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Go to the bathroom and eat a snack.
I spent a vacation once with no internet and no lights. Worked myself hard all day snorkeling and went to bed at dark.
Every night, woke up in the middle of the night for a peaceful amble to the jakes and wandered around for a bit enjoying myself before going back to bed.
It felt very natural.
What I currently do, as because of health I sleep two shifts
Wake up slicked with sweat, drag my decaying meat husk out of bed. Dry off. Use bathroom, talk to a cat who loves affection... when you're in the bathroom. If it's near dawn, go outside and water the plants. Come inside, wait for husband to wake up. Eat lunch, plan dinner.
Go back to sleep.
Sibling gets home, I'm either awake or will be woken up. Make dinner. Spend time with husband, go back to sleep.
Take a nap
I once had the perfect job for biphasic sleeping. I would get up at 4 AM, work and be home by about 1 PM, sleep til 4 PM, stay up til 11 PM, then back to bed til 4 AM. 8 hours of sleep a day, 7 or 8 hours for work, 7 hours in the afternoon and evening for whatever I wanted, and I felt well-rested the whole time. It's the only thing I miss about that job.
Stare at my phone
Paint mostly. Although my art has taken a bit of a Beksińskian bent of late, so I might have to switch activities.
I'll bite.
Rather than go and look it up, which would ironically probably be less effort than asking this question: what's Beksińskian art?
gesundheit
Ideally, work -since I am way more inspired during the night. Realistically, wank
Turn your passion into a career by donating man juice
No one needs to have my BPD genes.
I would if I could but they would catch on after a while that I've had a vasectomy and it's all blanks.
Tidying up, journalling, writing, or art. Though nothing on a screen and nothing related to eating to avoid brushing my teeth again.
Indeed, I have the means and curiosity to try out biphasic sleeping. Only things that keep me back are having two alarms a night (at least while I'm not used to it) and the fear I'll get too worked up to fall asleep again.
I've used the time for a midnight bike ride or some gaming or reading a book
Take your pet for a walk.
Personally I find biphasic sleep pretty normal and easy to do when I'm working a job in a timezone that's behind mine by a few hours.
Go to bed at 12:30, sleep 4.5 hrs til 5:00, wake up with the cat at dawn, take them outside and enjoy the morning tranquility for a bit, go back to bed at 6, sleep til 9, get up to start my job at 10 or 11.
I don't do it when I have to be up early though, I both always struggle to go to bed early, and I find waking up and being up in the middle middle of the night, to feel more stressful than doing it at dawn.
Get an extra nap in.
Does no one else wake up at 0300 and read a book for a bit before going back to sleep for a couple of hours?
I often read after first sleep. I can't imagine not doing that way.
Sometimes I'll wake up at 0300 and contemplate trying biphasic sleep. But I fall back asleep before I can muster the courage to get out of bed.
I do for sure.
I do. Is this…a skill?
Put it on your CV, worth a shot.
My go to when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep is to put on rabbithole and iceberg youtube videos
I don’t
I practice biphasic sleep - have done for decades.
I usually put on a light documentary - something about nature or technology, not exciting, terrible or controversial.
So I assume it works well for you if you've continued doing it. What improvements did you find when switching to biphasic?
I didn't do it on purpose. It just happened. I guess living out in the sticks does help: it's not like we don't have electricity or internet out here, but the first neighbor is 3 miles away, the town is 5 miles, and we have real starry nights here. So it's quite easy to turn off the light and experience a, quiet peaceful night at the hours at which sleep should be happening naturally.
I fall asleep around 8 or 9 pm and I wake up around midnight or 1am, watch something quiet and peaceful so I learn something interesting without falling fully awake - and more importantly without waking up the missus - then I simply fall back asleep until 5 am.
I live above the arctic circle, so when it's winter, I usually sleep longer. And when it's summer and it's daytime all night long, of course I sleep less. But on average, I sleep 2 x 4 hours per night. I feel just as refreshed as when I slept 1 x 8 hours. But perhaps feel less "disconnected", if that makes any sense.
Ahh, I've always thought it would be fun to go to Norway or something for a bit to experience those looooong days
It's fun for a few days. But if you live above or near the Arctic circle you get pretty tired of the long dark of the winter. And summers are shooort. 😐
Oh ya I don't think I could do it permanently, I feel like months of darkness would really get to you mentally
In a way, definitely. But it also makes you really appreciate the warmer seasons when they do come back around.