Thinking about sleep all at once is very cultural but far from universal. While sleeping in two periods would allow you to get your sleep quota and fight against insomnia.
THE double sleep, also called biphasic sleepconsists of sleep twice. For example, a person who sleeps eight hours a night cut out your sleep time by sleeping twice for 4 hours or 3 hours then 5 hours. During this period of wakefulness, instead of trying to go back to sleep, the subject goes about their business. “At the time when we didn’t have electricity, we went to bed quite early, around 8 p.m., so it was clear that we weren’t going to sleep until 8am the next day. Very usually, people woke up in the middle of the night, read, prayed, then went back to bed“, comments Dr. Marc Rey, neurologist specializing in sleep. By extension, some speak of double sleep by associating a night’s sleep and a 90-minute nap during the day.
Double sleep improves productivity
Double sleep presents a benefit for people with insomnia. Instead of tossing and turning in bed looking for sleep, they can go about their business for a while and then go back to sleep. This way, they will have their sleep quota. Double sleep also allowsimprove cognitive abilities, increase productivity, reduce stress and slow heart rate. It is also recommended in case of narcolepsy and to people who work in staggered hours. Double sleep then consists of adapting your sleep schedule by realizing 2 periods of sleep over the 24 hours.
In practice, it is necessary to count 7 to 8 hours of sleep per 24 hours. These hours can be divided into two parts over this period. For example, 4 hours from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. and 4 hours from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. in the morning. This sleep time can also be divided into 5 hours at night and a 90-minute nap during the day.
Isn’t it bad for your health to sleep twice?
“This way of thinking about sleep all at once is very cultural but far from universal. There is a period of daytime sleep called nap which is usually practiced in all agricultural regionsobserves the specialist. Sleeping twice is not bad as the sleep cycles last 1.5 hours, it’s physiological. Sleep cycles will be more or less grouped according to culture and society. How to organize the sleep-wake rhythm is more a social habitus than a purely biological habitus. In other words, everyone adapts their way of sleeping to their environment. Generally speaking, we tend to favor a greater number of cycles at night because we are diurnal animals.“.
Thanks to Dr Marc Rey, neurologist specializing in sleep, president of the National Institute of Sleep and Vigilance (INSV).