How the Pandemic Caused a Shift in Sleep Patterns

Could you experience less stress with less sleep? During the pandemic, there has been a trend toward nighttime wakefulness. Many individuals wake in the early hours—between two and three o’clock—and are unable to fall back to sleep. The busyness and stress of the day have taken their toll, resulting in insomnia.

While most people chafe against nighttime wakefulness, it used to be the norm. Before the beginning of the industrial age, it was common to have two periods of sleep each night. The first sleep was around sundown until midnight, the second in the early morning hours. Victorians like Charles Dickens were familiar with this sleeping pattern. Dickens himself dealt with chronic insomnia, often trolling the streets of London in the wee hours of the morning, getting inspiration for his writing. He also wrote in his book, Barnaby Rudge, about a character jerking awake from his “first sleep.”

Another book, At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past, by A. Roger Ekirch, goes into great detail about the practice our ancestors had of segmented sleep. What did people do in the middle of the night while awake for a few hours? Some chatted quietly with other family members, some did chores, some made love and others simply rested.

Of course, in modern times insomnia is a bit more difficult to deal with. Rushing to get to work the next morning and staying awake and productive while there make it especially challenging to deal with frequent bouts of night wakefulness. Good sleep hygiene practices and the use of natural sleep aids may help most individuals avoid this issue.

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