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Is it ok to divide up sleep into several 'blocks' instead of one long one?

  • 03-10-2011 06:03PM
    #1
    hatrickpatrick
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,798 ✭✭✭✭


    From what I've read about how sleep works, it's not so much the total length of sleep that's important, but more that you wake up at the end of a sleep cycle rather than interrupting one.

    So therefore, if one had a late shift followed by an early one, would it be ok to, for example, sleep from 1AM until about 5AM, get up again for a few hours, and then sleep for another 4 hours from say 10AM until 2PM?

    Is this as effective as getting one long block of sleep at the same time? Assuming you timed your alarm to wake you up roughly between sleep cycles rather than in the middle of them, would this be adequate?

    I seem to remember reading that older societies used to do just that, and the idea of one long continuous sleep every night is a relatively modern practice.

    Anyone have experience of this? Is it worthwhile or would it not work?


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