The Watch- sleep poll

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I read recently about how in the Middle Ages, people would go to sleep around dusk, and then wake up for a few hours around midnight to 3 a.m., pray, putter around, do chores, and then go back to bed. They called this time "The Watch".

I've also read of it spoken of differently. The rabbis speak of "The Holy Hour", around 2 to 3 a.m. when they interpret this time as God waking us up, to pray and ponder, alone with Him, for an hour or so, before the business of the day.

I've read different variations of this from several different world philosophies.

Unless I am seriously fatigued, no matter when I fall asleep, I wake up sometime between midnight and three a.m. I might be up anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. I like to think of it as Holy hour. I'll pray a little if I remember. I might just try and get back to sleep. I might play a video game, or do a little busy work with my hands. And listen to nature sounds to try to fall back to sleep.

I have read that we aspies have sleep disturbances rather frequently. Do you find yourself waking up every night for "The Watch"?

Do you think of this middle of the night waking as a sacred event?

Does it affect your physical and mental health to be up in the night?

 

[AuAL]

I am usually awake until midnight, at least. I have tinnitus, so I take drugs to get to sleep. I usually stay asleep for 7-8 hours. If I (rarely) wake before then, I usually go back to sleep in short order. My wife wakes and leaves the bed at 5 am. I generally don’t notice.

 

[vergil96]

I wake up around the middle of the sleep and drink water, open the window etc. Then quickly fall back asleep.

 

[Mary Terry]

My two old cats wake me up about 3:00 every morning, wanting food or entertainment or something from me. I either feed them or put them outside or do both. They never wake up my husband. What's up with that?!

After they wake me up, I usually turn on the TV, at a very low volume, and fall back asleep until 5:00 a.m.

I've long thought that women are lighter sleepers than men because we're usually the ones who feed the infants and comfort the kids with nightmares during the night. It's as if we sleep with one eye and ear open, listening for the babies and children who need us during the night.

 

[Judge]

Good questions. (LOL- See above!)

Reminded me of routine sleep deprivation that went on for a few years in my own case. Especially at a time in my life many years ago when I was living with a girlfriend and her young daughter. Her daughter would regularly wet the bed and would come into our bedroom at various times between 2am and 5am, needing us to clean her up and make her bed. (Pull-ups were not an option.)

I think the experience quickly evolved me into becoming a light sleeper. No matter when her daughter would mope into the bedroom, I seem to easily wake up in her immediate presence. And yet like clockwork, I would still wake up no later than 6am and be out of the house by 7am to commute to San Francisco using BART.

It is weird to contemplate how people can sometimes to adjust to such circumstances. Perhaps better known as "long-term sleep deprivation". Making caffeine a critical factor in being able to function in a complex job for the remainder of the day.

Though in hindsight I know my own father would never have participated in such duties...given his perception of gender roles.

 

[Nitro]

Diagnosed as narcoleptic in two independent sleep studies, I consistently enter my REM state in under one minute.
My sleep ranges from 4-5 hours a night.

 

[Rodafina]

I wake up several times each night. I listen to some sort of video and usually fall back to sleep within 10-30 minutes.

I used to get up and be active in the night, but now I've learned that rest is better for me. If I can't sleep, I just lie in the darkness and fidget and move around and listen to my videos.

Listening to something is essential to distract my mind just enough to allow sleep to take over.

 

[Alexej]

I've also read of it spoken of differently. The rabbis speak of "The Holy Hour", around 2 to 3 a.m. when they interpret this time as God waking us up, to pray and ponder, alone with Him, for an hour or so, before the business of the day.

I like this picture - and experience is it so

 

[Bobsterkitty]

I have known about the concept of second sleep. That is okay when you go to bed at nightfall, not when you go to bed around midnight, hoping to sleep through the remaining night.

I've been waking up around 3 a.m. most nights and can't return to sleep for hours. The only recent exception has been nights when I was entirely drained and exhausted (around or after storms.) My melatonin/serotonin-related systems seem topsy-turvy. I know of one friend who has the same issue.
Years ago, a plant 3 miles away ran a bad pump at night ONLY (they knew this could be an issue with the neighborhood and stopped using the pump after I complained to the county) that would wake me from vibrations traveling through the soil. This isn't it. I sleep better when the internet or cell service is dead in our area.
We cannot isolate/insulate the house or even 'just' the bedroom—perhaps a Faraday cage could do the job, but most contractors find some aspects of my projects strange even when they are chiefly mainstream - I am a multi-degreed engineer and pay attention to details they didn't even know matter.
I'm not sure what to do—of course, I cannot take any meds as I am also super sensitive to most; either the compounds don't work, do the opposite, only give me side effects (especially the rare or not listed ones - fun, fun,) or at least the dosage is just wrong for me, so much so that most MD types give up eventually if they find my case worthwhile in the beginning at all. I have been doing everything I can from a lifestyle standpoint (knowing I am alone in this), which *usually* works, but not recently. I have decades of self and society-approved training in various medical fields and seem to have exhausted testing all hypotheses I have ever encountered or derived.
When I wake up, I am fully awake. I try to read on my Kindle (orange backlit, the only light in the room, no audible sounds, -33dB earplugs, all parts of my being scanned for anything irritating) and hope to get tired enough. However, I still cannot go to bed until 5 or 6, and then, of course, the next thing I know is our cats screaming through the door. I love them dearly, but they start shenanigans when bored or hungry, so I cannot have them in bed or the same room.
I am only wondering what in the environment (it ain't me, safe my sensitivity) could cause this problem. There is sure nothing obvious.