Did you know that the whole idea of sleeping a full night is a fairly modern concept? Until 400 hundred years ago or so, people used to have first and second sleeps; they’d still get roughly eight hours of sleep, but break it up into two chunks over the course of a night. So it’d be four hours sleeping, then two or so hours of whatever (praying, eating, or the popular option, sex) and then back to bed for four more hours of sleep.
I bring this up since perhaps my Shakespeare-reading is turning me into a resident of the 16th century, as I’ve been having some thoroughly weird sleeping patterns over the last few weeks. I’ll go to bed, then wake up maybe 4-5 hours later completely rested. I’ll get up, do my business, and then get extremely tired again in the afternoon and take an extended four hour nap. How long is a nap before it’s “sleeping” and not just a nap? Four hours has to be a bit over the cutoff point, no?
This habit has gotten annoying for a few reasons, namely that it’s wrecking my social schedule. For instance, one recent day saw me go to bed at 2am and wake up fresh as a daisy at 5:30. Try as I did to fall back to sleep, I couldn’t, so after an hour or so of tossing and turning I just woke up and hit the computer, did some reading, had a surprisingly full day. My plan for that night was to go to a movie, but that was before the late-afternoon sleepiness kicked in. Around 5pm I laid down for a quick catnap, only to wake up at 10:30pm, my moviegoing window thoroughly closed. What the hell, REM? As you’l note by the timestamp on this post, my problem is ongoing.
Hopefully I get this figured out before my work schedule picks up over the next few weeks and I have to start being places at specific times on a regular basis (you know, like a grownup). Either that or else I fully embrace life in the 1600’s and just start using a chamberpot. Nobody wants this to happen.
I bring this up since perhaps my Shakespeare-reading is turning me into a resident of the 16th century, as I’ve been having some thoroughly weird sleeping patterns over the last few weeks. I’ll go to bed, then wake up maybe 4-5 hours later completely rested. I’ll get up, do my business, and then get extremely tired again in the afternoon and take an extended four hour nap. How long is a nap before it’s “sleeping” and not just a nap? Four hours has to be a bit over the cutoff point, no?
This habit has gotten annoying for a few reasons, namely that it’s wrecking my social schedule. For instance, one recent day saw me go to bed at 2am and wake up fresh as a daisy at 5:30. Try as I did to fall back to sleep, I couldn’t, so after an hour or so of tossing and turning I just woke up and hit the computer, did some reading, had a surprisingly full day. My plan for that night was to go to a movie, but that was before the late-afternoon sleepiness kicked in. Around 5pm I laid down for a quick catnap, only to wake up at 10:30pm, my moviegoing window thoroughly closed. What the hell, REM? As you’l note by the timestamp on this post, my problem is ongoing.
Hopefully I get this figured out before my work schedule picks up over the next few weeks and I have to start being places at specific times on a regular basis (you know, like a grownup). Either that or else I fully embrace life in the 1600’s and just start using a chamberpot. Nobody wants this to happen.
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