River: Awake in the dead of night

[mdlbear]

Apparently there is something called middle-of-the-night insomnia. Basically, difficulty returning to sleep after waking in the middle of the night. I often have it.

One of the treatments is zalephon (Sonata), a very fast-acting and short-lasting hypnotic. Unfortunately it's addictive, as one might expect.

There's also something called segmented sleep, which is two or more periods of sleep separated by an extended period of wakefulness. Common in pre-industrial societies, i.e. people who don't use artificial light. They go to sleep when it gets dark, wake up for a couple of hours (maybe without getting out of bed), and go back to sleep.

This period of wakefulness was often only semi-conscious, as the French term implies. It was highly valued in medieval Europe as a time of quiet and relaxation. Peasant couples were often too tired after a long day's work to do much more than eat and go to sleep, but they would wake later on to talk and make love. People would also use this time to pray and reflect, and to interpret dreams, which were more vivid at that hour than upon waking in the morning, and even to visit. This was also a favorite time for scholars and poets to write uninterrupted.

If it weren't for the fact that it requires going to bed early in the evening, I'd try it. The few times Colleen and I have found ourselves simultaneously wakeful in the middle of the night have been very pleasant. She usually goes back to sleep quickly, though, and it often takes me longer. But I'll worry about that a lot less, now, and may be more likely to make use of the time.

Comments

[nimuejohn.livejournal.com]

Many years ago, I was convinced I had chronic insomnia, when in fact I was just waking up several times during the night and immediately forgetting having gone to sleep and woken up. Thus, I assumed I'd been awake all night, until the time I remembered a long and detailed dream and realized that, duh, I had to have been asleep.

[mdlbear]

Yes, I had similar experiences a long time ago. These days I can mostly tell the difference.