Many people find that they rarely sleep through the night, and some have great difficulty returning to sleep once awoken. Some historians and anthropologists have asserted that in pre-modern times, it was standard to get up in the middle of the night for a bit, and this time was very useful to people:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biphasic_and_polyphasic_sleep
Historian A. Roger Ekirch[11][12] has argued that before the Industrial Revolution, interrupted sleep was dominant in Western civilization. ... According to Ekirch's argument, adults typically slept in two distinct phases, bridged by an intervening period of wakefulness of approximately one hour.[12] This time was used to pray[14] and reflect,[15] and to interpret dreams, which were more vivid at that hour than upon waking in the morning. This was also a favourite time for scholars and poets to write uninterrupted, whereas still others visited neighbours, engaged in sexual activity, or committed petty crime.[12]: 311–323
Even without such cultural endorsements, there are still several reasons why we might wake up partway through the night. This article discusses some of them:
https://www.self.com/story/waking-up-at-night-reasons
Clearly there are various things that might contribute to waking us up when we would rather be asleep. However, from the perspective of the mystical Jewish tradition, deliberately waking up in the middle of the night is seen as enormously propitious for connection with God - and particularly for practice that can help bring healing and redemption to the world. This practice is called "Tikkun Chatzot" - the "Midnight Fixing."
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלֹקֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּ֒שָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ לַעֲסֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה: וְהַעֲרֶב נָא ה' אֱלֹקֵֽינוּ אֶת־דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָתְךָ בְּפִֽינוּ וּבְפִי עַמְּךָ בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל. וְנִהְיֶה אֲנַֽחְנוּ וְצֶאֱצָאֵֽינוּ וְצֶאֱצָאֵי עַמְּךָ בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל כֻּלָּֽנוּ יוֹדְעֵי שְׁמֶֽךָ וְלוֹמְדֵי תוֹרָתֶֽךָ. (י"א תוֹרָתְךָ) לִשְׁמָהּ. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' הַמְלַמֵּד תּוֹרָה לְעַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלֹקֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר בָּֽחַר בָּֽנוּ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים וְנָֽתַן לָֽנוּ אֶת־תּוֹרָתוֹ: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' נוֹתֵן הַתּוֹרָה:
Blessed are You [!!!!], Divine power, sovereign of the cosmos, who sanctifies us through practice, enjoining us to steep ourselves in words of Torah.
Please, God/!!!!, make the words of your Torah pleasant in our mouths and in the mouths of your people Israel; and may we and our descendants and the descendants of our descendants and the descendants of your people the House of Israel all know your name and be students of your Torah for her own sake. Blessed are You [!!!!], Divinity, who teaches Torah to your people, Israel.
Several verses from psalms, our most ancient collection of Judaic prayer-texts, suggest that night-time is a period of special access to God, when the righteous can find a unique connection. Here are some:
(1) A song of ascents.
Now bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD
you who stand in the house of the LORD by night.
(62) I arise at midnight to praise and thank You, dwelling on the rules of your justice.
(9) By day the Ever-Being decrees !ts kindness, and by night !ts song is with me:
a prayer to the God of my life.
In the rabbinic tradition King David is seen as the de facto author of any of the psalms not explicitly attributed to anyone else, so the verses above are considered his work. To this the Talmud adds the rather beautiful image of David setting up his space so he would be awoken by music in the middle of the night, and could then spend a few good hours in study, prayer and creativity before being interrupted by his daytime professional responsibilities.
דָּוִד, סִימָנָא הֲוָה לֵיהּ, דְּאָמַר רַב אַחָא בַּר בִּיזְנָא, אָמַר רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן חֲסִידָא:
כִּנּוֹר הָיָה תָּלוּי לְמַעְלָה מִמִּטָּתוֹ שֶׁל דָּוִד, וְכֵיוָן שֶׁהִגִּיעַ חֲצוֹת לַיְלָה, בָּא רוּחַ צְפוֹנִית וְנוֹשֶׁבֶת בּוֹ וּמְנַגֵּן מֵאֵלָיו, מִיָּד הָיָה עוֹמֵד וְעוֹסֵק בַּתּוֹרָה עַד שֶׁעָלָה עַמּוּד הַשַּׁחַר.
כֵּיוָן שֶׁעָלָה עַמּוּד הַשַּׁחַר נִכְנְסוּ חַכְמֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶצְלוֹ. ...
David had a sign indicating when it was midnight. As Rav Aḥa bar Bizna said that Rabbi Shimon Ḥasida said:
A lyre hung over David’s bed, and once midnight arrived, the northern midnight wind would come and cause the lyre to play on its own.
David would immediately rise from his bed and study Torah until the first rays of dawn.
Once dawn arrived, the Sages of Israel entered to advise him with regard to the various concerns of the nation and the economy. ...
From Baruch Emanuel Erdstein's page on Tikkun Chatzot
https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/1321935/jewish/Up-at-Midnight.htm
The Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are known to have instituted the three established weekday prayers of Shacharit (morning), Mincha (afternoon), and Maariv (evening), respectively; it is King David, known as "the fourth leg" of G‑d’s throne, who is seen as being the first to establish the tradition of serving G‑d from midnight to dawn, as he himself writes in Psalms: "I will arise at midnight to give thanks to you…" (Psalms 119:62) ...
In more Kabbalistic terms, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob correspond to the lofty Divine Emanations (or sefirot) of chesed, gevura, and tiferet, respectively; David is associated with malchut, the manifestation below of all supernal spiritual flow from Above.
David, corresponding to the final hei of the Tetragrammaton, completes it.
Elsewhere in the Talmud the sages reinforce the idea that prayer and study in the middle of the night are especially propitious or effective.
תנא רבי חייא:
כל העוסק בתורה בלילה שכינה כנגדו שנאמר (איכה ב יט) "קומי רוני בלילה לראש אשמורות! שפכי כמים לבך נכח פני ה'" (וגו')
Rabbi Ḥiyya taught: With regard to anyone who occupies themself with Torah at night, the Divine Presence is right there with them, as it is stated:
“Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord, lift up your hands toward God.” (Lamentations 2:19)
During a fairly far out Talmudic discussion about the activities controlled by the seven levels of heaven beyond the sky (bet you never studied this bit in Hebrew school), one sage, Reish Lakish, asserts that spiritual practice in the middle of the night has a beneficial impact that lasts into the day to come. In this passage we also find the idea that bands of angels sing at night but are silent by day.
רֵישׁ לָקִישׁ אָמַר שִׁבְעָה וְאֵלּוּ הֵן וִילוֹן רָקִיעַ שְׁחָקִים זְבוּל מָעוֹן מָכוֹן עֲרָבוֹת
...
מָעוֹן שֶׁבּוֹ כִּיתּוֹת שֶׁל מַלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת שֶׁאוֹמְרוֹת שִׁירָה בַּלַּיְלָה וְחָשׁוֹת בַּיּוֹם מִפְּנֵי כְבוֹדָן שֶׁל יִשְׂרָאֵל, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר "יוֹמָם יְצַוֶּה ה׳ חַסְדּוֹ וּבַלַּיְלָה שִׁירֹה עִמִּי".
אָמַר רֵישׁ לָקִישׁ:
כׇּל הָעוֹסֵק בְּתוֹרָה בַּלַּיְלָה הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מוֹשֵׁךְ עָלָיו חוּט שֶׁל חֶסֶד בַּיּוֹם שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר "יוֹמָם יְצַוֶּה ה׳ חַסְדּוֹ."
וּמָה טַעַם "יוֹמָם יְצַוֶּה ה׳ חַסְדּוֹ"?
מִשּׁוּם "וּבַלַּיְלָה שִׁירֹה עִמִּי."
וְאִיכָּא דְּאָמְרִי אָמַר רֵישׁ לָקִישׁ כׇּל הָעוֹסֵק בַּתּוֹרָה בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה שֶׁהוּא דּוֹמֶה לְלַיְלָה הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מוֹשֵׁךְ עָלָיו חוּט שֶׁל חֶסֶד לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא שֶׁהוּא דּוֹמֶה לְיוֹם שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר "יוֹמָם יְצַוֶּה ה׳ חַסְדּוֹ וּבַלַּיְלָה שִׁירֹה עִמִּי."
Reish Lakish said: There are seven firmaments [dimensions beyond the sky], and they are as follows: Vilon, Rakia, Sheḥakim, Zevul, Ma’on, Makhon, and Aravot. The Gemara proceeds to explain the role of each firmament:
...
Ma’on, habitation, is where there are groups of ministering angels who recite song at night and are silent during the day out of respect for Israel, in order not to compete with their songs, as it is stated: “By day the Ever-Being decrees !ts kindness, and by night !ts song is with me” (Psalms 42:9), indicating that the song of the angels is with God only at night.
With regard to the aforementioned verse, Reish Lakish said:
Whoever occupies themself with Torah at night, the Holy One, Blessed be, extends a thread of kindness over them by day, as it is stated: “By day, the Lord will command God's kindness,” and what is the reason that “by day, the Lord will command God's kindness”? Because “and in the night God's song,” i.e., the song of Torah, “is with me.”
From Baruch Emanuel Erdstein's page on Tikkun Chatzot, definitely worth reading in its entirety:
https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/1321935/jewish/Up-at-Midnight.htm
One aspect of rising at midnight is that of consciously connecting – emotionally as well as mentally – with the Divine Presence, or "Shechina", in her state of exile. By strengthening this affinity, via meditation and genuine prayer, we direct our consciousness to the present imperfect state of the world and towards the idea of a perfected reality to which we, individually and collectively, aspire.
What is focused upon is the direction toward which we are moving….
Briefly, the mystical background to this custom can be understood by understanding that, generally, certain times manifest particular spiritual states, whether on yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, or, in this case, hourly cycles. In that "light" is a general term for divine mercy and holiness, and "dark" is a general term for spiritual alienation and harsh judgmental forces, one might think that daylight hours, exclusively, are the most favorable, mystically speaking.
In some ways that is true, but in the deepest teachings of Jewish mysticism what is focused upon is the direction toward which we are moving. Taking this into consideration, we can see that, actually, the "sweet" or "light-filled" hours begin exactly at midnight and [conclude] at high noon.
That moment of transformation from when the harshest of spiritual forces of the daily clock dominate to the beginning of the shining of the light of the coming day takes place exactly at the midpoint of the night.
Simply put, being awake and actively engaged in divine service from this time through the dawn allows us to tap into the incredible potential manifest by this spiritual phenomenon.
For this reason the 16th Century Kabbalists, including the holy Arizal [Rabbi Isaac Luria], who held that from their time on it is possible to bring about the Final Redemption, emphasized the importance of this Kabbalistic custom, which is taught to have the power to usher in the Messianic Era; it is said that in Safed, during that period of great anticipation of the Final Redemption (as well as tremendous revelations of Kabbalah), there were many entire congregations which assembled to pray and learn together at midnight with this intention.
In the 16th Century, the Safed Kabbalists codified a particular order of prayer for those who get up at this time, called "Tikkun Chatzot" or the "Midnight Rectification". Mostly consisting of Psalms and verses from the Torah relating to the destruction of the Holy Temple and our longing for the Redemption, it is divided into two major sections relating to the Matriarchs Rachel and Leah.
A very unreconstructed traditional text of Tikkun Chatzot in English and Hebrew can be found here:
https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Tikkun-%E1%B8%A4atzot-Nusa%E1%B8%A5-Ha-Ari-%E1%B8%A4aBaD.pdf
Various OG chassidic Rebbes discuss the importance of the Tikkun Chatzot practice, whether done nightly or less frequently (for instance once a week). Here are some ideas shared by Rebbe Nachman:
3. כִּי הַשֵּׁנָה הִיא בְּחִינַת לְאַדְבָּקָא מַחֲשַׁבְתָּא בְּעָלְמָא דְּאָתֵי בִּכְלָלִיּוּת כַּנַּ"ל, בְּחִינַת ה' אֱלֹקַי הַנַּ"ל. כִּי בִּשְׁעַת שֵׁנָה, הַנְּשָׁמָה עוֹלָה לְעָלְמָא דְּאָתֵי.
10. וְזֶה בְּחִינַת קִימָה בַּחֲצוֹת לַיְלָה, כִּי כִּנּוֹר הָיָה תָּלוּי לְמַעְלָה מִמִּטָּתוֹ שֶׁל דָּוִד, וְכֵיוָן שֶׁהִגִּיעַ חֲצוֹת לַיְלָה הָיָה מְנַגֵּן מֵאֵלָיו (כשארז"ל ברכות ג:). הַיְנוּ שֶׁבַּחֲצוֹת לַיְלָה אָז נִתְעוֹרֵר בְּחִינוֹת הַנִּגּוּן דִּקְדֻשָּׁה, הַנִּמְשָׁךְ מִכִּנּוֹר שֶׁל דָּוִד, שֶׁהוּא בְּחִינַת בֵּרוּר הָרוּחַ טוֹבָה וְכוּ' כַּנַּ"ל. וְעַל־כֵּן אָז הַזְּמַן לְהִתְגַּבֵּר בַּעֲבוֹדַת הַשֵּׁם, לָקוּם אָז לַעֲסֹק בַּעֲבוֹדַת הַשֵּׁם, לְפָרֵשׁ שִׂיחָתוֹ לְפָנָיו יִתְבָּרַךְ, כִּי אָז עִקַּר הַבֵּרוּר עַל־יְדֵי בְּחִינַת נִגּוּן בַּכְּלִי הַנַּ"ל, שֶׁהוּא בְּחִינַת כִּנּוֹר שֶׁל דָּוִד שֶׁמְּנַגֵּן אָז כַּנַּ"ל. וְהָבֵן הֵיטֵב דְּבָרִים אֵלּוּ לְמַעֲשֶׂה:
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Likkute Moharan, Part I, Torah 54:3 and 54:10
3. Sleep is the aspect of attaching one’s thoughts to the World to Come in a general way, as explained above... The reason for this is that while sleeping, [a person’s] soul ascends to the World to Come.
10. This is the aspect of waking at midnight. A harp hung over David’s bed, and when midnight arrived it would play by itself (Berakhot 3b). In other words, at midnight the aspect of sacred music drawn from the harp of David is aroused, this being the aspect of extracting the good ruach [spirit], etc., as explained above.
That is therefore the time to strengthen one’s Divine service: to awaken then to engage in the service of God, to speak at length to the Holy One. For it is mainly then that the above mentioned extracting through the aspect of playing music on an instrument occurs; this being the aspect of the harp of David, which played then, as explained above. Understand well the practical application of these matters.
אָמַר, שֶׁעַל־יְדֵי אֲמִירַת תִּקּוּן חֲצוֹת יְכוֹלִין לְפָרֵשׁ שִׂיחָתוֹ אֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר עִם לְבָבוֹ כְּמוֹ עַל־יְדֵי הִתְבּוֹדְדוּת. כִּי מִסְּתָמָא אֵין אוֹמְרִים חֲצוֹת עַל הֶעָבָר, וְעִקָּר אֲמִירַת חֲצוֹת הוּא עַל מַה שֶּׁנַּעֲשֶׂה עַכְשָׁו עִם הָאָדָם, וּכְשֶׁיֹּאמַר חֲצוֹת בִּבְחִינָה זוֹ, יְכוֹלִין לִמְצֹא כָּל אֲשֶׁר עִם לְבָבוֹ בְּתוֹךְ אֲמִירַת חֲצוֹת:
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Likkute Moharan, Part II, Torah 101:1
Rebbe Nachman said: By reciting Tikkun Chatzot, the Midnight Lament, a person can speak his heart out to God just as through hitbodedut. This is because in all likelihood we do not recite Chatzot over the past. The primary focus while reciting Chatzot is that which is presently happening to a person. When a person recites Chatzot in this manner, he can find everything assailing his heart within the words of the Midnight Lament.
Notes towards creating a middle of the night practice:
- Start with music, a niggun or playing on an instrument.
- Allow free-flow self-expression (hitbodedut).
- Address yourself to what is present for you now, and to the future, more than dwelling on the past.
- Tikkun Rachel: Start by focusing on what's wrong with the world. Allow yourself to experience real grief at the desecration of the sacred.
- Tikkun Leah: Now call in what's right. Describe your vision of redemption. Summon it.