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Why do I keep waking up at 3 AM?
The long explainer: normal night waking, what changes in the early hours, common contributors, when to see a clinician, and what to track.
read the piecethe UNWIRE™ journal
Straight answers on sleep, stress and cortisol.
Built on published research. Every claim links to its source, and where the evidence runs thin, we say so.
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The library
24 pieces
Trends
There is no cortisol detox. Here is what the research does show.
Why cortisol is not something to flush out, and the four things studies show really move its daily curve.
Trends
The cortisol cocktail, ingredient by ingredient
The viral drink taken apart: what is in the glass, what each part can and cannot do, and the one ingredient worth real caution.
Ingredients
Does ashwagandha make you sleepy?
Drowsiness as a side effect versus better sleep at night: what the trials actually measured, and how people felt the next morning.
Ingredients
When to take ashwagandha: what the trials actually did
Morning or night? What the studies recorded about dose, food and duration, and the timing question none of them tested.
Ingredients
Ashwagandha interactions: who should check before taking it
Medicines, thyroid, liver, pregnancy, alcohol and the countries that restricted it: the safety checklist, with sources.
Ingredients
L-theanine: what the tea amino acid has, and hasn't, been shown to do
Sleep, focus with caffeine, stress and how long it lasts: the human studies on the tea amino acid, with their funding and limits.
Ingredients
L-theanine for sleep: small trials, modest results
A 2025 review of the trials, one closely read crossover study, and where L-theanine fits next to the sleep basics.
Ingredients
L-theanine and caffeine: what the lab studies found
Two lab studies on the tea pairing: doses compared with a real cup, the attention results, and the question about sleep they never asked.
Food
Foods that raise cortisol: what the viral lists get right and wrong
Coffee, carbs and alcohol each have a study behind them. What the numbers say, and what a cortisol food list leaves out.
Food
Does coffee raise cortisol? The 90-minute rule, checked
What caffeine does to cortisol in regular drinkers, the morning cup versus the afternoon one, and the 90-minute rule.
Food
Kiwi before bed: two small studies, read closely
The kiwi sleep study that started it, its missing control group, and the newer trial in young men.
Trends
The sleepy girl mocktail, checked against the trials
Tart cherry, magnesium and the fizz: the trials behind each part, and the gap between a study dose and a bedtime glass.
Ingredients
Glycine for sleep: a lesser-known amino acid, and its small studies
The 3-gram studies behind glycine as a sleep aid, how small they were, and who ran them.
Ingredients
Does magnesium glycinate make you sleepy?
What the magnesium sleep trials found, which forms they used, and the daily limit for supplements.
Training
Is it bad to work out before bed? A meta-analysis says mostly no
What 23 studies found about evening exercise and sleep, and the one kind of session to finish earlier.
Training
Deload week: what it is, and what the evidence can and cannot say
What coaches agree a deload is, how it is usually built, and why the research on it is still thin.
Stress
Nervous system dysregulation: a popular phrase, not a diagnosis
What the autonomic nervous system does, how real autonomic disorders differ from a stressful month, and what has evidence.
Stress
Vagus nerve exercises: what slow breathing can and cannot do
Slow breathing and heart rate variability, the cyclic sighing trial, and what the vagus nerve trend overstates.
Habits
NSDR and yoga nidra: what the sleep trials found
What six trials found for yoga nidra and sleep, how the practice works in plain terms, and how to try it tonight.
Habits
Weighted blankets: the main trial, and who was in it
The Swedish weighted blanket trial in detail: the striking numbers, the people it studied, and the sensor data.
Trends
Sleepmaxxing, sorted by evidence
The sleepmaxxing stack sorted by evidence, from firm basics to thin hacks, plus the one with a safety warning.
Cortisol
Cortisol and sleep: what the evidence actually tells us
A myth-versus-evidence look at the daily cortisol rhythm and what it can and cannot explain about your nights.
Stress
Wired at night. Worn out by morning.
Where the phrase comes from, the ordinary things that can sit behind it, and when it is worth getting help.
Sleep
What seven days of sleep notes can tell you
How a simple diary is used, what to record, and how to read your own week without over-reading it.
- every line is sourcedEach factual sentence links to a paper or a public health body. The full list sits under every piece.
- the limits stay inTwelve people, one dose, four weeks: when a study is small or narrow, the text says so.
- nothing to sell youNo product, price or pitch inside an article. Education first, and a clinician for your own health.
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