Why Humans Are Supposed to Sleep in Two 4-Hour Phases

Video written by Adam Chase

[Stratelier]

Aragorn: "Gentlemen! We do not sleep until evening."
Pippin: "But what about bedtime?"
Aragorn: "You already had it."
Pippin: "We've had one, yes. What about _second_ bedtime?"

[ericcriteser]

I retired in 2012. After I was able to fall into a natural rythym, I started going to bed around 10pm and wake up at 2am. I'd get up and goof around till 4am and fall back asleep till 8am. It was great. Then went back to work part time and still was able to keep the pattern. Super refreshing.

[genevievefosa]

I believe the biggest thing that ended biphasic sleep for most people was having to work in factories and offices, where you must be alert on somebody else' schedule. They want you there for eight hours every day, and we have to do everything else, including commute back and forth, on our own time. Consequently, most people are chronically over tired. This sleep abuse begins with the public schools, compelling students to be up, out and alert for long hours, and catch their sleep as best they can.

[iainballas]

Since this video came out, I have tested many methods of sleep, and found my favorite is three seven-hour sleep cycles, interspersed with three food breaks.

[harrisonofcolorado]

Sure explains all those guys who eat shredded cheese at 2 in the morning.

[TheTexas]

“One 5 hour period of insomnia and self hatred”

This hit me

[genericnameinc]

That explains why I am usually very tired at like 9-11pm, but usually after forcing myself to stay awake, I then hit a time where I am super awake and focussed until like 2-4am. I often felt like that's my most productive time of the day.

I guess that sudden rush of being awake and focussed again is my body assuming we just skipped first sleep and getting into the "awake in-between" mode. So I've been denying myself half the sleep I need, for decades. Ouch

[rolandgreystoke]

I was stationed on the island of Crete for 13 years. Many of the shops, on a couple workdays, would shut down around noon. The folks would go home, eat lunch, take a nap and then go back to work for 4 hours.

[chrichri]

When you referred to a bed as a “soft table” I had to pause the video and reevaluate my entire life.

[edythehart]

I used to sleep like this during high school. I was always exhausted when I got home so I usually slept 3-5 hours, woke up and ate, did homework, had free time, and went back to sleep before waking up at 0600. It was very natural to me but mom didn't like it

[vintagelady]

Having retired about 10 years ago & living alone, this is exactly how I sleep, so it's interesting to hear that I'm just doing what comes naturally. Except that I generally fall asleep on the couch watching YouTube videos---no seriously, that's exactly what happens, doesn't matter how interesting they are, I just conk out, wake up, do stuff, go to bed. Works for me!

[mysticloverfairy]

I’ve been doing this all my life, I thought my sleep patterns were wrong, or I was abnormal we’re always told you need eight hours of interrupted sleep, I didn’t know this was normal. I sleep four hours wake up, read, watch tv etc then go back to sleep. I’m no longer going to stress about getting eight uninterrupted hours of sleep

[technicalamanullah]

Wendower productions be like : The insane logistics of human sleeping 2-4 hour phases

[crisangel]

I didn’t realize I did this without knowing. As a college student I’d always take a nap right when I got home sleep for like 4 hours stay awake until a little after midnight and then fall asleep again. It actually feels refreshing, you never feel groggy

[jacksont]

During Covid, for about a year, I definitely fell into this pattern, plus a “siesta”. I’d wake up at sunrise every morning, nap for about 2 hours in the early afternoon, be awake until a couple hours after sunset. Wake up around 2AM, go back to sleep about an hour or two later, then wake back up at sunrise. It also resulted in getting less sleep during summer than winter.

When I stopped paying attention to clocks and worrying about the time, I got some of the most restful sleep of my life.

[bforman]

A/C has a HUGE impact on siesta practice. I frankly grew up equating siestas with laziness...until I moved to a region that has hot summers and didn't have A/C. We got up before dawn, worked to 11am or 100F - whichever came first - then knocked off to read, nap, etc until 5p, at which time we got back to work. If it was a big project we'd put up lights and work until after midnight. I have since moved away, but my folks still follow this pattern (though they do now enjoy having A/C).

[fauzirahman]

Jokes on you, I do sleep in two phases: first when I fall in front of the TV or laptop after dinner, and second when I realised that my back hurts from falling asleep on the couch, so I move to the bed in the bedroom.

[VBTrain]

I actually used to do this for several months when I did a ski season and worked night shifts until 7am. 4 hours sleep in the morning, skiing during the day and then another 4 hours sleep in the evening. It felt oddly natural once I got into the swing of it!

[lindaj]

Heard about “punctuated sleep” a few years ago, and the old pattern of having a wakeful break when folk did ‘everyday’ stuff before returning to bed. Stopped worrying about waking up during the night. Writing this at 04:30. 😊

[madisonlempriere]

For the last 8 months I’ve been without work and study while I recover from a major medical condition. And so, I don’t have a schedule to follow and have let my natural circadian rhythm take over.

Without fail I wake up during the night roughly 4 hours after falling asleep, get up for an hour and write or read, then go back to sleep until I naturally wake up again roughly 4 hours later.

I’ve been really stressed over this, thinking something is wrong and I’m losing precious hours of sleep but I’m beginning to understand that’s not the case. I actually feel great. I’ve started lucid dreaming, recalling all my dreams, waking up energised, don’t feel the need to sleep in.

I never use to be a morning person. I dreaded waking to the 5 separate alarms I needed to wake up. Now I’m awake and out of bed at 5am-6am. I work out in the morning and I don’t feel the need to eat or snack until 1pm-2pm.

That’s just my personal experience. Before I found this sleep schedule i had severe sleep problems. I needed incredibly strong addicting sleep medication. I was falling asleep at work, standing up in the shower, at the wheel of my CAR!!

I don’t think this way of sleeping cured all those problems, it was a combination effort of other factors but it definitely contributed greatly.