I thought it was weird. Guess it is not that weird after all.

thought it was because I was getting older. Ha!

I saw a documentary about sleep patterns once. it was said that as we age we sleep less but need it more as our bodies are slower to heal and regenerate. Seems my normal night lately is sleep for 4 or so, up for 2 and sleep for another 3 or 4.

I'm getting use to sleeping that way too.

Once through initial physical therapy, I hit the gym. That got me in a pattern of getting up early, light breakfast, workout and back home for more food. Then I'd take my morning nap! Sometime around ten or 11 I was up for good. Eventually I did such a good job on the knee that they made me get a job again.

I still do that every day I can. On a weekend, it's maybe five hours of sleep, up with the chickens and then back for an after breakfast nap.

it's how i keep my lovely, glowing, rosy complexion.

***some have mistaken that look for something booze induced.
i don't know why that would be.

maybe I should get up and work on my novel!

studying until 3pm, sleeping again from 3pm to 7pm, then studying til 3am. It was amazing to me how productive I was on that cycle. I've never been so productive since getting onto a cycle of sleeping in one block in a 24-hr period.

But I just call it getting up to pee and not being able to go back to sleep again.

but I question whether this historical pattern was a good thing. A lot of people who wake up during the night do so because they are not getting enough oxygen and their body starts releasing adrenalin to get oxygen and this wakes them up. Over time that plays hell with your body.

matter as to the time of day/night. Of course I'm now retired, makes things a lot easier.

not even 8 hours in some cases.

Over the course of my adult life I'm dismayed by how many people I've run into that regard "burning the candle at both ends" as a normal way of living, not just something done in extenuating circumstances. On top of that, you have the the fact that workaholic-ism has infected the business media's worldview and has nearly successfully painted anyone who makes a point of getting a good night's rest as lazy and unambitious.

That has been my sleeping pattern for many years.

They are like a sedative without the bad side effects. Loves my kitty!

I sleep 4 to 5 hours, then I'm up for 2 hours, then asleep again for 3 hours. I guess that's all I need. I don't feel bad in the morning on that schedule. So why worry?

Adult caregivers have to be alert and preparing breakfast at the crack of dawn. This bi-modal sleep pattern is great for retirees, but not compatible with work in the modern world.

And going to bed earlier as the nights drew in may well have contributed to them waking up in the middle of the night.

...thought it pretty strange but it was the routine I got into. Like someone else here, I figured it was about getting older but maybe not!

Seems like the siesta could be a variation on the same pattern.

Seems tome that 2 breaks for sleep might also be helpful in giving us more opportunities to process our experiences and de-stress.

then waking to work some more when it cools?

I don't remember where I saw it but I found it interesting and love the term "second sleep".

Here is a BBC article similar to the OP. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

that would agree. It may have been the Yamanomi but I don't recall exactly. Anyway, they found that there was no regular patterns of sleep. There was always kids and noise and work going on, so naps were the rule whenever and wherever some peace could be found.

The thrust of the article was that this was more like how humanity might have been for most of our history, where interrupted sleep was the norm and there was no "8 hour sleep" period for anybody. Stuff was always going on, lots of people in close company doing various things, plenty of shared child-care, plenty of work and plenty of play at all times, and the night was the most dangerous time to be out cold anyway, so people just took advantage of whatever sleep they could find whenever they were in need. Typical sleep times were 2-4 hours at a time, though cumulatively about 8-9 hours in a 24 hour period.

isn't because the show has become dull??????

Last edited Sat Aug 24, 2013, 02:37 PM - Edit history (1)

would get up in the middle of the night to continue an argument on DU.

We worked in two six hour chunks divided by a long nap.

I think the Navy does something like this on ships: 6 hours on the job, 6 off. that sounds less stressful than one 12 workday.

Since my five year old daughter has type 1 diabetes and I am up every three hours or so to check her blood sugar. (She doesn't wake up, though. Sleeps like a rock.) So I basically sleep in two three hour blocks with some awake time in between.

I always take issue with the tabloid style headlines that address the reader as if they know the reader. Apparently our ancestors did sleep like us. Or that is, people sleep in various patterns and always have. Ben Franklin changed beds in the night, he kept three. Edison they say only napped and never 'slept a night'.