[small_model]

I do bi/tri phase sleep, 6 hours at night, and 1-2 naps a day (I work remotely so allows me to nap when I want) This is the best, sleep when you need to you body knows best.

Do you think our ancestors slept exactly 8 hours a night from 10pm to 6am? No they slept when they wanted.

[quietbritishjim]

> Do you think our ancestors slept exactly 8 hours a night from 10pm to 6am?

Yeah I pretty much do expect that (but more like 6 or 7). They were awake a few hours after sunset by fire light, then get up fairly early. I certainly don't imagine them napping during the day, when they could be working together to get food, unless it's a climate where it's too hot to do anything in the middle of the day.

Studies of modern hunter gatherers seem to back this up e.g. [1]

It's widely known that Victorians would have two sleeps over night, with a productive period in the middle, but this seems to be a misconception based on a passing remark in one court case. Even if true, this is a post-industrial society with unhealthily long working hours and I don't think we should be copying their sleep patterns.

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098221...

[thesuitonym]

Nearly all predators spend large portions of their day sleeping, why would humans have been different?

[quietbritishjim]

Well that's a purely intellectual question, given that empirical data on human hunter gatherers.

But I'd guess it's because (1) humans aren't purely predators, we're have a mixed diet with plants too, and (2) humans hint in a fundamentally different way to most predators, by chasing their prey to exhaustion over several hours rather than outrunning them over a few minutes.

[zeroonetwothree]

Bears sleep about 7-8 hours/day, similar to humans.

[small_model]

Watch male lions they sleep when they want, laze about all day until they need to eat. Or you can be a deer caught in the corporate wage slave, alarm clock prisoner headlights.

[raddan]

Artificial light has a huge effect on drowsiness for me. This is quite noticable when I am out in the woods, camping in a tent. After sundown, I have about an hour left before I get so drowsy that I cannot keep my eyes open. Back home, indoors, I can stay awake almost indefinitely.

[quietbritishjim]

Male lions don't hunt, females do. In human hunter gatherer society, it's the males that hunt while females gather plants.

Also, as I mentioned in a sibling comment, humans hunt in a fundamentally different way to most predators, including lions: humans chase to exhaustion over hours while lions try to outrun their prey over minutes or less. (That's why humans have three gaits: walking, jogging, running, while most animals only have walking and running.)

[trallnag]

Watch birds they fly when they want. Or you can be a slave worm bound to the earth. The choice is yours

[small_model]

If you watch birds you will see they don't use alarm clocks nor go to work, but still find food each day.

[quietbritishjim]

Birds don't need to cooperate in groups to find food.

In animals that do, you can bet that they have a way to wake together. If you're camping in the same tent as other humans you'll soon find that out. Alarm clocks are a workaround for not living communally with the rest of your tribe.

[zeroonetwothree]

What about female lions?

[stronglikedan]

I've tried this but naps make me groggy for the rest of the day, or sometimes I get confused thinking it's the next day. What's your secret to waking up refreshed from a nap?

[raddan]

My PhD advisor likes to drink a coffee just prior to falling asleep. That way the caffiene slowly kicks in and wakes him up. I can't do this--I already have trouble sleeping and I feel the effects of coffee quickly.

But to answer your question-- for me, washing my face helps a lot. I don't know why. Not that I nap all that often.

[QuercusMax]

Your naps are too long. Think of it as a reboot, not a full power-down cycle.

I set a 25 minute timer and usually wake up a few minutes before it goes off. You don't want to go all the way into deep sleep which really requires 2-3 hours to properly do a REM cycle, and if you wake up in the middle you'll be super groggy.

[small_model]

I am groggy but I drink a Coke Zero and within 10-20 mins I feel great. Whereas without sleep I would be flagging.

[stingraycharles]

There’s plenty of evidence that people used to sleep very early, and have a period of activity in the night, before having a second period of sleep.

I follow the same schedule as you do, and also work remotely, and usually take a single 1-2h nap somewhere between 12pm - 3pm. It makes me have two moments of “morning productivity”, which works very well for me.

In the end, listen to your body.