Segmented Sleep
Many Americans are very worried about their sleep. They firmly believe the common assumption that they should get a solid uninterrupted eight hours. If they find themselves awake in the middle of the night, they feel as though there is something seriously wrong with them. Many go to their physicians who diagnose a sleep disorder, and are prescribed sleep medications. These medications are not benign. Many cause a hangover; the next day the individual feels tired and sleepy and functions sub optimally. There are also more dramatic side effects such as sleep walking, amnesia and hallucinations. Between 2000-2005 Americans were prescribed 60% more sleep medications than in previous years.
Several years ago my friend, psychologist Dr. Joan Goldberg, mentioned the intriguing concept of segmented sleep to me. The theory goes like this: Our modern idea that a solid 8 hours represents healthy sleep is a myth. Historically human beings naturally slept in two distinct phases, with a period of wakefulness separating the two phases. There is evidence from sleep research, as well as from the reports of individuals, that this bi-modal sleep pattern, combined with a midday nap results in the experience of greater wakefulness during the day time, than uninterrupted sleep. During that period of wakefulness, the brain secretes high levels of prolactin, a hormone associated with a feeling of calm and well-being.
Historically this time of wakefulness between the two sleep segments was considered a special and even sacred time. Laborers tired from working the fields would have the energy to have sexual relations after their first period of sleep, people engaged in spiritual practices such as prayer, reflection and meditation, and others used the quiet time to read and write. Dreams were more available to be remembered during that time than upon awakening in the morning.
A recent article in the BBC news magazine reported on segmented sleep. The historian Robert Ekirch summarized in his book At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past, the abundant historical evidence that humans previously slept in two separated segments. This custom was common knowledge and there are many references to it. Here is an interesting passage from that article;
He unearthed “more than 500 references to a segmented sleeping pattern – in diaries, court records, medical books and literature, from Homer’s Odyssey to an anthropological account of modern tribes in Nigeria.
During this waking period people were quite active. They often got up, went to the toilet or smoked tobacco and some even visited neighbours. Most people stayed in bed, read, wrote and often prayed. Countless prayer manuals from the late 15th Century offered special prayers for the hours in between sleeps.
A doctor’s manual from 16th Century France even advised couples that the best time to conceive was not at the end of a long day’s labour but “after the first sleep”, when “they have more enjoyment” and “do it better”.
Ekirch found that references to the first and second sleep started to disappear during the late 17th Century. This started among the urban upper classes in northern Europe and over the course of the next 200 years filtered down to the rest of Western society.
By the 1920s the idea of a first and second sleep had receded entirely from our social consciousness.
He attributes the initial shift to improvements in street lighting, domestic lighting and a surge in coffee houses – which were sometimes open all night. As the night became a place for legitimate activity and as that activity increased, the length of time people could dedicate to rest dwindled.”
This article from the BBC generated some buzz in the Paleosphere when it was published a few months ago. Robb Wolff of The Paleolithic Solution took issue with the normalization of our poor sleep habits in contemporary culture. He noted the deleterious effect upon health of too few hours of sleep, as well as the disruptive effect electric light has on the natural diurnal circadian rhythm of Cortisol, which creates insulin resistance, increased appetite and inflammation. He did not comment upon the beneficial calming effect of Prolactin released during the segmented sleep pattern or the potential psychological and spiritual benefits of this special time.
It seems to me that Americans want to do everything efficiently, and that includes sleep. Segmented sleep is not efficient, power sleeping a solid 8 hours minimizes time in bed so that a person can get back to the important business of “getting and spending”.
Yet we also crave rest and a huge 20 billion dollar industry has been created around sleep: pillows, mattresses, herbal remedies, sleep centers and prescription medications.
Here is a passage from a recent article about segmented sleep in the Guardian,
“But while once viewed as a great leveller (Sir Philip Sidney called sleep “the poor man’s wealth, the prisoner’s release, the indifferent judge between high and low.”), sleeping long has become regarded as an indulgence, a weakness. Today careerists operate a sort of competitive sleeporexia, seeing who can function on the least amount of sleep, fuelled by tales of Thatcher and her four hours.”
I wonder if we made an effort to align our sleep more with the rising and setting of the sun, going to sleep earlier in the winter and later in the summer, and arising with the sun, and returned to honoring the pattern of segmented sleep, but resisted the use of electric light during the period of wakefulness, if it would still impact cortisol levels.
It is also true that sleep changes over the course of the life cycle. Children sleep very deeply compared to most adults, and older adults sleep less than younger people. People with mood and anxiety disorders often have atypical sleep patterns. It seems important to gauge the healthfulness of your sleep habits in terms of how you feel. How is your energy? How alert do you feel? These are the most reliable indicators of whether or not you need to tweak your practice.
It is my opinion that the habit of segmented sleep could offer a special personal private time, an oasis. It potentially offers a dedicated carved out time and space for just being, and could potentially yield physical, psychological and spiritual benefits to our harried souls.
I’ve been doing this for a few months now, and it’s really working well for me. I’ve tended to be a nightowl, but found that in the past few years (I’m 53), I get sleepy around 9-10PM.
Ergo, I don’t fight it anymore, somewhere between 9 and 11, I sleep a couple of hours in a comfy easy chair. I then get up somewhere midnight-1AM, and am up another 2-3 of hours (very satisfying hours). I then sleep until 9ish. I don’t have a problem falling asleep again at 3 or 4AM, and wake completely rested in the (later!) morning. I think I know my own body, and it’s telling me this is a good system.
Thank you for this interesting article.
I recently fell into the ‘segmented sleep’ pattern by accident.
Long story, but I go to bed normally and read for a while. Go to sleep around 11pm and get up between 3 and 4am.
Go walking/running with my dog, answer email and spend a little time on the web.
Go back to bed between 5 and 6 for another 1.5/2.00 hours.
And I take another 1.5 hour or so nap around 2pm.
I find that I don’t have any downtime during the day. Much more energy. And the waking up after the 2nd sleep in the morning ? Oh, my god, that feels so good. I’ve never woken up that way after an 8 hour sleep (when I usually have to run to the bathroom 😉 )
Sounds like you figured out a great personal rhythm, you feel great and are able to incorporate exercise naturally. Wonderful.
Hi Judy,
Thanks for posting this. I have had segmented sleep for a number of years, but since I usually am well rested when I wake up, I was blessed enough to not have to go to a physician. I will post a link to this page on my facebook page, because I believe it is important information. We need to know about the myth of needing 8 hrs sleep. I may do a post on my blog on peace about this, but it will not be for a while. I look for ways to bring peace to as many aspects of being human as I can, and while bringing peace to our sleep is important, it will have to take a back seat to the posts I am working on now. Thanks again for sharing this information!
Dear Dan,
Thanks for taking the time to write and for linking this post to your Facebook page. I am glad you found the post useful. I like the idea of bringing peace to sleep. Sometimes I think about the concept of ease. It seems related. Often it seems like my life and the lives of those around me lack ease. It’s a worthwhile intention to cultivate those restful states in our lives. It feels like it makes joy more possible.
Hi Judy,
Thanks for replying to my comment. I agree that peace and ease are related. Ease is one of the benefits of Peace. For me, creating inner peace has resulted in ease in my life, which remains even when life’s challenges pop up.
I never thought of it as bringing ease to people’s lives, but that is why I work on bringing peace to the different areas of life. Ease does make joy more possible. When you are at peace, there is so much less stress in your life that there is less to disturb your ease and your whole life benefits, even your sleep.
I especially love the idea of feeling peace and ease at those times when life is difficult and when we face challenges. That is a blessing.
Thanks so much for this article! I had read something similar before, but forgotten about it, and it is so reassuring. Since menopause, I find that “segmented sleep” is a regular pattern for me….I usually wake between 1-3AM, am awake for an hour or two (sometimes even three), and usually fall asleep again for 2-3 more hours. I’ve spent a lot of time stressing out about this (usually during that period when I’m lying awake), but lately I’ve realized that I’m often not significantly more tired during the day, and if I have the chance to lie down for a light doze in the afternoon, I can carry on quite well. So now I will have even more reasons to mentally relax about the situation. Good!
You are following the pattern reported to result in the highest degree of day time alertness; segmented sleep plus afternoon siesta. That is great! We each need to listen to our bodies and not imagine that we must conform to an imaginary norm. It’s freeing to be yourself without comparison.
Very interesting! If I understand it, the segmented sleep should happen naturally, not be induced by setting an alarm for midnight, right? So why don’t more people naturally follow the segmented pattern? Is it because we are sleep deprived? Because we don’t nap in the afternoons? I would love to nap every afternoon, but like most people who work a traditional job, my employer at best offers no help, and in most cases implicitly discourages napping. How can someone with a 9-5 job introduce napping or segmented sleep into his or her life?
Its a good question, like so many conventions of modern life, our typical work culture does not seem to foster good health and well being. I know that there are some work places that encourage napping, as they recognize that it contributes to greater productivity.
I do imagine that if one is so tired that one would be less likely to wake up during that in between time. If one could take a nap, one would begin the initial sleep less exhausted. I don’t think setting an alarm in the middle of the night makes sense. But if one does wake up, its good to know that there is a rich tradition associated with this pattern, and that it is no cause for worry, and can in fact be a rich time for the self.
Hey Judy –
(. . . don’t let me down . . .)
Segmented sleep , dozing after a meal, siestas, power naps etc.
Intriguing sets of ideas – I have not come anything which connects it to adaptation – other than that the waking, eating, sleeping patterns of babyhood do come into line with that of the household.
I envy those few, who like Churchill, can nap for 15- 30 minutes, wake refreshed and power on. The only time I ever switched to this was the 20 minute half-doze to break up long driving trips, but even this was not deep sleep. My female companion can “sleep on a pin” – her description – and wakes up minutes before her alarm.
If hope you like this stanza from:
The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing,
Beloved from pole to pole!
To Mary Queen the praise be given!
She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven,
That slid into my soul.
Slainte
Thank you for taking the time to write. I do like the Coleridge stanza you sent. Its lovely to get poetry. I can poet nap with good effect. In my line of work, its not particularly not acceptable to be sleepy when patients are talking to me. I have been grateful for the fact that very short naps do work for me.
I did a piece on this too! It has captured my imagination for a long time and helped me in my recovery process. http://beyondmeds.com/2012/03/13/segmentedsleep/
I am, in fact, awake now, after my first sleep and will be returning to bed for my second in the next hour or two. 🙂
Gianna, this is the second time that we wrote similar pieces! I agree that segmented sleep has lots of potential benefits. I have had sleep issues since childhood, and never found a sleep medicine that did not make me feel awful the next day.
Yes, we have lots of common interests! I’ve written a lot about GAPS and diet and nutrition and the gut too. I write extensively about psycho-social alternative methods to healing as well. I have an interest in cooking too, but I’ve got another unrelated blog about that!
Anyway, thanks, I enjoy reading your work and that is why 🙂
I appreciate your reading my blog and I love your comments. You have a wealth of information and experience.