For many years (decades even) starting during childhood or adolescence, I used to wake up exactly 4 hours after falling asleep. One moment I was sleeping soundly, the moment right after I was wide awake. It was so precise that I used to look at the clock, subtract 4 hours, and know exactly the time I managed to fall asleep the night before.
It was not stressful at all. I would get up, go to the bathroom, drink some water. Maybe read a book, a manga, study an algorithm, or write something. It was a very peaceful time of the day—rather, the night—to do something with a clear mind; no noise or other people around. I was not sleepy nor groggy and I could choose when to go to sleep again. But I knew I should not drag that time forever, because I still needed to get around 4 hours of sleep before finally getting up in the morning, or I would have a miserable day.
I never thought much about it, until reading about 'biphasal' sleep and how people of times past used to sleep like that.
These days my sleep is more troubled than in my teens and twenties and I have a tighter sleep schedule—probably because I've always been a night owl and I don't have anybody nagging me about going to bed early, so I don't. Somewhere along the way, I lost the habit of biphasal sleep.
I cannot say whether it's correlation or causation (let alone which way), but I used to sleep much better during my biphasal sleep years.
It was not stressful at all. I would get up, go to the bathroom, drink some water. Maybe read a book, a manga, study an algorithm, or write something. It was a very peaceful time of the day—rather, the night—to do something with a clear mind; no noise or other people around. I was not sleepy nor groggy and I could choose when to go to sleep again. But I knew I should not drag that time forever, because I still needed to get around 4 hours of sleep before finally getting up in the morning, or I would have a miserable day.
I never thought much about it, until reading about 'biphasal' sleep and how people of times past used to sleep like that.
These days my sleep is more troubled than in my teens and twenties and I have a tighter sleep schedule—probably because I've always been a night owl and I don't have anybody nagging me about going to bed early, so I don't. Somewhere along the way, I lost the habit of biphasal sleep.
I cannot say whether it's correlation or causation (let alone which way), but I used to sleep much better during my biphasal sleep years.
PS. articles like this describe me to a T, dunno if it has anything to do with it: https://lonerwolf.com/9-signs-youre-an-old-soul/