your body speaks

Ep14: Why You’re Waking Up in the Middle of the Night (and What Your Body Might Be Saying)

• Dr. Brook Sheehan

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You’re up again. 1:43… 3:28… 4:11.
Your body woke you up—but what’s it trying to say?

In this powerful episode of your body speaks, Dr. Brook Sheehan unpacks the real reasons behind those middle-of-the-night wakeups that leave you feeling exhausted, confused, and disconnected.

We often rush to blame hormones, blood sugar, or the wrong supplement (and yes, those can matter)—but when we focus only on the physical, we miss what our body is saying emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

Because your body isn’t just a machine to hack.
 It’s a masterpiece that speaks—especially in the quiet.

💡 In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why sleep is the most healing thing your body can do—and what interrupts it
  • The 6 most common physical causes of middle-of-the-night wakeups (and simple, body-supportive solutions)
  • What emotional, mental, or spiritual “whispers” may be waking you up when the world is asleep
  • How to stop turning your body into a project and start treating it like a partner
  • Ways to build trust with your body using the bodyOS™ framework: physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental layers
  • Gentle nighttime practices to help you pause, listen, and receive instead of fix, hustle, or suppress

🛠️ Tools + Resources Mentioned:



  • ✋ Small Intestine Reflex Activation
    Rub along the bottom edge of your breastbone and follow the ribs down at an angle.
    Use gentle strokes (5–6 reps) before bed to support digestion and absorption—especially if bloating or gut tension wakes you up.
    👉 https://youtube.com/shorts/l1_7otWdU50?feature=share


🕊️ A Reflection from the Episode:

“What if your body isn’t interrupting you?
 What if it’s inviting you—to reflect, to process, to commune with God, or to let go?”

🎧 Listen in if you’ve ever:

  • Felt like you’ve tried everything to sleep through the night
  • Wondered why you always wake up at a certain time
  • Obsessed over physical causes (and still felt stuck)
  • Wanted a more faithful, connected way to care for your body
  • Needed a reminder that your body isn’t broken—it’s speaking

Share this episode with a friend who’s wrestling with restless nights.
And don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and follow along @drbrooksheehan on Instagram.

Hi, friend.
Welcome back to
your body speaks.
I'm your host, Dr.
Brook Sheehan.
And today we are diving into
one of the most frustrating
and misunderstood signals
the body sends waking up
in the middle of the night.
But before we go there,
I want to start with
something foundational.
People often ask me, Dr.
People often ask me, Dr.
Brook, if there's one thing
you can say is universally
important for every
single person, regardless
of their unique body,
what would it be?
And my answer is
always the same.
Sleep.
Not supplements.
Not cold plunges,
not blood sugar hacks,
not the latest fad diet.
But sleep is the most
healing thing we can do
for our bodies.
It's when restoration
happens, when detox kicks
in, when hormones balance
and tissues repair.
It's essential for immunity,
digestion, mental
clarity, emotional
resilience, and weight loss.
When sleep is disrupted,
when your body keeps
waking you up
in the middle of the night,
it truly does matter.
Not just because it's
annoying or exhausting,
but because
it's your body trying
to get your attention.
And that's what today's
episode is all about.
What it means when your
body wakes you up.
And why obsessing over every
physical symptom of might be
actually keeping you stuck.
And how And how to tune into
all four pillars of what I
call your bodyOS, your
body's operating system.
And those four pillars
are physical, spiritual,
emotional, and mental.
But before we get started
on that, I want to share
something with you
from my own experience.
You see, I've spent many
nights waking up, and not
just once, here or there.
There have been long
stretches where sleep was
broken and unpredictable.
Sometimes I knew it
was tied to my cycle.
At At other times, At other times, I couldn't
figure it out at all.
And I'd lie in bed
wondering, what did I eat?
Is my liver okay?
Should I be taking magnesium?
Maybe it's my blood sugar.
What the heck is going on?
And yes, sometimes it was
something very physical.
But the more often, but more
often than not, I realized I
was just chasing the symptom
while totally bypassing
what my body was
actually trying to show me.
On a deeper level, there were
nights where I was carrying
heavy thoughts about work,
about family, about
disappointments I had let
myself feel during the day,
and sometimes even things
about patience.
And all of this would come
flooding in at 1:43am 3:28
4:11 Many of you know that
my favorite band is Twenty
One Pilots and they have a
new song on their latest
record called Routines in
the Night and the lyrics
talk about going into
different rooms of your mind
while you're awake at night.
And the specific lyric I
want to share with you
right now is while all the
world is asleep, I walk
around instead through the
memories down the halls of
my head and it hit me so
deeply because that's what
it feels like.
You're not just physically
awake, you're mentally
pacing through
conversations,
disappointments, fears to
do's, etc.
I used to respond
with frustration,
but over time I learned
to shift into openness.
Not just how do I fall back
asleep, but what part of me
is asking to be heard right
now or what is God trying
to tell me in this moment?
I want to start with the
physical layer because it
is real and it matters and
Some of the most common
body based reasons for
waking up at night include
the following.
First thing Liver detox,
especially if you're waking
up between the hours of 1
and 3am if this is
happening to you, start
your next morning with some
lemon water to help support
liver function.
The second thing
Blood sugar drops, which can
trigger a cortisol spike
to get you alert again.
So you're waking up
and you're feeling
like whoa, I'm ready
to go and it's 3:28
in the morning.
That's a cortisol spike or
could be a cortisol spike
if that is happening to you.
A teaspoon of almond butter
at bedtime the next day,
of course can keep you
steady all night long.
The third one caffeine,
especially consumed after
12pm if this is happening
to you, you don't need me
to tell you to stop.
You already know and are
witnessing
how your body is responding
negatively to this.
Number four Hormonal shifts
like progesterone dips
in your luteal phase.
Your luteal phase is
the phase of your
menstrual cycle right
before you bleed.
If this is happening,
more fiber rich foods like
salads during the day
can help support these dips.
Number five Stress hormones.
If your nervous system never
actually shut down before
bed, this can cause you
to wake up multiple times
throughout the evening.
And if this is happening
to you, incorporate that 478
breathing pattern to Help
calm your nervous system.
That's going to be 4 seconds
inhale through your nose.
7 second hold, 8 second
exhale through your mouth.
You're going to do that
a few reps through
as you go to just help
bring you back into that
calming, parasympathetic
nervous system.
And number six, gut issues,
things like gas
and bloating or low stomach
acid that flare while you
lie flat on your back.
And if this is happening to
you, you, you can rub your
small intestine reflex
point, which is going to
going to, which is at the
very bottom of your
breastbone, which you're
going to start there.
And you're going to follow
the angle of your ribs down
as you move in.
Kind of like
a dragging mechanism.
Drag, drag, drag,
drag, drag, drag.
And you could do that
for five to six strokes
at a time to just help get
that small intestine
activated and get those
digestive juices flowing.
So yes, it is completely
valid to look
at those physical things.
But here's where a lot of
you, especially my high
achieving health obsessed
with women, get stuck.
They start treating the wake
up like a science project.
And the deeper they go
into fixing the physical,
the further they drift
from actually hearing
the whole message.
If that's you, I say this
with so much love.
There is a point where
optimization becomes
overcorrection, where health
becomes hypervigilance,
where fixing becomes
disconnecting, where.
Where hacking
becomes dishonoring.
You're tracking everything,
testing everything
you've got the labs,
the supplements, the sleep
trackers, the aura
rings, all the things.
And yet you are still
exhausted, still waking up.
You don't need more things
to fix your body, you need
to listen to it differently.
And that means expanding
your view beyond
just the physical.
That's why I created
the Body OS framework.
Because your body doesn't
only speak through
symptoms, it speaks
through four pillars.
Physical, spiritual,
emotional, mental.
In your wakeups, they might
be trying to speak from
any one of those places.
So let's break it down
into each one of those.
Emotionally, are you holding
on to something?
A sadness, a frustration,
a letdown you brushed off
earlier, something statement
that should have been
made that you didn't make,
that you choked down?
All of these can affect
you emotionally and cause
those thoughts to pop up
while you're trying
to get sleep at night.
Moving into the thoughts
mentally, are you
carrying thoughts that never
got resolved, loops
that never got quieted?
And spiritually, maybe
you're being invited
into something Deeper.
A moment of stillness,
a gentle nudge from
God, or a whisper from
within that you've been too
busy to hear.
Whether you see that as
divine guidance, inner
wisdom, or simply your body
knowing what you need.
Whispers come in the quiet.
And sometimes, especially
when the day has been loud
and things are coming in
and at us all the time,
nighttime is the only time
quite enough to receive
them.
So what do you do when
you wake up in the middle
of the night and you're
not sure what pillar
this falls under?
I want to offer a few
gentle suggestions.
Not to fix, but to support
your system and to
level and and help you tune in
to the deeper layers.
I've shared in the
previous episode prior to
this one that building a
relationship with your
body is no different than
building a relationship
with another human being
in your life.
These relationships
take work.
They take constant efforts
of going and learning,
spending time with one
another, talking, chatting,
sharing your heart.
All the things when you
start to do that
the relationships get deeper
and deeper and deeper.
That is how the relationship
is with your body.
You may be feeling so
disconnected and not knowing
what your body is trying
to say and not knowing
how to listen, but.
But the more that you
practice this,
the better and better
and better it gets.
And you will become so in
tune with what your system
is saying that you will feel
like you have a superpower.
And it is absolutely
incredible to be able to
understand what your body
needs versus what the world
the versus what the world is
saying you need.
So you've already heard some
practical ideas for that
physical pillar earlier in
this episode, like the lemon
water for liver support,
almond butter for blood
sugar, and reflex points for
digestion.
But I want to explore now
what to do when the signal
might be coming from
your spiritual, emotional
or mental layers.
So the first thing to do
here is to just to pause
and place a hand on your
heart and your belly.
When you're waking up
in the middle of the night,
you're going
to breathe slowly and ask,
I'm listening.
What do you need right now?
This alone can shift your
nervous system from panic
to presence.
The other thing is to use
your My Body's Whisper
Journal, which you can get
in the show notes at the
bottom of this episode and
jot down what you're
experiencing.
What time did you wake up?
What emotions or
thoughts were present?
Where did you feel it in your
body what non physical layer
might be asking to be heard?
This isn't about solving,
it's about witnessing.
Number three Stimulate
your liver Reflex point.
This simple technique can
support both physical detox
and emotional release.
Your liver is involved in
processing not just toxins,
but also unprocessed
emotions like anger,
resentment or frustration.
And the way to activate this
point is to gently rub
under your right ribcage for
about 30 seconds to help
move what might be stuck
physically or energetically.
And that tutorial video will
be in the show notes below.
Number four do not
fight the moment.
If your mind is racing,
try listening to calming
music or a podcast
with a 10 minute timer.
Let it help you release
the need to control
and simply be.
Heck, you might even be
asleep before those
10 minutes are over.
And number five, Pray.
Sometimes the night is
when your soul gets
a chance to speak.
Ask God, is there
something you want me
to hear right now?
And then pause.
Receive, friend.
I know what it's like
to feel like your body is
working against you.
I felt like this for so
many, many years.
But what if it's not?
What if your body isn't
interrupting you?
What if it's inviting you
to reflect?
To process,
to commune, to release?
Middle of the night
wake ups don't always
need a protocol.
Sometimes they just
need your presence.
So this week, if you find
yourself awake
in the quiet hours, pause.
Breathe.
Listen.
Because the more that you do,
the more that you'll trust
what your body is saying.
And the more you trust,
the more transformation
becomes possible.
If this episode spoke
to you, would you please
pass it along to someone
else who's been wrestling
with restless nights?
And don't forget
to download your free copy
of the MyBody's Whisper
Journal in the link
in the show notes.
And hey, something
new is also coming.
The bodyOS membership
is almost here.
If you're craving deeper
guidance on how to listen,
decode and respond to your
body's messages, you'll want
to be a part of this.
You can get on the wait
list now using the link
in the show notes.
It's time to stop fighting
your body and start
partnering with it.
Listen, trust, transform,
and until next time, stay
curious, stay kind to your
body, and keep listening.