23/04/2026
Waking up at 3 a.m. isn't a defec.t. It's a biological remnant of an ancient sleep pattern that once defined the human night.
Long before the standard eight-hour ideal, the human night was split in two. Historian Roger Ekirch has documented more than 2,000 references to 'first' and 'second' sleep across centuries of literature and records. This wasn't a sign of exhaustion but a natural rhythm where people woke for a midnight 'watch'—a quiet interval used for prayer, socializing, or reflection. Scientific studies have since confirmed this biological tendency, showing that when humans are removed from artificial light, their bodies instinctively revert to this two-stage sleep cycle.
This ancient pattern was eventually dismantled by the Industrial Revolution and the arrival of artificial lighting. As electricity allowed the day to stretch longer, the 'first sleep' was pushed later, compressing rest into a single, continuous block to suit modern labor demands. Consequently, the segmented night became a forgotten relic of the pre-industrial world. If you find yourself awake in the early hours of the morning, you may not be suffering from a sleep disorder; you might simply be experiencing a biological echo of a time when the night had a middle.
source: Ekirch, A. R. (2005). At Day's Close: Night in Times Past. W. W. Norton & Company.
