Anna Fox, a graduate student specializing in medieval literature, has documented her experience with a historical sleep pattern, waking after approximately four hours of sleep for an extended period before returning to bed. This biphasic sleep schedule, often referred to as "first sleep" and "second sleep," involves a segment of wakefulness in the middle of the night.
During a four-week experiment conducted over the summer, Fox adopted this regimen, initially going to bed around 9 p.m. and waking between 1:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. She would then stay awake for several hours before sleeping for another four and a half hours, typically until 8 a.m. Fox noted that the wakeful period in the early morning hours, while sometimes a struggle to embrace, proved to be surprisingly peaceful and productive. She used this time for activities such as reading, writing letters, journaling, and creative work.
"Once I could convince myself to stay up, those hours were lovely," Fox stated. "When you wake up in the morning, you’ve already had this experience in the night of reading poetry, writing letters and books. You wake up with this sense of peaceful accomplishment, like you’ve already done something."
Fox reported feeling more alert and less reliant on her alarm clock, even though she was sometimes getting less sleep overall than her usual pattern. She also found that the experiment prompted her to re-evaluate her daily habits, realizing how much time she had previously spent on passive entertainment, particularly on her phone.
She believes that modern habits, such as screen use before bed, may make replicating this historical sleep pattern more challenging. Fox suggested that minimizing phone use before sleep and engaging in more physical activity could make the transition feel more natural. She also resumed running as a way to increase nighttime fatigue, which she found contributed to better sleep quality.
While Fox does not intend to maintain this biphasic sleep schedule every night, she sees it as a valuable tool for creating dedicated time for introspection and creative endeavors. She is even considering repeating the experiment during future breaks to assess its potential benefits for managing academic workloads.