This Is The Strange Reason Why You Always Wake Up In The Middle Of The Night!
image via – shutterstock.com
Did you ever wonder why at times you wake up in the middle of the night and feel wide awake for about an hour? Most people get anxious, because they fear that they won’t get enough sleep even after they fall back asleep, because work or school demands a certain hour for waking.
Well, given that situation awakening like that isn’t great, but it happens for a really good reason…it is due to an evolutionary trait. Waking in the middle of the night actually happens because historically speaking, this is what you are programmed to do.
The video you are about to watch explains this phenomenon from both an historical and biological perspective. Up until the late 17th century human beings used to have “segmented sleep”; sleeping for four hours, awakening for 1-2 hours and then returning to sleep for the last four!
This was actually do to a natural biological clock, that has through the centuries been fought against. According to psychologist Greg Jacobs, this remnant of what is a normal part of human physiology should not be a source for panic.
Rather, if we were to go with the flow of what is a natural bi-modal rhythm of sleep we could continue to relax in the awake hour or two, before the next segment of sleep. You will hear about how our ancestors used that hour in relaxing ways, which permits the brain to produce a hormone known as prolactin, to actually allow for relaxation to occur, which will in turn, make falling back asleep a natural occurrence.
The video below goes into some more really interesting evolutionary and historical facts about this segmented sleep; understanding of this phenomenon may help you or someone you know not panic when they have an awake period during the night.
Do you always wake up in the middle of the night?
Please SHARE This Story With Family and Friends
