A full night of uninterrupted sleep is essential for waking up refreshed, yet many find themselves awake between 3:00am and 5:00am. Going to bed early doesn’t always guarantee rest—waking in these early hours can leave you groggy and unfocused the next day.

This common phenomenon isn’t just coincidence. It holds deeper meaning. The period between 3:00am and 5:00am has long been called the “hour of the wolf,” a term popularized by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman.

He described it as “the hour between night and dawn… when most people die, sleep is deepest, nightmares are most real… when the sleepless are haunted by their worst anguish.”

This is also when babies are most often born.

Whether symbolic or psychological, the hour of the wolf taps into something primal—an eerie time when the mind stirs, and we confront what usually hides in the silence of sleep.