Sleeping in shifts?
Move over the belief that blissful slumber is only obtained from eight hours of nonstop sleep. Two-part sleeping is on the rise, a practice that’s been dormant for the past 100 years.
Technically called segmented sleeping, it’s defined as a person who intentionally sleeps a few hours, awakens for a couple of hours to watch TV, read or whatnot, and goes back to bed for more sleep. Scientists, high performers and people who like to take a “sleep intermission,” see the pattern as a way to both get more done and improve the overall quality of their rest. Authors such as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Leo Tolstoy touted the benefits as well.
Like most ideas that seem to go against the norm, researchers are uncertain whether or not the practice is healthy or natural.
Referenced in Homer’s Odyssey 3,000 years ago, historians think segmented sleeping is how humans naturally evolved. Throughout time, people across cultures and from all walks of life have slept this way. However, by the 17th century, the custom began to fade and pretty much abandoned by the 1920s.
With the pandemic, people awakened to the idea of segmented sleeping when remote workers had more control over their time. Now, could it be that “sleeping like a baby” has taken on a whole new meaning?