Self Help

Sporadic nighttime awakenings are a normal occurrence. You can expect to wake up at least once every ninety minutes during the night. However, unless the wakeful period lasts at least seven minutes, you won’t be able to recall it the next morning because the memory is affected by sleep.

We can never be sure of the exact time we fall asleep. We also tend to be very hazy about events that occurred during the night. As we get older, nighttime awakenings increase in duration.

This is considered normal. However, patterns are believed to have deviated from the norm if nighttime awakenings occur so often that only 85% of the time in bed is actually spent asleep. The lower the figure drops after that, the nearer a person gets to being classified as having a sleeping disorder.