Doing More Deep Work: The Segmented Sleep Experiment

I’ve been thinking a lot about sleep lately.

I’m no longer the workhorse that can power through until 1 a.m., leaving my creative work to the evening as I’ve done for years. I’m a night owl and proud of it, but my will to stay up late is starting to wane.

The thing is, I still find myself wanting to sleep until at least 8 a.m. every day. I’d prefer to sleep until nine, but having kids, plus colleagues on the East Coast, make that not an option.

So the concept of segmented sleep crept back into my world.

There’s plenty of discussion about the idea of the “second sleep” our pre-lightbulb ancestors used to have. They would go to bed at dusk and then wake up around midnight for a few hours before settling back to bed for another few hours.

Earlier this week, I decided I was going to try it. Here’s what set out to do:

1. My son goes to bed at 9 p.m. every night. I’d go to bed at the same time. That would serve two purposes: it would get him to go to bed on time and, since I’d be doing it as well, I’d also give myself the ability to get a few hours in a dead sleep.
2. I’d wake up at 12:30 a.m. local time and start to do some of that creative work I’m best suited to do at that time of day.