This discussion started in the introduction thread for No3Putts. Pretty interesting stuff.
Anecdotally: I've never had a 'normal' sleep pattern, often waking and sometimes not sleeping at all. Been like this since a small child. Until middle age I was always a night owl as well, but now that I'm older I need to go to bed earlier - this seems to be a usual story lol
Because I work with, rather than against, my own normal sleep pattern, I often get stuff done in the middle of the night.
I looked up sleeping problems on paleohacks and found many had changes in sleep pattern:
http://paleohacks.com/questions/2509/anyone-getting-less-sleep-on-a-paleo-diet There is an interesting answer there on segmented or bimodal sleep which, in a nutshell, is found in pre-industrialised societies and has been studied. Here is an article:
http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc99/9_25_99/bob2.htmArticle in Psychiatric Times on interrupted sleep basically talks about the same sleep patterns. It seems that our reliance on artificial light and alarm clocks means that we are working at variance with 'normal' sleep patterns. Its another article where it's suggested that practitioners of modern medicine look at a behaviour from a different perspective.
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/sleep-disorders/content/article/10168/56881Actually there are several articles in popular media where the findings about segmented sleep have been summarised, usually under a banner stating that segmented sleep may be normal
