Split-Shift Sleep

From: New York Times, Rethinking Sleep by Dave Randall Sept 22, 2012, (edited)

History prof Roger Ekirch noticed references to split-shift sleep in historical literature. People would sleep for awhile then wake up for awhile and then go back to sleep again.

A character in the “Canterbury Tales” decides to go back to bed after her “firste sleep.”

A doctor in England wrote that the time between the “first sleep” and the “second sleep” was the best time for study and reflection.

A 16th-century French physician concluded that laborers were able to conceive more children because they waited until after their “first sleep” to make love.

At the same time, Tommy Wehr, a psychiatrist, was conducting an experiment in which subjects were deprived of artificial light.

At first, the subjects slept through the night. Then they began to wake up a little after midnight, lie awake for a couple of hours, and then drift back to sleep again, in the same pattern Ekirch saw in historical records and literature.

Subjects grew to enjoy the time in the middle of the night as a chance for deep thinking of all kinds, whether in the form of self-reflection, getting a jump on the next day or amorous activity.

 

Comments

[Dr Nik]

When possible, my body prefers split sleep. It's rare for me to achieve due to modern societies focus on 8-5 productivity.

Naturally I tend to sleep best from ~2-6 twice a day. I usually sleep 3-4 hours in each bracket.

I also do 11pm-2am and 4am-7am quite well.

[Bill Fester]

I noticed the original NYT article last week and wanted to thank you for pointing it out. Split shift sleeping works, and I've done it many times when working on projects where the anxiety of getting it done, made middle night sleep impossible. Fact is, while I thought I'd be a zombie the next day, two brackets of a few hours of sleep worked just as well as one long one.

However,one of the points of the original article was that this was How Man Was before incandescent bulbs and I don't disagree. Maybe one of the factors could be that lighting was a serious cost and when you consider here in late October how long darkness really is. the expense of candles or oil might be prohibitive for many.

The other consideration is just fatigue. Life was full of a lot more physical exhaustion. Falling asleep after a day's work would have been easy, but sustaining sleep for over 8 hours at a stretch is difficult. I've found that at a certain point of exhaustion, while I may quickly fall asleep, I don't sleep as well. Hence getting up for an hour or so, then drifting off.

Now if we could just get auto repair places to consider this...

Regards,
Bill Fester