I’ve slept this way for quite some time. Fall asleep with my girlfriend 10pm. Wake up around 1am. Use the time from 1am to 4 or 5am to do creative tasks, projects, reading, studying, etc. Go back to bed around 4 or 5am and wake up between 8am to 10am depending on how tired I feel or how early I have to be somewhere. I like this sleep schedule because I’m an introvert and it feels nice knowing that almost everyone around you is asleep. It makes me feel like I have the whole world to myself.
As an introvert, I 100% vibe with this statement. I think it’s why I’m a night owl. I love being alone at night doing my own thing. Just thinking about it makes me dance inside lol.
This 💯% my favorite times to crochet were in the middle of the night in the living room when my whole family was asleep and my dog daisy would nap beside me on the couch 😁
legitimate question from someone interested in maybe doing this in the future, did you ever have to use an alarm to wake yourself up at 1am when first developing this sleeping habit? How do you wake up at 1am without disturbing your girlfriend?
I’m a huge extrovert, but still have a night time circadian rhythm. My family were clearly the night watchmen. I’m a 3rd shifter and just sleep whenever I want. And my sleep is almost always broken up because I don’t sleep more than 4-5 hours at a time. I like being up at night because there is less static in the air. Idk if it’s because there is so much electricity on during the day? But I literally feel it on my skin that night is calmer. I hate that capitalism is killing us slowly.
Its important to note that people naturally following this schedule would be waking naturally without an alarm for the '1st waking'. This is important because your body and brain goes through cycles of light and deep sleep and if an alarm wakes you in the middle of a deep sleep phase your overall sleep quality will suffer. In addition, obviously you wont feel rested during that 1st waking if you are awoken in a deep sleep phase.
@@davidmowbray6352 Your body gets accustomed to waking up in the middle of the night, especially when the fire begins to wane and you start to get too cold. You can experience a taste of this by going camping in the winter.
@@davidmowbray6352 Im sure someone somewhere did for some specific reason but in general no, there was no need for any kind of clock, timer or whatever. The point I was making is that Biphasic sleep is a natural sleep cycle and your bodies internal 'clock' is what is waking you up and then putting you back to sleep a little later before getting you up again for the day. Allowing your internal clock to do the job is much healthier.
The basic alarm was a candle with nails in that would fall and make noise. Clepsydra (water clocks) were used by the ancient chinese, egyptians, greeks and romans and had bells, gongs and trumpets.
My understanding of the two sleep cycles goes back to a time before artificial light and using fireplaces for heat. Usually, people would go to bed when the sun had set then get up around the middle of the night to stoke the fireplace and prep things for the coming day (food, clothing, etc) after which they would go back to bed and then rise with the sun.
Yeah, that was my understanding, too. I've been doing "two sleeps" for about ten years as a way to hack my naturally nocturnal circadian rhythm. I work at a coffee shop, so I get up at 5am usually. I get off work at 1 or 2pm, and as soon as I get home, I shower, do yoga, eat a light snack, brush my teeth, and fall into bed from about 4pm-7pm. I don't set an alarm, I just wake up, and I am only groggy for a minute or two. For the next five hours, I get my daily tasks done for the day. Around 10 pm, I clean the kitchen up and prep a grab-and-go breakfast. And then around 12am I settle in to bed again and sleep for 5 hours. Now, I will say that this method has drawbacks. Socializing on workdays is impossible. I have to limit my caffeine intake to just one cup first thing in the morning, or else my sleep schedule is jacked up again. If I am off work for longer than a weekend, say, for illness or time off, my sleep schedule goes right back to nocturnal and it takes me a bit to get back into biphasic sleep. But, for what it is, it is an extremely good sleep schedule and helps me immensely when I need it.
@@planescaped As someone who struggles with insomnia this 2 sleep method works for me. I happen to be awake right now at 1:45am after 3 1/2 hrs of sleep (I slept from 9-12:30am). I will most likely go back to bed at 3am and wake at 8am.
I've done this, living in houses with just a wood stove for heat. But I also would be asleep by 7-9 pm, because it's dark and cold, then I'd wake up between 2-4, make a fire and a cup of coffee, then crash on the couch in front of the fire until the sun came up around 7. It's the going back to sleep part I have trouble with.
I actually do this in the winter. I get out of work around 3, it gets dark around 4ish. I sleep for like two hours. Then get up, do what I got to do then go back to bed around 12 then get up around 7/sunrise
I love this sleep cycle is finally being discussed and accepted. Me and most on my fathers side all have this sleep pattern and have been criticized for decades bc it’s strange. Why does is matter if you clean your house at 1am vs 1pm?! We just split our sleep and time differently. We have professions as artists, musicians, stockbrokers, nurses/medical that allow this pattern easily. It was common growing up for my father to find me playing with my toys at 2am while he was getting up from his “1st sleep”. It allows us to be night AND morning people. I rarely use an alarm and can wake up early just fine or stay up late. People will often ask if I ever sleep bc I will respond quickly to texts and calls at any hour, within a few hours, bc I’m never asleep that long. I get 6-8hrs of sleep per day, just not in the traditional sense. And middle of the night is so beautifully quiet and still. I loved this video and glad the phase sleepers are finally getting recognized instead of criticized. Thank you for doing a video on this topic ✌️
Whoever has been criticising you knows nothing about sleep. Biphasic sleep was normal for humanity basically the entire era before artificial light and the industrial revolution. The idea of 'one big sleep' is, in effect, the result of capitalism's insistence on a 9-5 work day.
I’m a nurse as well how interesting! and I rarely need an alarm either it’s interesting I’ve never heard this but it started when I had a puppy who needed to go out and she’s two now sleeping through the night and here I am 1:07 am up probably til 4-5am the problem is I never actually get the 5 hrs straight until mid afternoon early evening, maybe I should try for just the hr and see what happens. I’m so wide awake when I wake up now
My Job requires Me to be up at 3.30am and cycle to work at 4.00am I get home at 3.30pm and sleep at 5.00pm, I wake up at 8.00pm go shopping and go to bed at 11.00pm this would be fine if I didn't have a shxx nabor blasting music any time day or night sometime going from 5pm to 5am non stop which drives Me insane. This guy lives on his own in the woods and dont work a normal job.
I thought I had to fight this way of functioning for so long. When I was a teenager and naturally fell into this rhythm I was prescribed sleeping meds rather than taught how to accept my natural sleeping pattern. Now I go to bed around 8pm then wake around 1-2am then work/study/play games etc then sleep again from around 5-7.30. It works perfectly for me but I don’t honestly think its something you can force yourself to do, it has to be natural to you.
Ha! Welcome to my world. When I turned 50, 18 years ago, this sleep pattern became my normal no matter how much I tried to conform with what people call normal. Now I like it, and actually plan things I'll do in that time period.
Yes! change in sleep patterns is extremely common as we age. Its often theorized by evolutionary biologists that it may be a hold over from our hunter gatherer days. Imagine a human tribe resting for the night but the elders even though they are injured from a Hard life can't hunt anymore they can still set up and take a night watch and feed the fire and raise an alarm.
This happened to my wife and I (44/46). It lasted a couple of years then she changed jobs that included shift work, so she was irregular and I suffered insomnia on the nights she worked at the hospital. [It is common that US staff nurses pull 12-hour shifts] We enjoyed the second sleep routine while it lasted.
56 here and same thing! In my youth, I was a night owl, never asleep before midnight (realistically never asleep before 2am!). in the past few years I go to bed around 10/11 and fall right asleep. I wake up between 2 and 4 and get up. I’m awake and productive until about 6 or 8 where I’ll got back to a nice deep sleep for two to four more hours (I’m retired, so wake time is irrelevant.). I’m guessing that this is my new sleep schedule and it works for me. I’ve come to enjoy the solace when I’m awake before dawn. I make coffee, enjoy the peace, and enjoy whatever I’m doing - reading, knitting, painting, journaling, or sometimes just watching RUclips like I am right this minute at 4:30am! 😊
I've done this my entire life. My mom used to scold me for being up and playing in the middle of the night. But as I had no trouble getting up for school, eventually I was left to my "unusual" sleep pattern. For some people this is obviously their natural circadian rhythm. It is for me. I actually envy people who can get 8-10 hours of uninterrupted sleep or who are able to sleep in on their days off. lol
@@luella2u152 I have 2 cycles. 4-5 hours is my normal. Or 10-11 hours if I’m not well or overworked. I never found comfort in the 6-10 range. There are people still living that used to give teething babies cocaine as medical treatment. Medical science is for sale. It would be nice if people knew they could just sleep however their body wants. It’s literally the top 3 human functions we have. It’s weird it’s not prioritized.
I have had babies that do this. Sleep until 2 and then be up. Eventually I could move them to sleeping solidly but it enjoyed that time in the middle of the night with them. They'd be happy and we would talk and play and cuddle. I miss it.
Well, that’s essentially Spanish siesta with different schedules. My grampa did this his whole life: he slept at night from 11pm to 5am and then slept again from 3pm to 5 pm. He used to do all the physical very hard work in the morning (given that we have lunch at 2pm) and left the second half of the day for socialising, going for a walk, shopping, etc.
Yes, that’s me. I get up at 5 am and my job starts at 8. I need to be alert and focused all the time, so I am very tired at around 3 pm. If in any way possible, I have my siesta because I feel like a zombie. At around 5 pm, I become a living person again.
I pretty much do this already, I hadn't realized people did this I thought I just had terrible insomnia but I guess it's just how my brain works. I love those hours though it's quiet, everyone's sleeping, I get laundry done, meal prep for the week, I even have my yard so lit up I can garden at night in the spring and summer, I know the neighbors have to think I'm nuts or on meth or something.
I function this way and have been for about 2 years. I generally sleep around 10 PM and wake up around 1-2 AM. I awaken naturally and am completely alert and ready for the day. I stay awake 2-3 hours and sleep again until about 6:30. 5.5-6.5 hours total sleep usually (I track with a garmin) and I am absolutely most productive in that wake window, as well as 2-3 hours after waking the second time for a period of about 1-2 hours. I honestly can’t imagine functioning any other way now. This change came about naturally for me after my wife and I had a child. I found that it was the only time I could get uninterrupted work or exercise done with a newly born (I usually cycle on my power trainer, so yoga or work). Love that you’ve put a label to my weird habit and that you’re experimenting with it! Great video!
Started doing this unintentionally while going through withdrawal years ago. First thing I noticed were the lucid dreams. I wrote them all down and have about 300 pages of them now. Strange thing is now I’m so used to this sleeping my body made a natural rhythm. Only difference is I work overnight so my schedule is always 11am-1pm, 4pm-10pm. I found this way easier to manage my daily life tasks as well. If you try it, document your dreams. Doing this gave me a purpose to quit drugs and I am forever grateful to have discovered it.
I just started watching your videos about a week ago. Great channel! I am 16 and happen to be interested in most everything you post about, also your editing and story telling style is amazing. Keep up the great work, you have made a positive impact on my life!
I live in opposite side of the world and i was discussing this with my mom who says people used to wake up in middle of night,some read books others prayed and went to sleep again.Your video reinforces this as a human habit.
Dear Jonne. I absolutely love these challenges and experiments. They are some of my favorite topics that you do. But I have a wish, that in my opinion would make the videos a lot better. Don't just end them. Don't just log what you are doing, and then stop the video on the last day. Please give us a little more. A conclusion of sorts. What happened? What was the results. Are you better now? Was it worth it? Will you continue to do it - and why/why not? Were there any benefits? If you were to do it again, would you change something? Was it just fun/stupid to try, or is there an actual benefit?... Because I would love to learn more. It's like you are doing a scientific experiment on yourself, but are leaving out the conclusion. That's the most important part! I love your channel, please keep it up. Best of luck with everything!
the conclusion is woven into the whole video... and if you are looking for something more like "in your face", have a closer look at the last few seconds (those with the article)
The results seem to show improvement in health. Maybe this is a good thing after all? Benjamin Franklin used to switch beds every night, it never occurred to me as to how he managed it, but maybe he too practiced a two sleep method.???
I think I might actually try this schedule. I work night shift 7pm to 7am most days and I feel guilty sleeping through my whole day when I wakeup. I think this might be a good thing to do. I'll update after I've done it for a few weeks.
I work 12 hr night shifts too. A couple of years ago, I started breaking my sleep into two sessions 4 hours, and later, 3 hours. I take 10 mg melatonin as soon as I get home, which helps me sleep deeply for the first "nap." It works very well for me.
There is one KEY element to this that gets forgotten: What you are doing in the middle of the night is still basically just relaxing in the dark. It's time for introspection, perhaps song or composition, MAYBE a bit of knitting or crafting if you are good enough to not need to see what you're doing, but mostly it was just time people took to be together. ... Including to make more people. Though that's hardly the ONLY thing. This absolutely WILL NOT WORK if you wake up after a few hours, slam on all your lights, drink a cup of coffee, get in front of your screen, and try to "wake up" like you would in the morning, and then go back to bed within a couple hours.
I’ve been following a polyphasic sleep schedule called Every Man 2 for about seven years now. The schedule is comprised of 4.5hrs of "core sleep" followed by two 20min naps spread out through the day. I’m very happy with it and am so used to it that I never set alarms anymore.
This is me. I still manage to get 8 hours. I used to stress about waking up almost every night. But I don't anymore. I kind of love it. My me time between sleeps is my favorite time. I usually study my Japanese, knock out my flashcards and do some uninterrupted immersion during my wake time without my 4½ year old hollering and harassing me. 😂
@@laidman2007 Same. I feel relaxed and refreshed and ready to study with no interruptions. It's easy to get into a good flow state for immersion during that time as well. I also do a bit of Duolingo. It was how I got started, actually. Then it just kind of snowballed into an all consuming interest from there. Of course when I started in May 2020, they didn't have the excellent Kana lesson section like now. Or stories. How long have you been studying Japanese? I just passed 2 ½ years last week. I estimate that I'm somewhere between N3 & N2. Judging by practice tests. Plus the RUclips grammar lesson topics I search for now are N3/N2. That's how I tend to gauge where I'm at. Wish I was further along after 2½ years, but life, ya know 😅 My speaking ability is definitely N5-N4 though 😂 I use the immersion method primarily, so I have only just begun to really make output my primary focus. I've always done some output because my 4½ year old has been learning with me since my first day and we don't skip days.
@@LostSoulchild89 I primarily use RUclips, Netflix, Animelon, podcasts とか. I love anime, comedies, and dramas. I have tried to watch a few reality shows, but most of the Japanese reality shows revolve around dating and I just can't force myself to be interested. So for unscripted content, I rely on podcasts and RUclips. My favorite podcast at the moment is Ikinari Japanese on Google podcasts. Totally unscripted, natural, neutral Japanese at normal speed. No music or breaks. For reading, I have been using mostly Japanese CC subtitles, Satori Reader, news websites. I've bought several kids' books to read with my daughter, but the all hiragana is kind of a headache, tbh. I'd like to use manga and light novels as well, but I haven't really found a decent source for that. So I don't read as much as I'd like to. I mean, I'm constantly reading subtitles and mining for vocab, but I'd like to read stories and literature also. I don't really count subtitles as reading. I was manually sentence mining after finishing my first 1000 word sentence flashcard deck, but I had to make all my flashcards manually on my phone. Ugh. That was way too time consuming and it was taking me out of immersion too often for too long each time I had to stop to make a card. After about 1500 sentence cards, I switched to vocab cards that I can make straight from my Takoboto dictionary app. Alongside that I downloaded the Core 2K/6K Optimized Japanese Vocabulary deck for Anki and I do words from both decks. I'm careful not to spend more than an hour in Anki, so I regularly change my daily card amount to keep my review numbers reasonable. However, I have plans to begin using Migaku and Iago soon, so I'll probably go back to full sentence mining when I do and stop adding cards to my Takoboto deck. What kind of materials are you using? Sorry to blabber, but I get really stoked talking about learning Japanese. My 4½ year old daughter is the only person I know irl who's also learning Japanese 😂😅
I have naturally started to do this since I started going to bed early (8-9pm). I seem to always wake around 2-3 am and back to bed around 5 until 7 am. I seem to always be tired after the second sleep, but I'm always woken by an alarm and not naturally so that may be why.
i’ve found that if i sleep straight through the night my energy slowly depletes throughout the day. when you wake up from a long nap you feel great and then you aren’t tired. so i sleep in 3-5 hours blocks twice a day. i wake up feeling rested to go to class and get some work done, go back to sleep to reset and then at night i’m waking up in a different mood with the days events behind me. it’s a reset and anyone who does this knows it makes 1 day feel like 2. which is awesome. making you more productive for long hours of the day and never being 15-20 hours from another rest. if you have a particularly shitty morning you go to bed right when you get back so the rest of your day isn’t in a shitty mood. problem solved.
Yeah, I get that. I often sleep between 16h00 and 20h00, usually a 3 hr block. Then I get up, do evening chores, cooking (for the next day) and entertainment. Go to bed between 2 and 4 in the morning. Get up at around 9h30. Sometimes, if I'm really tired, my siesta will last until 23h00, and then I get up.
When I was in college I settled into a routine where I took a 2 hour ish nap when I got home from class, then ate dinner, went back to the library and studied till it closed at 12AM, went home and ate a snack and watched Conan before heading to bed. Had way more energy than I do now, although it probably had more to do with being 20 years younger than I am now 😂
Great and interesting video Jonne! I am on my 11 month with the experiment of only sleeping for maximum 2hours at a time and average around 5 hours of sleep per day. It's called having twins 😅 I recommend having twins, but do not recommend sleeping this little I have noticed it affecting me badly in many ways and it's almost impossible to recover from hard workouts when I never get a full night of sleep.
Hi Göran, I'm interested to know if you feel it's affecting your life/performance/recovery badly. Why did you continue all the way till month 11? There must've been indicators in the first couple of weeks. Or is there a "super advantage" of this sleeping method that you haven't mentioned 🤔
I feel that you have gone to extremes with this experiment for the sake of “science”. I’m just not convinced that “having twins” was really the right methodology for this study. But perhaps we can pivot. 🤔 Are you keeping a video log of your findings? What does your lab partner have to say about this development in the setup parameters? Have you noted any difference in the Lab Subjects, excuse me, “twins” since you snuck them out of the facility and into a home-environment? I think a longitudinal study of 18-24 years is in order. Perhaps your original experiment could be run in parallel. You might even add a study of your stress-levels and any correlation between increased gray hair in you and your lab partner and extreme activity from the Lab Subjects/“twins”.
My technique is fairly complicated. When I am tired, I go to sleep and awake when I ... wake up. If I am still tired I return to sleep. Some 8-10 hours each day. I love sleeping. Granted, I am retired and get my money for the chore of existing, that may have something to do with its functionality.
i work and go to sleep right after i get home then i sleep for however long my body decides to do so and then spend my freetime well rested before going to work again
@@ZoeylaRose Thats actually not a bad idea. That would probably not be wise in healthcare since they often get called to additional shifts in succession, but in most jobs it could probably work well.
Gotta give this a shot, I used to wake up at 4am when I did 30k steps a day for a morning walk and it always felt so peaceful to be awake this early and go to sleep again after it, miss those times
@@crewscotton I had to put 30k steps a day, so I divided it in chunks, in the morning I did a 10k chunk and this goes on for the day, not a 100% 30k in one big walk
I regularly biphasic sleep. I don't force it though, no schedule. I'm an insomniac, so if I fall asleep early (before midnight) I usually wake up around 2 or 3 am. Instead of fighting waking up, when this happens I just let myself be awake until I can fall back asleep. Second sleep on a night like that is amazing, the dreams are crazy. However, if I sleep through the night I just let that happen. I never force the 2 phases. This has helped me a lot with getting restful sleep when my insomnia is light to moderate. The only time it's an issue is that rare occasion that I have an early morning. Then I try to get my normal 6 1/2 to 7 hours of sleep.
I've been doing this for many years, long before I knew it was "a thing", and I really love it. I think maybe it suits me so well because I only ever sleep about 5-6 hours per night anyway and I never feel tired during the day. That's all I've ever slept, even as a child, unless I'm (1) sick or (2) sleep deprived for some external reason, like caring for a sick family member or something. Anyway, I generally go to bed, wake up a few hours later feeling perfectly refreshed and awake, and get up to do whatever I feel like doing. Often I work, other times I putter around the house, sometimes I do something creative, occasionally I'll read or watch a movie or something like that. Usually after a couple hours I start feeling a little bit sleepy again so I go back to bed and sleep for a few more hours, then I get up feeling fine and go about my day. I do set an alarm on work days just in case, so that I don't accidentally oversleep, but on weekends I typically wake up either before my alarm time or right around it. It's definitely not a lifestyle for everyone, but I wrote all of this to say that for some people it really does work great. Thanks for this interesting exploration of the pattern.
I work really strange hours and have fallen into this routine naturally. People think it's strange, but I feel rested and usually do workout between the sleeps. One difference is my time between sleeps is usually about 4 to 6 hour.
An additional advantage of two sleeps is if an apex preaditor attacks your ready to deal with it. If your in a group with different wake periods then your safer than if a predator attacks and everybody is sleeping.
i think its a cycle that comes from very hard work and you naturally fall asleep as soon as you can when you get home, get up do the things you were too tired to do, then go to bed again And it definitely felt like a very different version of myself during that second awake cycle and i got quite a lot done, but it comes to me rarely and only when very tired before the first sleep.
I pretty much do this naturally, though it’s not a preference. Actually, I’m currently watching you in between my two sleeps 😂 Personally, I’ve noticed my creativity increases within some sort of mindless activity like an easy walk. Content recommendation: Do a ruck race. If you need resources check 1. Any military, 2. GoRuck, 3. MTNTough. Hopefully my creativity helps you out 😂
I actually naturally wake up around 2 or 3am every night. I actually accidentally did this one night as I just couldn’t get back to sleep. Warm shower, coffee, reading, and little bit of tv, and slept like a baby and felt very refreshed waking up about 9am
I think the key is to wakeup naturally in the middle of the night without an alarm. Without the alarm you get the full sleep cycle. It happens more when you are older, and you body needs less sleep. Try the experiment again when you turn 35.
This is exactly how I sleep every night. Thank you for the confirmation that many creative people sleep this way. I am an artist and have read that 100 to 200 years ago people slept this way. Once in a while I will take a nap, an hour or so but usually only if I don't get the second snooze in. Again, thank you for sharing.😅😅😅😅
This would have worked better if you matched your first sleep to your circadian rhythm. For 2 sleep cycles you'd want to set your alarm for 3 hours and 15 minutes after you go to bed. By doing 3 hours you're close. However, cutting a bit off your sleep cycle makes it harder to wake and you're left feeling tired.
It works best without an alarm, for me at least. I wake up around 3 fully rested, eat then go back to sleep. Using alarms is asking to get too little sleep
For whatever reason this sleep cycle was really natural for me for many periods of my life. Sometime it happens spontaneously and other times I wake up with panic attacks. It still happens to me every now and again for a week at a time. Usually though, I sleep from maybe 1-4am, stay up for 2 or 3 hours, and then sleep again from 7-10 or 11. Regarding creativity at that time of night (well, technically morning), I'd say it's not a great time for generating new ideas but rather seeing life more clearly. Often when I wake up after only 3 hours of sleep, I feel strong emotions when I wake up and I end up journaling for a long time until I fall back to sleep. I also love doing sudoku when I'm up at those hours
Being a night worker for the last 18 years ….this is akin to my sleep pattern….who knew it was a habit from the past . Plus my dreams are very vivid and real and actually better than my waking life. Sad but true
I slept very bad at school days, so i started to sleep at 5pm. Because my body wasn't used to it, i would wake up at around 9-11pm everytime and go back to sleep late and it became a routine. I've done that for years and my most productive moment is when i wake up at 9pm, i feel so refreshed, the reason is that i was waking up normally and without an alarm.
Because I have DSPD (delayed sleep-phase disorder) and have had this for as long as I can remember.. And I know of one (Finnish) uncle who was a sleep-walker and had odd sleep schedules as well.. Like, it made me wonder if at some point somewhere in my family line my family were night-shift guards for generations on end or something so an adaptive mutation happened in our genes and I inherited that or something.. Cool experiment in any case! Super interesting, I had never heard this '2 sleeps' was common practise at some point. But I had definitely wondered before.
When I became sober I had trouble sleeping and found this pattern natural. I found that I was much more productive with my time. My memory was much better and my body aches less. I found this video after reading the same article and doing a search for more info. I'm going to look at going back into this routine as I have a busy house and enjoy the solitude of the early hours
4:40 - the not needing to be anywhere else, TOTALLY. I used to be a bit of a nightowl, and then I discovered that if I woke up at about 4 or 5, I would get so much done because I just felt like it was all "free" time anyway. It's like being given $500 to spend on whatever you want, so instead of spending on stupid stuff, you spend it on the thing that you were annoyed about like a dentist's bill or something, but you don't feel annoyed about it because someone else paid.
I'm someone who changes their sleep schedule very frequently, depending on the busy period ahead of me (for example: in winter it's 8/9pm-6/6:30am and in summer is 6/8pm-3/4am). I change so frequently that my body quickly adapts to new sleep schedules, and I think it's rather nice bc I get to live my days in different ways. I've never tried sleep phases tho, mainly bc I think it'd never match what I have to do in a day and bc it's just not conveniente sleep wise.
First time seeing this channel, I usually fall asleep between 10 and 12pm, wake up (from city traffic noise) about 2:30 to 3:30am, If I don't fall back to sleep within 1/2 hour, I usually get up and do YT, or odd things around the house. I am experimenting with ways to get back to sleep. examples: count backward from 18 on each exhale, breath holding, breathing in and out non-stop, Yoga Nidra, and relaxation visualizations. They all seem to work sometimes, nothing seems to work all the time. Hello! from Canada
I did this for a year and a half while finishing nursing school. I did it so I could study and do work in the middle of the night without interruption from my wife or kids. It worked well for me. I didn't notice any negative effects and I retained knowledge studied during that early a.m. study time just fine.
Polyphasic sleep works for me. I can adapt to any sleep pattern based on need. For instance, sailing a boat alone across the ocean, I need to wake up periodically to check horizon.
polyphasic sleep is mentioned in journals as early as the end of the Roman empirical period, if not earlier. Their nights might have been lighted by oil lamps, fire light, rush lights or in rare cases candles so physical activity would be a norm (prepping meals, stacking fire wood) or mental (project planning). Using electric lights can produce an irregular rhythm as the spectrum of modern light waves can be very disruptive. I have polyphasic sleep and use the night time to clean up. And make notes after I wake in the morning.
I found this last night when I had insomnia. It didn’t help me at all to go back to sleep and felt and motivated me to get up and do some stuff. Which I did. And then I got sleepy and then I woke up again immediately. So anyway thanks for keeping me company.
This is hilarious because I definitely sleep in obscure sleep cycles, I even call them sleeps. I have heard and read that a sleep cycle is about 90 minutes, and I try to get a total of about 8 hours a night, so usually sleep for 2 or 3 cycles and then wake up for a couple hours and then go back to bed for 2 or 3 cycles.
I have done this naturally pretty much ever since quarantine and it works for me. At first I tried to fight it but then saw articles and videos like yours. I goto bed around 10:30. I wake up around 3:30 or 4, stay up about an hour and then go back to bed until 7:30. I have very busy days with work and family so I find the time in the middle of the night is a good time to recharge. Usually I just relax by the fire and read but sometimes I work if I am inspired. I usually sleep really deeply during the second sleep. I think it also has to do with being comfortable in bed. I have a pretty comfortable bed but sometimes areas of my body get little aches and it helps to stretch and reset.
I naturally sleep this way. Have been doing it for years and I think it works best for me. I've never used alarm clocks and if I do I wake up about five minutes before the time I have set. I think this cycle has led to a pretty healthy life for myself. I'm still in good shape and have a lot of energy.
I've had an interesting sleep experience in the past year. I was experiencing severe insomnia, so I decided to start taking melatonin and going to bed at eleven, and no blue light or food in the hour before. Slept like the dead for about a week, but after stabilising (my body must have been recuperating), I started waking up naturally around 4 am. It was too early, but as I was very awake, I read, did some drawing, watched a video, and around six I'd sleep again, until nine. It felt really good, so I tried going to bed at ten, then at nine, to wake up at eight and have the mid-night awake time. I am now following the medieval two sleeps, naturally. And I have to admit that the hours between are fantastic to do my classes preparation, drawing, small tasks, etc. My cats also love to have me awake in the night.
You should try this again and wake up at 4am, work for 1.5-2 hrs and then go back to sleep. This is when I get my most productive work done! I do this naturally, and I randomly started this process in grad school. I didn't realize this was a thing for years to come. It saved my butt.
biciecadian rhythm, there are some cool books about this...i'll see if i can find the one i have. i will say i seem to naturally have a bicircadian rhythm. i haven't been utilizing it, so i'll give the chores and creativity to try it. i think you won't get the benefits unless you naturally wake up in the middle of the night without an alarm.
I often revert to this on weekends. I'm currently on disability and it's pretty much the same story. For me it's just natural, I don't force it. I wouldn't say it's every single night, but probably 50-70% of the time when I'm able to.
Its interesting the fact that this was a medieval habit considering candles and lightmaking objects weren't obviously as available as they are today, it just seems like a sleeping habit that would fit the modern era of artificial light, on a side note... I've unintentionally done this when I used to wake up super early and do some work on my laptop then I would go back to sleep and wake up in time to actually get up to go to work (in the office) and I can say while it didn't happen every time I'd go back to sleep but 100% my most crazy vivid dreams happened in the couple hours I'd go back to sleep in the early morning. It was like those crazy dreams you would have as a kid lol Anyway, pretty wild stuff and honestly I did this on and off for several years in my life and I didn't feel like it was unhealthy (but I didn't do any medical test stuff) but it seems like your body can get used to lots of different schedules if you make it a habit but yeah if you want some crazy dreams and contrary to what you might think, you do get some clarity and oddly enough a motivation boost (for work or creativity or fitness etc) in that early morning window. It's definitely do-able for awhile!
I love being awake at around 1 to 4 am, its the quietness and the slightly cool air that is the most comforting feeling ever, especially when you live in a hot tropical city like I do. I find that Im the most creative during these hours and most of my work in song writing literally just does itself
I actually had this sleep schedule accidentally for a couple of weeks. After work, I took a (way too long) nap woke up at 10 to 11PM then ate something went to the Gym and at 2 to 3AM I went to sleep again. It was nice to have the gym for me alone most of the time, but I was tired most of the day and eventually stopped my naps and got a somewhat normal rhythm back haha
Been doing this for years now, just going to bed waay earlier. Getting a ton of creative work done during those quiet hours, more so than daylight hours if given the same time
I actually have 24 'Little Sleeps' of 20 mins each, because I like to wake every 20 minutes and scream at the top of my lungs until I fall asleep again. I'm sure there's some fancy medical term for what kind of sleeper I am, but Mum and Dad just call me ''That damn baby'.
In ancient times where there was no electricity this was the norm. In the winter the night could last 14 hours. So everyone had dinner and the sun went down at 6pm. Then go to sleep. Then wake up between 11pm and midnight. You would check the live stock and the property check all locks on the house. And go back to sleep around 1am. Then wake up at 6am and break your fast when the sun comes up. This is where breakfast comes from. After a long night you break your fast at daybreak.
I've had 'two sleeps' for years, and it has never really been voluntary. On some days, I just SNAP awake and no amount of tossing and turning helps. So I climb out of bed, find something to do, and after about two hours, my head slowly starts to feel like someone is squeezing it in a vice. Not painfully, but like a gentle pressing at the temples. At that point, I go back to bed and I'm out like a light. I wake up later refreshed and carry on with the day.
I’m pretty sure this original practice had more to do with the lack of electricity than efficiency. I’m also dubious that setting an alarm in the middle of the night will improve sleep quality.
I think putting a time limit on how long you sleep and stay awake as well as between sleeps activity is a factor. I normally sleep from 11 to 4, stay up 60 to 90 minutes then sleep until I wake up. While I'm awake I usually do very non mentally demanding things like dishes, put in a load of laundry in, play a video game, "visit" with the bf or read. It's a relaxing time for me with no real demands.
The article also mentions that social activities and some work also occur during the short waking time. You can add to your experiment other people matching your sleep schedule.
I read an article once about summarizing a university study following this principle. They got some volunteer students and basically put them in an environment that mimicked the time before electric lighting. The room gradually went dark and then light following the sun. They found that almost all the student slept the entire night for the first 5 days or so but then they naturally went into the "two sleeps" (the said this indicated that all the subjects were sleep deprived). They continued the study for a month, and almost universally, the subjects reported more creativity, restful sleep, more energy etc. They went to sleep shortly after sunset, had a 3 to 5 hour waking period and then went to sleep again and woke with the dawn. They followed up on the subjects after the study and found that all of them had eventually reverted to the one sleep and lost all the benefits they had gained during the study. They concluded that the subjects were initially sleep deprived but the benefits they encountered could not be all directly attributed to getting enough sleep. It was re enforced that the benefits stopped when they quit the "two sleeps".
I'd heard about this before, but really cool to see someone actually give it a try. As for the creativity question, I can say that it's very much true for me. When I was writing or planning videos or whatever, it was always the nights I didn't sleep that were when I was the most inspired or most creative. Now I wasn't doing the two sleeps thing, I was just an insomniac, but it was always the times when I couldn't get to sleep that I was flooded with ideas. I wrote so many stories between 1 and 4am.
Not exactly the same but when I worked a night shift or graveyard shift I often times had a "two sleeps" schedule, especially for night shift. I would often work from 2pm to about 11pm, hit the gym around 1130pm to about 1am and then I'd sleep til about 7am and then go back to back to bed from about 9 to noon. It allowed me to be up during the normal breakfast time of my s/o and roomamates and converse with them and then get a short nap before getting back up for work. I didn't do this everyday, and it allowed me to adjust my sleep schedule to normal days where I didnt work nights easily.
Did something like this in college my junior and senior years. Slept every 12 to 4 on the clock, up every 4 to 12. Broke my days into 2 blocks. The morning 4 to 12 was school work followed by class. The evening 4 to 12 was sports practice, dinner, evening classes, and more school work. Loved it. Then I graduated and employers expect you to be awake from 12 to 4. In my 50s now, can't wait to retire and go back to a split schedule.
Early 90's I read about two sleeps in Playboy. And at that time I was working the grave shift, usually 23-0700. To bed by 8, up by 10 to go to karate at 11. Lunch at 1230 and bed at 1400. Up at 1800 to eat and go to college classes at 1900. Home by 2200 and work at 2300. All in all I felt great. The only time in my life I felt like I was refreshed after I had slept.
I remember when I first learned of this sleep pattern. It felt right to me. As someone who has suffered from insomnia this sleep pattern really does work for me. Ironically I am up right now at 1:45am watching this after sleeping for 3 1/2 hrs (9pm-12:30am)and I will be going back to bed probably around 3 or 4am and waking around 8-9am.
@The Unlazy Way, I used to, and sometimes still do, a 4 sleep 8 wake times two cycle. It worked really well in highschool. These days, it tends to be, fall asleep for six, wake up to get my husband off to work, stay up for about six, then take a one to two hour nap in the evening while he's still at work, then be up for ten hours. Since I don't have a normal circadian rhythm, a set pattern of broken sleep works better for me than a rotating thing of about 26 hours in length, pushing me half an hour to an hour forward daily.
Since the clock change a couple of weeks ago, I've had rebound insomnia. This is exactly what's happening to me. Dude, you have the perfect personality for this experiment. But I think it's best to do mindless tasks after first wake up, then save the creative stuff for the daytime hours. The military knows you can do this no problem after a couple of months of mind/body training for it. Pulled a LOT of guard duty at night after a 9-10pm "nap". I'm going to start doing my physical therapy and meal prep from 1-4pm. Lord knows I can't use my brain then. Can't even type or spell.
This video popped up again for me, and I had a thought about this subject. I think for it to be beneficial to a person, it would have to be a natural pattern for that person. And it would probably be easy for anyone to figure out what theirs is. You'd simply have to never wake to an alarm. Probably not something most people can't arrange though. Most people schedule is dictated by work or school.
I believe that you're not supposed to do anything forceful (workout, chop wood) nor should you expose yourself to blue light. The sleep schedule evolved before electrical light of "things that would disturb the household, neighbors, or livestock." Try it again without appliances or with red glasses. See they didn't just have the schedule, they knew how to spend the night hours. The world went dark and stayed that way until dawn. Most only rich people had even candles. The average person has rush lights at best. You don't want to wake yourself to daylight standards.
I've had many weird sleep schedules around different weird hours that I've worked, including split sleeps. I worked 4:00a - 12:00p for a while and I'd go to bed around 11:00p, wake up around 3:00a feeling awake and refreshed, go work a full day, and then get home around 1:00 and suddenly be ready for a nap and would sleep until around 5:00p. This allowed me to spend my evenings with friends/family and worked well for me at the time.
During the Medieval (and earlier) times people had several very good reasons for this, Robbery and Crime this dramatically reduced the chances of being a victim, Fires for those that lived in Hamlets and larger Cities was always a big danger (Town bell rang every hour announcing if everything was "all's well" or not), also the "Witching Hour" was 12 midnight to 1am nobody wanted to be asleep while they were running around plus this was a time when "Everybody in the family (or just house)" was there and not working sometimes far off. Today's people and society has really no use for this. Night Owls say their better inspiration often comes late, late at night as well. Good video.
When I saw the title I thought "wtf", but then I remembered that I used to feel better mentally and physically when I had that sleep pattern. It's perfect for me, being a night owl and a morning person at the same time lol. But for real, I had more energy and I could focus more. Thank you for reminding me of this.
I have been sleeping like this for at least 15 years. I always thought I was odd but once I read about it in the NYT I embraced it. The comments are great validation. Although I think it works for me because it comes naturally to me. I doubt I could/would want to train myself otherwise.
I have an anectodal experience from the military. Where I'm from there's mandatory conscription so I spent 9 months in the military, which obviously had a different daily schedule than my normal civilian life. So for starters it's important to note that the military is obviously very regimented and the schedules are built around that, so these sleeping patterns don't necessarily fit in with a regular work/life schedule. So typically the schedule says that from 6am to 2pm it's working hours and you do not sleep. Lights out is at 11pm so that means that the dedicated sleeping time is 7 hours but you could also sleep from 2 pm to 11pm if you don't have anything else to do. Duties like patrols, guards etc were usually a total of 6 hours broken into two hour stints. If you had duty, the way their time slots were arranged it meant it cut into your sleep, making it 5-6 hours, and usually split into two unequal sleep sessions with the 2 hour watch separating them. Sleep was by far one of the biggest complaints of people in there and many often slept whenever possible to supplement their sleep, usually in the afternoon. Personally I have chronically bad sleep and despite sleeping 7-8 hours I always have difficulty waking up and feeling tired. Without an alarm I'll easily sleep for 10-12 hours and still wake up feeling horrible. Given that I was in a small unit, I had duty every day since there weren't enough people to get free days. Initially this was horrible, not ever getting a full night's sleep, but after a couple of months this started changing. I stopped trying to supplement my sleep in the afternoons and only slept between 11 and 6 minus my watch times. This meant I spent months sleeping for 5-6 hours each night in 2-3 hour sessions, and yet, I didn't feel tired, in fact I felt quite the opposite, better than ever even compared to civilian life. Not everyone felt the same but for me it was better than sleeping for 8 straight hours.
I’ve slept this way for quite some time. Fall asleep with my girlfriend 10pm. Wake up around 1am. Use the time from 1am to 4 or 5am to do creative tasks, projects, reading, studying, etc. Go back to bed around 4 or 5am and wake up between 8am to 10am depending on how tired I feel or how early I have to be somewhere. I like this sleep schedule because I’m an introvert and it feels nice knowing that almost everyone around you is asleep. It makes me feel like I have the whole world to myself.
As an introvert, I 100% vibe with this statement. I think it’s why I’m a night owl. I love being alone at night doing my own thing. Just thinking about it makes me dance inside lol.
This 💯% my favorite times to crochet were in the middle of the night in the living room when my whole family was asleep and my dog daisy would nap beside me on the couch 😁
legitimate question from someone interested in maybe doing this in the future, did you ever have to use an alarm to wake yourself up at 1am when first developing this sleeping habit? How do you wake up at 1am without disturbing your girlfriend?
the sleep schedule for nomad workers or people with too much money on their hands. Try that with an average job :)))
I’m a huge extrovert, but still have a night time circadian rhythm. My family were clearly the night watchmen.
I’m a 3rd shifter and just sleep whenever I want. And my sleep is almost always broken up because I don’t sleep more than 4-5 hours at a time.
I like being up at night because there is less static in the air. Idk if it’s because there is so much electricity on during the day? But I literally feel it on my skin that night is calmer.
I hate that capitalism is killing us slowly.
Its important to note that people naturally following this schedule would be waking naturally without an alarm for the '1st waking'. This is important because your body and brain goes through cycles of light and deep sleep and if an alarm wakes you in the middle of a deep sleep phase your overall sleep quality will suffer. In addition, obviously you wont feel rested during that 1st waking if you are awoken in a deep sleep phase.
They probably used timer devices like an hourglass or a water clock setup to drop stones on something that will make a loud noise.
@@davidmowbray6352 Your body gets accustomed to waking up in the middle of the night, especially when the fire begins to wane and you start to get too cold. You can experience a taste of this by going camping in the winter.
@@davidmowbray6352 Im sure someone somewhere did for some specific reason but in general no, there was no need for any kind of clock, timer or whatever. The point I was making is that Biphasic sleep is a natural sleep cycle and your bodies internal 'clock' is what is waking you up and then putting you back to sleep a little later before getting you up again for the day. Allowing your internal clock to do the job is much healthier.
Not to mention going to bed when it gets dark, not 11pm
The basic alarm was a candle with nails in that would fall and make noise. Clepsydra (water clocks) were used by the ancient chinese, egyptians, greeks and romans and had bells, gongs and trumpets.
My understanding of the two sleep cycles goes back to a time before artificial light and using fireplaces for heat. Usually, people would go to bed when the sun had set then get up around the middle of the night to stoke the fireplace and prep things for the coming day (food, clothing, etc) after which they would go back to bed and then rise with the sun.
Pretty much this. In the modern age these no real reason to do it.
Yeah, that was my understanding, too. I've been doing "two sleeps" for about ten years as a way to hack my naturally nocturnal circadian rhythm. I work at a coffee shop, so I get up at 5am usually. I get off work at 1 or 2pm, and as soon as I get home, I shower, do yoga, eat a light snack, brush my teeth, and fall into bed from about 4pm-7pm. I don't set an alarm, I just wake up, and I am only groggy for a minute or two. For the next five hours, I get my daily tasks done for the day. Around 10 pm, I clean the kitchen up and prep a grab-and-go breakfast. And then around 12am I settle in to bed again and sleep for 5 hours. Now, I will say that this method has drawbacks. Socializing on workdays is impossible. I have to limit my caffeine intake to just one cup first thing in the morning, or else my sleep schedule is jacked up again. If I am off work for longer than a weekend, say, for illness or time off, my sleep schedule goes right back to nocturnal and it takes me a bit to get back into biphasic sleep. But, for what it is, it is an extremely good sleep schedule and helps me immensely when I need it.
@@planescaped As someone who struggles with insomnia this 2 sleep method works for me. I happen to be awake right now at 1:45am after 3 1/2 hrs of sleep (I slept from 9-12:30am). I will most likely go back to bed at 3am and wake at 8am.
I've done this, living in houses with just a wood stove for heat. But I also would be asleep by 7-9 pm, because it's dark and cold, then I'd wake up between 2-4, make a fire and a cup of coffee, then crash on the couch in front of the fire until the sun came up around 7.
It's the going back to sleep part I have trouble with.
I actually do this in the winter. I get out of work around 3, it gets dark around 4ish. I sleep for like two hours. Then get up, do what I got to do then go back to bed around 12 then get up around 7/sunrise
I love this sleep cycle is finally being discussed and accepted. Me and most on my fathers side all have this sleep pattern and have been criticized for decades bc it’s strange. Why does is matter if you clean your house at 1am vs 1pm?! We just split our sleep and time differently. We have professions as artists, musicians, stockbrokers, nurses/medical that allow this pattern easily. It was common growing up for my father to find me playing with my toys at 2am while he was getting up from his “1st sleep”. It allows us to be night AND morning people. I rarely use an alarm and can wake up early just fine or stay up late. People will often ask if I ever sleep bc I will respond quickly to texts and calls at any hour, within a few hours, bc I’m never asleep that long. I get 6-8hrs of sleep per day, just not in the traditional sense. And middle of the night is so beautifully quiet and still. I loved this video and glad the phase sleepers are finally getting recognized instead of criticized. Thank you for doing a video on this topic ✌️
Whoever has been criticising you knows nothing about sleep. Biphasic sleep was normal for humanity basically the entire era before artificial light and the industrial revolution. The idea of 'one big sleep' is, in effect, the result of capitalism's insistence on a 9-5 work day.
I’m a nurse as well how interesting! and I rarely need an alarm either it’s interesting I’ve never heard this but it started when I had a puppy who needed to go out and she’s two now sleeping through the night and here I am 1:07 am up probably til 4-5am the problem is I never actually get the 5 hrs straight until mid afternoon early evening, maybe I should try for just the hr and see what happens. I’m so wide awake when I wake up now
My Job requires Me to be up at 3.30am and cycle to work at 4.00am I get home at 3.30pm and sleep at 5.00pm, I wake up at 8.00pm go shopping and go to bed at 11.00pm this would be fine if I didn't have a shxx nabor blasting music any time day or night sometime going from 5pm to 5am non stop which drives Me insane. This guy lives on his own in the woods and dont work a normal job.
@@felixhenson9926 that’s not capitalism. That’s ✡️Judaism ✡️ fren. Learn the difference.
@@felixhenson9926 that's not capitalism, it's state capitalism, the state is a gang of thieves writ large
I thought I had to fight this way of functioning for so long. When I was a teenager and naturally fell into this rhythm I was prescribed sleeping meds rather than taught how to accept my natural sleeping pattern. Now I go to bed around 8pm then wake around 1-2am then work/study/play games etc then sleep again from around 5-7.30. It works perfectly for me but I don’t honestly think its something you can force yourself to do, it has to be natural to you.
Ha! Welcome to my world. When I turned 50, 18 years ago, this sleep pattern became my normal no matter how much I tried to conform with what people call normal. Now I like it, and actually plan things I'll do in that time period.
Yes! change in sleep patterns is extremely common as we age. Its often theorized by evolutionary biologists that it may be a hold over from our hunter gatherer days. Imagine a human tribe resting for the night but the elders even though they are injured from a Hard life can't hunt anymore they can still set up and take a night watch and feed the fire and raise an alarm.
This happened to my wife and I (44/46). It lasted a couple of years then she changed jobs that included shift work, so she was irregular and I suffered insomnia on the nights she worked at the hospital. [It is common that US staff nurses pull 12-hour shifts]
We enjoyed the second sleep routine while it lasted.
Gotta admit, after 50, same
I've been sleeping like that for most of my life... when I try to force myself to do it differently... that's when I get insomnia
56 here and same thing! In my youth, I was a night owl, never asleep before midnight (realistically never asleep before 2am!). in the past few years I go to bed around 10/11 and fall right asleep. I wake up between 2 and 4 and get up. I’m awake and productive until about 6 or 8 where I’ll got back to a nice deep sleep for two to four more hours (I’m retired, so wake time is irrelevant.). I’m guessing that this is my new sleep schedule and it works for me. I’ve come to enjoy the solace when I’m awake before dawn. I make coffee, enjoy the peace, and enjoy whatever I’m doing - reading, knitting, painting, journaling, or sometimes just watching RUclips like I am right this minute at 4:30am! 😊
I actually do this naturally. Usually asleep for four to five hours. Up for one or two. And asleep again for about three. It’s quite nice
I used to stress about those hours of being awake until I decided to use the time for cleaning! The second sleep is blissful...
I've done this my entire life. My mom used to scold me for being up and playing in the middle of the night. But as I had no trouble getting up for school, eventually I was left to my "unusual" sleep pattern. For some people this is obviously their natural circadian rhythm. It is for me.
I actually envy people who can get 8-10 hours of uninterrupted sleep or who are able to sleep in on their days off. lol
@@luella2u152 I have 2 cycles. 4-5 hours is my normal. Or 10-11 hours if I’m not well or overworked. I never found comfort in the 6-10 range.
There are people still living that used to give teething babies cocaine as medical treatment. Medical science is for sale. It would be nice if people knew they could just sleep however their body wants. It’s literally the top 3 human functions we have. It’s weird it’s not prioritized.
I have had babies that do this. Sleep until 2 and then be up. Eventually I could move them to sleeping solidly but it enjoyed that time in the middle of the night with them. They'd be happy and we would talk and play and cuddle. I miss it.
same
Well, that’s essentially Spanish siesta with different schedules. My grampa did this his whole life: he slept at night from 11pm to 5am and then slept again from 3pm to 5 pm. He used to do all the physical very hard work in the morning (given that we have lunch at 2pm) and left the second half of the day for socialising, going for a walk, shopping, etc.
Also, now that I think of it, my mum does the same but in much weirder schedules. Maybe I should try too 🤨
Yes, that’s me. I get up at 5 am and my job starts at 8. I need to be alert and focused all the time, so I am very tired at around 3 pm. If in any way possible, I have my siesta because I feel like a zombie. At around 5 pm, I become a living person again.
I do something like that when I'm at all weekend festivals in the countryside. When I'm away from the light pollution, I just fall into it.
@Micaela Perdomo huh
Interesting
It's about the same in Greece
I pretty much do this already, I hadn't realized people did this I thought I just had terrible insomnia but I guess it's just how my brain works. I love those hours though it's quiet, everyone's sleeping, I get laundry done, meal prep for the week, I even have my yard so lit up I can garden at night in the spring and summer, I know the neighbors have to think I'm nuts or on meth or something.
Right, I usually sleep 6 to 10 then 12 to 3:30.
Then what, you start your day at 3:30am??@@rjcoady21
@@rjcoady21 I'm guessing you don't get invited to many dinners, then
Worked as a 12 hour a day concreters labourer. Would get home crash, wake up stretch and prep the next day then go back to sleep. Felt very natural.
I function this way and have been for about 2 years. I generally sleep around 10 PM and wake up around 1-2 AM. I awaken naturally and am completely alert and ready for the day. I stay awake 2-3 hours and sleep again until about 6:30. 5.5-6.5 hours total sleep usually (I track with a garmin) and I am absolutely most productive in that wake window, as well as 2-3 hours after waking the second time for a period of about 1-2 hours.
I honestly can’t imagine functioning any other way now. This change came about naturally for me after my wife and I had a child. I found that it was the only time I could get uninterrupted work or exercise done with a newly born (I usually cycle on my power trainer, so yoga or work).
Love that you’ve put a label to my weird habit and that you’re experimenting with it! Great video!
I do the same but I sleep 10-14 hours
I do this a lot and idk why. I don't really lose any sleep from it either per se
Its the way most people slept before electricity.
I've been on this mode for a decade. Biphasic sleep is frustrating and tiring. Lol
Started doing this unintentionally while going through withdrawal years ago. First thing I noticed were the lucid dreams. I wrote them all down and have about 300 pages of them now. Strange thing is now I’m so used to this sleeping my body made a natural rhythm. Only difference is I work overnight so my schedule is always 11am-1pm, 4pm-10pm. I found this way easier to manage my daily life tasks as well.
If you try it, document your dreams. Doing this gave me a purpose to quit drugs and I am forever grateful to have discovered it.
good for you and best of luck on your journey
Night shift nurse and I write my dreams down too. I plan on writing a book eventually bc they get interesting sometimes 😂. Best wishes❤
I liked that
I just started watching your videos about a week ago. Great channel! I am 16 and happen to be interested in most everything you post about, also your editing and story telling style is amazing. Keep up the great work, you have made a positive impact on my life!
Exactly!
I live in opposite side of the world and i was discussing this with my mom who says people used to wake up in middle of night,some read books others prayed and went to sleep again.Your video reinforces this as a human habit.
Dear Jonne. I absolutely love these challenges and experiments. They are some of my favorite topics that you do. But I have a wish, that in my opinion would make the videos a lot better. Don't just end them. Don't just log what you are doing, and then stop the video on the last day. Please give us a little more. A conclusion of sorts. What happened? What was the results. Are you better now? Was it worth it? Will you continue to do it - and why/why not? Were there any benefits? If you were to do it again, would you change something? Was it just fun/stupid to try, or is there an actual benefit?... Because I would love to learn more. It's like you are doing a scientific experiment on yourself, but are leaving out the conclusion. That's the most important part! I love your channel, please keep it up. Best of luck with everything!
i thought it was pretty clear. It was useless at best and he wont do it again
the conclusion is woven into the whole video... and if you are looking for something more like "in your face", have a closer look at the last few seconds (those with the article)
He sort of does that throughout the video after each section, I honestly like it more because you get an immediate answer to the question
i disagree. its refreshsing that someone does not do that.
The results seem to show improvement in health. Maybe this is a good thing after all? Benjamin Franklin used to switch beds every night, it never occurred to me as to how he managed it, but maybe he too practiced a two sleep method.???
I think I might actually try this schedule. I work night shift 7pm to 7am most days and I feel guilty sleeping through my whole day when I wakeup. I think this might be a good thing to do. I'll update after I've done it for a few weeks.
How is it going?
I work 12 hr night shifts too. A couple of years ago, I started breaking my sleep into two sessions 4 hours, and later, 3 hours. I take 10 mg melatonin as soon as I get home, which helps me sleep deeply for the first "nap." It works very well for me.
I’m curious to hear your update
@@pandaprophetable me too!
Could you tag me when you update?
There is one KEY element to this that gets forgotten: What you are doing in the middle of the night is still basically just relaxing in the dark. It's time for introspection, perhaps song or composition, MAYBE a bit of knitting or crafting if you are good enough to not need to see what you're doing, but mostly it was just time people took to be together. ... Including to make more people. Though that's hardly the ONLY thing.
This absolutely WILL NOT WORK if you wake up after a few hours, slam on all your lights, drink a cup of coffee, get in front of your screen, and try to "wake up" like you would in the morning, and then go back to bed within a couple hours.
I’ve been following a polyphasic sleep schedule called Every Man 2 for about seven years now. The schedule is comprised of 4.5hrs of "core sleep" followed by two 20min naps spread out through the day. I’m very happy with it and am so used to it that I never set alarms anymore.
This is me. I still manage to get 8 hours. I used to stress about waking up almost every night. But I don't anymore. I kind of love it. My me time between sleeps is my favorite time. I usually study my Japanese, knock out my flashcards and do some uninterrupted immersion during my wake time without my 4½ year old hollering and harassing me. 😂
I do Japapese on Duolingo during this time. I think my comprehension is better for it because I'm very relaxed.
@@laidman2007 Same. I feel relaxed and refreshed and ready to study with no interruptions. It's easy to get into a good flow state for immersion during that time as well. I also do a bit of Duolingo. It was how I got started, actually. Then it just kind of snowballed into an all consuming interest from there. Of course when I started in May 2020, they didn't have the excellent Kana lesson section like now. Or stories.
How long have you been studying Japanese? I just passed 2 ½ years last week. I estimate that I'm somewhere between N3 & N2. Judging by practice tests. Plus the RUclips grammar lesson topics I search for now are N3/N2. That's how I tend to gauge where I'm at. Wish I was further along after 2½ years, but life, ya know 😅
My speaking ability is definitely N5-N4 though 😂
I use the immersion method primarily, so I have only just begun to really make output my primary focus. I've always done some output because my 4½ year old has been learning with me since my first day and we don't skip days.
@@LostSoulchild89 I primarily use RUclips, Netflix, Animelon, podcasts とか. I love anime, comedies, and dramas. I have tried to watch a few reality shows, but most of the Japanese reality shows revolve around dating and I just can't force myself to be interested. So for unscripted content, I rely on podcasts and RUclips. My favorite podcast at the moment is Ikinari Japanese on Google podcasts. Totally unscripted, natural, neutral Japanese at normal speed. No music or breaks.
For reading, I have been using mostly Japanese CC subtitles, Satori Reader, news websites. I've bought several kids' books to read with my daughter, but the all hiragana is kind of a headache, tbh.
I'd like to use manga and light novels as well, but I haven't really found a decent source for that. So I don't read as much as I'd like to. I mean, I'm constantly reading subtitles and mining for vocab, but I'd like to read stories and literature also. I don't really count subtitles as reading.
I was manually sentence mining after finishing my first 1000 word sentence flashcard deck, but I had to make all my flashcards manually on my phone. Ugh. That was way too time consuming and it was taking me out of immersion too often for too long each time I had to stop to make a card. After about 1500 sentence cards, I switched to vocab cards that I can make straight from my Takoboto dictionary app. Alongside that I downloaded the Core 2K/6K Optimized Japanese Vocabulary deck for Anki and I do words from both decks. I'm careful not to spend more than an hour in Anki, so I regularly change my daily card amount to keep my review numbers reasonable. However, I have plans to begin using Migaku and Iago soon, so I'll probably go back to full sentence mining when I do and stop adding cards to my Takoboto deck.
What kind of materials are you using? Sorry to blabber, but I get really stoked talking about learning Japanese. My 4½ year old daughter is the only person I know irl who's also learning Japanese 😂😅
I have naturally started to do this since I started going to bed early (8-9pm). I seem to always wake around 2-3 am and back to bed around 5 until 7 am.
I seem to always be tired after the second sleep, but I'm always woken by an alarm and not naturally so that may be why.
i’ve found that if i sleep straight through the night my energy slowly depletes throughout the day. when you wake up from a long nap you feel great and then you aren’t tired. so i sleep in 3-5 hours blocks twice a day. i wake up feeling rested to go to class and get some work done, go back to sleep to reset and then at night i’m waking up in a different mood with the days events behind me. it’s a reset and anyone who does this knows it makes 1 day feel like 2. which is awesome. making you more productive for long hours of the day and never being 15-20 hours from another rest. if you have a particularly shitty morning you go to bed right when you get back so the rest of your day isn’t in a shitty mood. problem solved.
Yeah, I get that. I often sleep between 16h00 and 20h00, usually a 3 hr block. Then I get up, do evening chores, cooking (for the next day) and entertainment. Go to bed between 2 and 4 in the morning. Get up at around 9h30. Sometimes, if I'm really tired, my siesta will last until 23h00, and then I get up.
When I was in college I settled into a routine where I took a 2 hour ish nap when I got home from class, then ate dinner, went back to the library and studied till it closed at 12AM, went home and ate a snack and watched Conan before heading to bed. Had way more energy than I do now, although it probably had more to do with being 20 years younger than I am now 😂
Great and interesting video Jonne! I am on my 11 month with the experiment of only sleeping for maximum 2hours at a time and average around 5 hours of sleep per day. It's called having twins 😅 I recommend having twins, but do not recommend sleeping this little I have noticed it affecting me badly in many ways and it's almost impossible to recover from hard workouts when I never get a full night of sleep.
Hi Göran, I'm interested to know if you feel it's affecting your life/performance/recovery badly. Why did you continue all the way till month 11? There must've been indicators in the first couple of weeks. Or is there a "super advantage" of this sleeping method that you haven't mentioned 🤔
'its called having twins' hahahaha you are a hero :)
Mi bro, I feel the pain behind your humor.
I feel that you have gone to extremes with this experiment for the sake of “science”. I’m just not convinced that “having twins” was really the right methodology for this study. But perhaps we can pivot. 🤔 Are you keeping a video log of your findings? What does your lab partner have to say about this development in the setup parameters? Have you noted any difference in the Lab Subjects, excuse me, “twins” since you snuck them out of the facility and into a home-environment? I think a longitudinal study of 18-24 years is in order. Perhaps your original experiment could be run in parallel. You might even add a study of your stress-levels and any correlation between increased gray hair in you and your lab partner and extreme activity from the Lab Subjects/“twins”.
2 hours of sleep with twins? You're Lucky, I didn't even get 2 hours of sleep in a row when I just had one baby.
My technique is fairly complicated. When I am tired, I go to sleep and awake when I ... wake up. If I am still tired I return to sleep. Some 8-10 hours each day. I love sleeping. Granted, I am retired and get my money for the chore of existing, that may have something to do with its functionality.
i work and go to sleep right after i get home then i sleep for however long my body decides to do so and then spend my freetime well rested before going to work again
lmaoo
@@ZoeylaRose Thats actually not a bad idea. That would probably not be wise in healthcare since they often get called to additional shifts in succession, but in most jobs it could probably work well.
Gotta give this a shot, I used to wake up at 4am when I did 30k steps a day for a morning walk and it always felt so peaceful to be awake this early and go to sleep again after it, miss those times
Hahahaha
@@crewscotton ?
@@julianajuh13 you were joking right?
@@crewscotton no, I was not .-.
@@crewscotton I had to put 30k steps a day, so I divided it in chunks, in the morning I did a 10k chunk and this goes on for the day, not a 100% 30k in one big walk
I regularly biphasic sleep. I don't force it though, no schedule. I'm an insomniac, so if I fall asleep early (before midnight) I usually wake up around 2 or 3 am. Instead of fighting waking up, when this happens I just let myself be awake until I can fall back asleep.
Second sleep on a night like that is amazing, the dreams are crazy. However, if I sleep through the night I just let that happen. I never force the 2 phases.
This has helped me a lot with getting restful sleep when my insomnia is light to moderate. The only time it's an issue is that rare occasion that I have an early morning. Then I try to get my normal 6 1/2 to 7 hours of sleep.
I've been doing this for many years, long before I knew it was "a thing", and I really love it. I think maybe it suits me so well because I only ever sleep about 5-6 hours per night anyway and I never feel tired during the day. That's all I've ever slept, even as a child, unless I'm (1) sick or (2) sleep deprived for some external reason, like caring for a sick family member or something.
Anyway, I generally go to bed, wake up a few hours later feeling perfectly refreshed and awake, and get up to do whatever I feel like doing. Often I work, other times I putter around the house, sometimes I do something creative, occasionally I'll read or watch a movie or something like that. Usually after a couple hours I start feeling a little bit sleepy again so I go back to bed and sleep for a few more hours, then I get up feeling fine and go about my day.
I do set an alarm on work days just in case, so that I don't accidentally oversleep, but on weekends I typically wake up either before my alarm time or right around it. It's definitely not a lifestyle for everyone, but I wrote all of this to say that for some people it really does work great. Thanks for this interesting exploration of the pattern.
Adhd
I work really strange hours and have fallen into this routine naturally. People think it's strange, but I feel rested and usually do workout between the sleeps. One difference is my time between sleeps is usually about 4 to 6 hour.
An additional advantage of two sleeps is if an apex preaditor attacks your ready to deal with it. If your in a group with different wake periods then your safer than if a predator attacks and everybody is sleeping.
i think its a cycle that comes from very hard work and you naturally fall asleep as soon as you can when you get home, get up do the things you were too tired to do, then go to bed again
And it definitely felt like a very different version of myself during that second awake cycle and i got quite a lot done, but it comes to me rarely and only when very tired before the first sleep.
I pretty much do this naturally, though it’s not a preference. Actually, I’m currently watching you in between my two sleeps 😂 Personally, I’ve noticed my creativity increases within some sort of mindless activity like an easy walk.
Content recommendation: Do a ruck race. If you need resources check 1. Any military, 2. GoRuck, 3. MTNTough.
Hopefully my creativity helps you out 😂
I actually naturally wake up around 2 or 3am every night. I actually accidentally did this one night as I just couldn’t get back to sleep. Warm shower, coffee, reading, and little bit of tv, and slept like a baby and felt very refreshed waking up about 9am
I think the key is to wakeup naturally in the middle of the night without an alarm. Without the alarm you get the full sleep cycle. It happens more when you are older, and you body needs less sleep. Try the experiment again when you turn 35.
This is exactly how I sleep every night. Thank you for the confirmation that many creative people sleep this way. I am an artist and have read that 100 to 200 years ago people slept this way. Once in a while I will take a nap, an hour or so but usually only if I don't get the second snooze in. Again, thank you for sharing.😅😅😅😅
This would have worked better if you matched your first sleep to your circadian rhythm. For 2 sleep cycles you'd want to set your alarm for 3 hours and 15 minutes after you go to bed. By doing 3 hours you're close. However, cutting a bit off your sleep cycle makes it harder to wake and you're left feeling tired.
Exactly. It should have been relatively easy to wake up, otherwise it doesn't really work as a schedule.
that only works if you fall asleep as soon as you lay down in bed
It works best without an alarm, for me at least. I wake up around 3 fully rested, eat then go back to sleep. Using alarms is asking to get too little sleep
I do three sleep cycles and I'm up a couple hours and do two more sleep cycles
For whatever reason this sleep cycle was really natural for me for many periods of my life. Sometime it happens spontaneously and other times I wake up with panic attacks. It still happens to me every now and again for a week at a time. Usually though, I sleep from maybe 1-4am, stay up for 2 or 3 hours, and then sleep again from 7-10 or 11.
Regarding creativity at that time of night (well, technically morning), I'd say it's not a great time for generating new ideas but rather seeing life more clearly. Often when I wake up after only 3 hours of sleep, I feel strong emotions when I wake up and I end up journaling for a long time until I fall back to sleep. I also love doing sudoku when I'm up at those hours
Being a night worker for the last 18 years ….this is akin to my sleep pattern….who knew it was a habit from the past . Plus my dreams are very vivid and real and actually better than my waking life. Sad but true
I can relate only my night mares are vivid too. Scary stuff 😶🌫️
I slept very bad at school days, so i started to sleep at 5pm. Because my body wasn't used to it, i would wake up at around 9-11pm everytime and go back to sleep late and it became a routine.
I've done that for years and my most productive moment is when i wake up at 9pm, i feel so refreshed, the reason is that i was waking up normally and without an alarm.
Because I have DSPD (delayed sleep-phase disorder) and have had this for as long as I can remember.. And I know of one (Finnish) uncle who was a sleep-walker and had odd sleep schedules as well.. Like, it made me wonder if at some point somewhere in my family line my family were night-shift guards for generations on end or something so an adaptive mutation happened in our genes and I inherited that or something.. Cool experiment in any case! Super interesting, I had never heard this '2 sleeps' was common practise at some point. But I had definitely wondered before.
When I became sober I had trouble sleeping and found this pattern natural. I found that I was much more productive with my time. My memory was much better and my body aches less. I found this video after reading the same article and doing a search for more info. I'm going to look at going back into this routine as I have a busy house and enjoy the solitude of the early hours
one of the best editing styles on YT. Awesome vid
4:40 - the not needing to be anywhere else, TOTALLY. I used to be a bit of a nightowl, and then I discovered that if I woke up at about 4 or 5, I would get so much done because I just felt like it was all "free" time anyway. It's like being given $500 to spend on whatever you want, so instead of spending on stupid stuff, you spend it on the thing that you were annoyed about like a dentist's bill or something, but you don't feel annoyed about it because someone else paid.
Great way of putting it
I'm someone who changes their sleep schedule very frequently, depending on the busy period ahead of me (for example: in winter it's 8/9pm-6/6:30am and in summer is 6/8pm-3/4am). I change so frequently that my body quickly adapts to new sleep schedules, and I think it's rather nice bc I get to live my days in different ways. I've never tried sleep phases tho, mainly bc I think it'd never match what I have to do in a day and bc it's just not conveniente sleep wise.
First time seeing this channel, I usually fall asleep between 10 and 12pm, wake up (from city traffic noise) about 2:30 to 3:30am,
If I don't fall back to sleep within 1/2 hour, I usually get up and do YT, or odd things around the house. I am experimenting with ways to get back to sleep. examples: count backward from 18 on each exhale, breath holding, breathing in and out non-stop, Yoga Nidra, and relaxation visualizations. They all seem to work sometimes, nothing seems to work all the time. Hello! from Canada
Never yawned so much while watching a video
MemerMan!?
Didnt expect you to be here.
😅😅😅😅😅
I did this for a year and a half while finishing nursing school. I did it so I could study and do work in the middle of the night without interruption from my wife or kids. It worked well for me. I didn't notice any negative effects and I retained knowledge studied during that early a.m. study time just fine.
Polyphasic sleep works for me. I can adapt to any sleep pattern based on need. For instance, sailing a boat alone across the ocean, I need to wake up periodically to check horizon.
polyphasic sleep is mentioned in journals as early as the end of the Roman empirical period, if not earlier. Their nights might have been lighted by oil lamps, fire light, rush lights or in rare cases candles so physical activity would be a norm (prepping meals, stacking fire wood) or mental (project planning). Using electric lights can produce an irregular rhythm as the spectrum of modern light waves can be very disruptive. I have polyphasic sleep and use the night time to clean up. And make notes after I wake in the morning.
This is unintentionally hilarious. Thank you for posting. I do 7-8 sleeps. 😄
I found this last night when I had insomnia. It didn’t help me at all to go back to sleep and felt and motivated me to get up and do some stuff. Which I did. And then I got sleepy and then I woke up again immediately. So anyway thanks for keeping me company.
This is hilarious because I definitely sleep in obscure sleep cycles, I even call them sleeps. I have heard and read that a sleep cycle is about 90 minutes, and I try to get a total of about 8 hours a night, so usually sleep for 2 or 3 cycles and then wake up for a couple hours and then go back to bed for 2 or 3 cycles.
I have done this naturally pretty much ever since quarantine and it works for me. At first I tried to fight it but then saw articles and videos like yours.
I goto bed around 10:30. I wake up around 3:30 or 4, stay up about an hour and then go back to bed until 7:30. I have very busy days with work and family so I find the time in the middle of the night is a good time to recharge. Usually I just relax by the fire and read but sometimes I work if I am inspired.
I usually sleep really deeply during the second sleep. I think it also has to do with being comfortable in bed. I have a pretty comfortable bed but sometimes areas of my body get little aches and it helps to stretch and reset.
I naturally sleep this way. Have been doing it for years and I think it works best for me. I've never used alarm clocks and if I do I wake up about five minutes before the time I have set. I think this cycle has led to a pretty healthy life for myself. I'm still in good shape and have a lot of energy.
I've had an interesting sleep experience in the past year. I was experiencing severe insomnia, so I decided to start taking melatonin and going to bed at eleven, and no blue light or food in the hour before. Slept like the dead for about a week, but after stabilising (my body must have been recuperating), I started waking up naturally around 4 am. It was too early, but as I was very awake, I read, did some drawing, watched a video, and around six I'd sleep again, until nine. It felt really good, so I tried going to bed at ten, then at nine, to wake up at eight and have the mid-night awake time. I am now following the medieval two sleeps, naturally. And I have to admit that the hours between are fantastic to do my classes preparation, drawing, small tasks, etc. My cats also love to have me awake in the night.
You should try this again and wake up at 4am, work for 1.5-2 hrs and then go back to sleep. This is when I get my most productive work done! I do this naturally, and I randomly started this process in grad school. I didn't realize this was a thing for years to come. It saved my butt.
i feel like if this was a longer study, on the first wake up the journal would get insanely clear and creatively pure
biciecadian rhythm, there are some cool books about this...i'll see if i can find the one i have.
i will say i seem to naturally have a bicircadian rhythm. i haven't been utilizing it, so i'll give the chores and creativity to try it.
i think you won't get the benefits unless you naturally wake up in the middle of the night without an alarm.
I often revert to this on weekends. I'm currently on disability and it's pretty much the same story. For me it's just natural, I don't force it. I wouldn't say it's every single night, but probably 50-70% of the time when I'm able to.
Its interesting the fact that this was a medieval habit considering candles and lightmaking objects weren't obviously as available as they are today, it just seems like a sleeping habit that would fit the modern era of artificial light, on a side note... I've unintentionally done this when I used to wake up super early and do some work on my laptop then I would go back to sleep and wake up in time to actually get up to go to work (in the office) and I can say while it didn't happen every time I'd go back to sleep but 100% my most crazy vivid dreams happened in the couple hours I'd go back to sleep in the early morning. It was like those crazy dreams you would have as a kid lol Anyway, pretty wild stuff and honestly I did this on and off for several years in my life and I didn't feel like it was unhealthy (but I didn't do any medical test stuff) but it seems like your body can get used to lots of different schedules if you make it a habit but yeah if you want some crazy dreams and contrary to what you might think, you do get some clarity and oddly enough a motivation boost (for work or creativity or fitness etc) in that early morning window. It's definitely do-able for awhile!
I love being awake at around 1 to 4 am, its the quietness and the slightly cool air that is the most comforting feeling ever, especially when you live in a hot tropical city like I do. I find that Im the most creative during these hours and most of my work in song writing literally just does itself
I actually had this sleep schedule accidentally for a couple of weeks. After work, I took a (way too long) nap woke up at 10 to 11PM then ate something went to the Gym and at 2 to 3AM I went to sleep again. It was nice to have the gym for me alone most of the time, but I was tired most of the day and eventually stopped my naps and got a somewhat normal rhythm back haha
Ive been doing this off and on for like 25 years. Ive found its my best way of dealing with sleep issues.
We're getting spoiled with videos again 😍
As always, I appreciate your dedication to making great content!
In Muslim countries we wake up for the morning prayer(5 AM in my country) and then we get back to sleep and we do that everyday
Been doing this for years now, just going to bed waay earlier. Getting a ton of creative work done during those quiet hours, more so than daylight hours if given the same time
I actually have 24 'Little Sleeps' of 20 mins each, because I like to wake every 20 minutes and scream at the top of my lungs until I fall asleep again.
I'm sure there's some fancy medical term for what kind of sleeper I am, but Mum and Dad just call me ''That damn baby'.
In ancient times where there was no electricity this was the norm. In the winter the night could last 14 hours. So everyone had dinner and the sun went down at 6pm. Then go to sleep. Then wake up between 11pm and midnight. You would check the live stock and the property check all locks on the house. And go back to sleep around 1am. Then wake up at 6am and break your fast when the sun comes up. This is where breakfast comes from. After a long night you break your fast at daybreak.
artificial lighting is the reason we dont do this anymore. if i go camping for more than a few days i adopt that type of schedule and feel great
Very attractive storytelling.
Thanks!
Been sleeping this way for all my adult life. It was totally by accident and just came natural to me :)
I've had 'two sleeps' for years, and it has never really been voluntary. On some days, I just SNAP awake and no amount of tossing and turning helps. So I climb out of bed, find something to do, and after about two hours, my head slowly starts to feel like someone is squeezing it in a vice. Not painfully, but like a gentle pressing at the temples. At that point, I go back to bed and I'm out like a light.
I wake up later refreshed and carry on with the day.
I’m pretty sure this original practice had more to do with the lack of electricity than efficiency. I’m also dubious that setting an alarm in the middle of the night will improve sleep quality.
Polyphasic sleep would not involve setting an alarm. People naturally wake up in the night and just do stuff at that time and then go back to sleep.
I think putting a time limit on how long you sleep and stay awake as well as between sleeps activity is a factor. I normally sleep from 11 to 4, stay up 60 to 90 minutes then sleep until I wake up. While I'm awake I usually do very non mentally demanding things like dishes, put in a load of laundry in, play a video game, "visit" with the bf or read. It's a relaxing time for me with no real demands.
The article also mentions that social activities and some work also occur during the short waking time. You can add to your experiment other people matching your sleep schedule.
I read an article once about summarizing a university study following this principle. They got some volunteer students and basically put them in an environment that mimicked the time before electric lighting. The room gradually went dark and then light following the sun. They found that almost all the student slept the entire night for the first 5 days or so but then they naturally went into the "two sleeps" (the said this indicated that all the subjects were sleep deprived). They continued the study for a month, and almost universally, the subjects reported more creativity, restful sleep, more energy etc. They went to sleep shortly after sunset, had a 3 to 5 hour waking period and then went to sleep again and woke with the dawn. They followed up on the subjects after the study and found that all of them had eventually reverted to the one sleep and lost all the benefits they had gained during the study. They concluded that the subjects were initially sleep deprived but the benefits they encountered could not be all directly attributed to getting enough sleep. It was re enforced that the benefits stopped when they quit the "two sleeps".
I'd heard about this before, but really cool to see someone actually give it a try.
As for the creativity question, I can say that it's very much true for me. When I was writing or planning videos or whatever, it was always the nights I didn't sleep that were when I was the most inspired or most creative. Now I wasn't doing the two sleeps thing, I was just an insomniac, but it was always the times when I couldn't get to sleep that I was flooded with ideas. I wrote so many stories between 1 and 4am.
Not exactly the same but when I worked a night shift or graveyard shift I often times had a "two sleeps" schedule, especially for night shift. I would often work from 2pm to about 11pm, hit the gym around 1130pm to about 1am and then I'd sleep til about 7am and then go back to back to bed from about 9 to noon. It allowed me to be up during the normal breakfast time of my s/o and roomamates and converse with them and then get a short nap before getting back up for work. I didn't do this everyday, and it allowed me to adjust my sleep schedule to normal days where I didnt work nights easily.
Did something like this in college my junior and senior years. Slept every 12 to 4 on the clock, up every 4 to 12. Broke my days into 2 blocks. The morning 4 to 12 was school work followed by class. The evening 4 to 12 was sports practice, dinner, evening classes, and more school work. Loved it. Then I graduated and employers expect you to be awake from 12 to 4. In my 50s now, can't wait to retire and go back to a split schedule.
Meanwhile i go to bed at 1am and get up at 7
Early 90's I read about two sleeps in Playboy. And at that time I was working the grave shift, usually 23-0700. To bed by 8, up by 10 to go to karate at 11. Lunch at 1230 and bed at 1400. Up at 1800 to eat and go to college classes at 1900. Home by 2200 and work at 2300. All in all I felt great. The only time in my life I felt like I was refreshed after I had slept.
I remember when I first learned of this sleep pattern. It felt right to me. As someone who has suffered from insomnia this sleep pattern really does work for me. Ironically I am up right now at 1:45am watching this after sleeping for 3 1/2 hrs (9pm-12:30am)and I will be going back to bed probably around 3 or 4am and waking around 8-9am.
@The Unlazy Way, I used to, and sometimes still do, a 4 sleep 8 wake times two cycle. It worked really well in highschool. These days, it tends to be, fall asleep for six, wake up to get my husband off to work, stay up for about six, then take a one to two hour nap in the evening while he's still at work, then be up for ten hours. Since I don't have a normal circadian rhythm, a set pattern of broken sleep works better for me than a rotating thing of about 26 hours in length, pushing me half an hour to an hour forward daily.
Best way of describing how we handle our various lifestyles / job demands. “Sleep is adaptable”
This is comforting. I was thinking sonething was wrong with me, bc this sleep schedule is one that has come upon me over the past cpl years.
I love this video I do this sometimes each month and find I am just as energized during the awaken window at night and when I wake up for the day !
Reminds me of stoking a fireplace/wood-stove so you don’t wake up to a cold house.
Since the clock change a couple of weeks ago, I've had rebound insomnia. This is exactly what's happening to me.
Dude, you have the perfect personality for this experiment. But I think it's best to do mindless tasks after first wake up, then save the creative stuff for the daytime hours. The military knows you can do this no problem after a couple of months of mind/body training for it. Pulled a LOT of guard duty at night after a 9-10pm "nap". I'm going to start doing my physical therapy and meal prep from 1-4pm. Lord knows I can't use my brain then. Can't even type or spell.
the fact that he can fall asleep on demand, makes me feel quite envious.
This segmented sleep has been my natural sleep pattern all my life. I always get better sleep when I don’t have to fight it.
This helps parents not feel so crazy for not sleeping through the night.
Makes sense, because there were night watches to keep and fires to maintain.
This video popped up again for me, and I had a thought about this subject. I think for it to be beneficial to a person, it would have to be a natural pattern for that person. And it would probably be easy for anyone to figure out what theirs is. You'd simply have to never wake to an alarm. Probably not something most people can't arrange though. Most people schedule is dictated by work or school.
I believe that you're not supposed to do anything forceful (workout, chop wood) nor should you expose yourself to blue light.
The sleep schedule evolved before electrical light of "things that would disturb the household, neighbors, or livestock."
Try it again without appliances or with red glasses.
See they didn't just have the schedule, they knew how to spend the night hours. The world went dark and stayed that way until dawn. Most only rich people had even candles. The average person has rush lights at best.
You don't want to wake yourself to daylight standards.
I've had many weird sleep schedules around different weird hours that I've worked, including split sleeps. I worked 4:00a - 12:00p for a while and I'd go to bed around 11:00p, wake up around 3:00a feeling awake and refreshed, go work a full day, and then get home around 1:00 and suddenly be ready for a nap and would sleep until around 5:00p. This allowed me to spend my evenings with friends/family and worked well for me at the time.
During the Medieval (and earlier) times people had several very good reasons for this, Robbery and Crime this dramatically reduced the chances of being a victim, Fires for those that lived in Hamlets and larger Cities was always a big danger (Town bell rang every hour announcing if everything was "all's well" or not), also the "Witching Hour" was 12 midnight to 1am nobody wanted to be asleep while they were running around plus this was a time when "Everybody in the family (or just house)" was there and not working sometimes far off. Today's people and society has really no use for this. Night Owls say their better inspiration often comes late, late at night as well. Good video.
When I saw the title I thought "wtf", but then I remembered that I used to feel better mentally and physically when I had that sleep pattern. It's perfect for me, being a night owl and a morning person at the same time lol. But for real, I had more energy and I could focus more.
Thank you for reminding me of this.
I have been sleeping like this for at least 15 years. I always thought I was odd but once I read about it in the NYT I embraced it. The comments are great validation. Although I think it works for me because it comes naturally to me. I doubt I could/would want to train myself otherwise.
Thanks for that video. Informative and entertaining. Wonder how many of us are actually doing this already . I certainly am - unwillingly.
I have an anectodal experience from the military. Where I'm from there's mandatory conscription so I spent 9 months in the military, which obviously had a different daily schedule than my normal civilian life.
So for starters it's important to note that the military is obviously very regimented and the schedules are built around that, so these sleeping patterns don't necessarily fit in with a regular work/life schedule.
So typically the schedule says that from 6am to 2pm it's working hours and you do not sleep. Lights out is at 11pm so that means that the dedicated sleeping time is 7 hours but you could also sleep from 2 pm to 11pm if you don't have anything else to do.
Duties like patrols, guards etc were usually a total of 6 hours broken into two hour stints. If you had duty, the way their time slots were arranged it meant it cut into your sleep, making it 5-6 hours, and usually split into two unequal sleep sessions with the 2 hour watch separating them. Sleep was by far one of the biggest complaints of people in there and many often slept whenever possible to supplement their sleep, usually in the afternoon. Personally I have chronically bad sleep and despite sleeping 7-8 hours I always have difficulty waking up and feeling tired. Without an alarm I'll easily sleep for 10-12 hours and still wake up feeling horrible.
Given that I was in a small unit, I had duty every day since there weren't enough people to get free days. Initially this was horrible, not ever getting a full night's sleep, but after a couple of months this started changing. I stopped trying to supplement my sleep in the afternoons and only slept between 11 and 6 minus my watch times. This meant I spent months sleeping for 5-6 hours each night in 2-3 hour sessions, and yet, I didn't feel tired, in fact I felt quite the opposite, better than ever even compared to civilian life. Not everyone felt the same but for me it was better than sleeping for 8 straight hours.