because I’m not getting to sleep much earlier
Then I find out other people are experiencing the same thing, same timeframe - around a week ago it just started for seemingly no reason
It could definitely be stress-related, especially if you had a particularly bad night of sleep before this started.
When you don’t sleep well, your body can reset its cortisol production cycle. Cortisol—the hormone tied to stress and alertness—typically starts rising in the early hours of the morning, around 3–4 a.m., as part of a normal circadian rhythm.
But if you’re under even mild or subconscious stress, that spike can happen earlier or be stronger than usual, causing you to wake up prematurely and feel too alert to fall back asleep.
It’s like your body’s stuck in a “high alert” mode even if nothing obvious is triggering it.
Could be the birds that have already been mentioned as well, I am no expert, nor medical trained, but this reason is more common than you might think when waking up early. It’s the same reason you might find yourself waking before the alarm when you really need to be on time, like before going on vacation and you cannot miss your flight.
Here is a link to one of many in regards to sleep and cortisol
https://sleepdoctor.com/pages/health/cortisol
(edit: added part of the sentence that got lost before posting and figured I might add a link if someone wants to read more)