Around one-third of our population are having trouble in sleeping, including problems maintaining sleep through the night. While night time waking is a bit upsetting for most, there is some indication from our past that proposes this period of restlessness occurring between two distinct sleeping periods was the average.
Through history there have been several accounts of segmented sleep, from medical records, to court, diaries, and even in African and South American communities, with a common statement to "first" and "second" sleep. In Charles Dickens' Barnaby Rudge (1840), he inscribes:
During this awakening, people would relax a bit, ponder on their dreams if there is, or have sex to full asleep after. Some would occupy themselves in activities like sewing, chopping wood, or reading, under the shade of the moon or oil lamps.
Biological Basis
Less melodramatic forms of bi-phasic sleep are obvious today, for example in values that take a siesta. Our body clock itself lends to such a schedule, having a drop-in alertness in the early afternoon (the so-called "post-lunch dip"). This finding recommends bi-phasic sleep is a natural course with a biological origin.
Pros And Cons
Today's civilization often doesn't agree on this type of flexibility; thus, we must imitate to today's sleep/wake plans. It is generally believed continuing the seven to nine-hour unbroken sleep is perhaps best for feeling revitalized. Such a timetable may not suit our circadian paces however, as we synchronise with the outward 24-hour light/dark cycle.
To effectively maintain a split sleep timetable, you should get the control right - that is beginning sleep when there is a strong push for sleep and during a low circadian time to fall asleep quickly and uphold sleep habit.
Implications For Shifting Work
Split sleep timetables have begun to emerge as a potential alternative night shifts work. Working at night has the shared problems of prolonged sleeplessness (regularly working eight to 12 hours of shift) and circadian differences (working at night when you would usually be asleep). Shift workers often complain of fatigue that affects productivity and at risk to increase on chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart sickness.
While the trials of night shift work cannot be removed, the benefit of some split shift timetables is that all employees get at least some chance to sleep at night and do not have to endure alertness for more than six to eight hours.
Even though we aspire to have combined sleep, this may not suit every person's body clock or work schedules. It might, in fact, be a revision to a bi-model sleep outline from our pro-industrial and work well in a current industrial setting.
