A health expert has outlined the potential reasons why so many women beyond a certain age are waking up at 3.30 am.
According to My London, speaking on the BBC's Morning Live this week, Dr Oscar Duke offered his insight after research revealed that nine out of ten female participants aged over 40 were waking up around 3.30 am.
TV presenter Rick Edwards said, "I don't think this will come as a surprise to many of us; a lot of us are not getting a full night's sleep. Now, this headline: nine in ten women aged 40 and over have officially joined Club 330, I didn't quite understand what that meant. And it's to do with the time that they're waking up, right?"
Dr Oscar replied, "Club 330, yes. Who's up and when? This is some research, done by a mattress company... So we have to be careful about where our sources come from. They talked to over a thousand women over the age of 40 about how much they woke up in the night.”
"They found that the vast majority, as they say, nine out of ten really, were waking up at least once before 7 am. A lot of people were waking up earlier, and 3.30 am was the most common time that people wake up, or certainly the women in this study, were waking up," he added.
The research, commissioned by Simba Sleep, revealed that 84% of women aged 40 and over regularly wake during the night, with 78% doing so between 1 am and 4 am.
The most common time for them to find themselves staring at the ceiling, throwing off the duvet, reaching for their phone or calculating exactly how many hours remain before the alarm is 3.30 am and 16 seconds, reports the Mirror.
The survey of 1,000 UK women aged 40 and over highlights just how widespread the problem is, with nine in 10 (92%) waking at least once before 7 am. Once awake, they lose an average of 33 minutes and 55 seconds attempting to drift off again.
