I find myself, sometimes, awake around 3 am, and after a trip to the loo, I’m not feeling tired and I toss and turn for a bit. My habit is to avoid looking at my watch when I get up so I don’t worry about falling back to sleep.
After a while, if I can’t sleep, I’ve taken to dragging my ass out of bed and hitting the routine: rowing, kettlebells, meditation. But I seized upon the idea of hitting the sofa in the apartment upstairs for a nap after. It’s not as restorative as sleeping through the night and getting up at 5:15 to start the day, but it’s better than missing all that sleep.
I didn’t invent it, though. There’s evidence that bifurcated sleep patterns are nothing new.
“Artificial illumination became more prevalent, and more powerful – first there was gas lighting, which was introduced for the first time ever in London,” says Ekirch, “and then, of course, electric lighting toward the end of the century. And in addition to altering people’s circadian rhythms. artificial illumination also naturally allowed people to stay up later.”