Chronic insomnia, the two sleep pattern, our ancestors did not sleep the same way we do, it's all different read how here.

  I was an insufferable insomniac, I fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, but 3-4 hours later I would wake up and lay there. I sometimes I would get out of the bed and sit in the living room reading or watching something on T.V. After two hours, sometimes three, I would return to bed and fall asleep again, then wake in an hour or so and go about my day. I sleep better now, I have found that medical marijuana puts me directly to sleep, and helps control the constant pain I am in. I only use about 1/2 dose, I fall right to sleep. If you are interested in more information on sleep click this link.
  What if I were to tell you that at one time our ancestors slept in that identical pattern? What if I were to also state that they would get out of bed at around 2 am and complete chores around the farm or shop? If you were to hear that it was considered to be so very "normal" and that it was referred to only as a matter of fact.

Having two periods of sleep is not that unusual, don't despair
if you wake in the middle of the night, we may be the "normal"
ones..

  All of these things are true, during the early 1990's Psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted an experiment. A group of people were sent into darkness every day for 14 hours, for a period of one month. After a while the patients' sleep had settled into a pattern, they would sleep for four hours, then wake up and stayed awake for 1-2 hours, then surrendered to another 4 hours of sleep. As it ends up, this may be the most "normal" sleeping pattern of humans, the 8-hour undisturbed sleep may be a learned or forced habit. This Link talks about going back to the two sleep periods.
  There are many references to the "second" sleep throughout history, most noticeably in Homer's Odyssey as well as modern tribes in Nigeria. The first sleep would commence about 2 hours after the sun went down, they would awaken a few hours later and stay awake for 2-3 hours. It sounds a bit like the midnight refrigerator raids we've seen on commercials and cartoons. However, during this period of being awake, the people would carry on with their activities. Often visiting neighbors they would walk through the night with lanterns, a very dangerous task in those days. Darkness has always been associated with unsavory characters wandering around, wild animals, and the darkness itself concealing all sorts of dangers. Many people walking through the dead of night would fall into creeks or streams and drown, their heavy outer garments dragging them below the surface.

Don't worry Mom, I'll be back around 3am.

  They would also work on the farm, completing chores, milking cows, and a whole array of activities. The fact they would be wandering around in the night with a kerosene lantern or a candle was an incredibly dangerous activity. Some modern-day Amish still to this day practice two periods of sleep, one of their concerns is the lantern. When dealing with animals in a straw-filled barn and carrying a lantern it's easy to startle them. One of the dangers is being kicked or butted and the lantern falls to the floor, shatters and starts the flammable barn and materials inside on fire.
  People also stayed in bed, reading, writing letters, smoking, praying and often took advantage of the time for intimacy. The time awake was rarely if ever spent alone, everyone would wake up. Doctors manuals written in the 15th and 16th century's recommended the awake period as the best possible time for conceiving a child. However staying awake all night was expensive, lighting had to be maintained, candles were expensive, even the wealthy did not want to waste their money on them. There is no prestige or social recognition related to staying up all night, they were just awake burning candles. Another social pressure came into play, during Reformation religions began holding their worship sessions in secret after dark, to avoid persecution. In years prior evil prowled the streets at night, searching for whatever was worth more than what they had in their pockets, which was everything. When the faithful began occupying the night streets, the crooks, thieves, and undesirables went somewhere else.

They had to hide their religion, in doing so they may have
made the night streets safe, they drove the crooks inside.

  Some people (like me, and my father did as well) still exhibit the two sleep pattern, it seems to be inert, a lasting effect from our ancestors perhaps? In the "olden" days, our grandparents or their parents most likely used this sleep pattern, our great-grandparents certainly did our grandparents may or may not have. (My grandparents were born in the 1880's, I'm confident their parents practiced two periods of sleep) Many people in the modern age don't realize when they wake up at night there is no need to fret and toss and turn, it may be more normal than we think. In fact it is possible to adopt the two sleep pattern again, however, our electric world must be left behind, this pattern may be driven by the normal rhythm of life, the sun rising and setting. Some people have tried changing their sleep habits, it takes a while but it is achievable, what they found was interesting but not too surprising. In the winter there was a lot more darkness, leading to a lot more sleep time and a lot more sleep. Typically people will go to bed earlier, around 8:30, then sleep for a 3-6 hour period and wake up around 2:00 am. The moderns experiencing this would light the candle, typically stay in bed and read. On occasion, many would get out of bed and do mostly the same thing our ancestors did, read, write, study and of course that as well. It leads one to believe our ancestors did not "develop" the two sleep pattern, it occurred naturally due to extended darkness, sleeping comes naturally. Two periods of sleep appears to be a by-product of excessive darkness. Link
  It's difficult to say why the two sleep pattern ended, it is suspected electricity had a lot to do with it, some believe the industrial revolution had it's influence on the habit as well. As productivity increased the feeling of "running out of time" began to be widespread, night shifts were put on, people started to work long shifts. With the long shifts came chronic exhaustion, 10-18 hour days doesn't leave much energy left to wake up at night and dilly dally around at all hours of the night. It may have been as simple as people not wanting to or not having the money to spend on lighting, oil and candles were very expensive. Not having to tend to a fire all night may also have had something to do with its demise, again related directly to the industrial revolution when safer heaters were being fabricated, the "Ben Franklin" stove being one of these much more efficient stoves. People also moved to the city's, that's where the opportunity existed, people go to where the work is, they left the farm and endless chores behind. There simply was no more need for people to tend to animals or chores in the middle of the night, they became "citified".
  I first heard about two periods of sleep about 10 years ago, there was a documentary on one of the channels (History maybe) titled "Afraid of the Dark", I watched it several times. That's when I realized my sleep pattern may be a natural rhythm and the way we are supposed to sleep. That realization did not help my chronic fatigue at all, but it helped me to accept what was going on with my sleep "problem". I could very easily return to it, however, I have found sleeping through the night has it's advantages as well, the big advantage is feeling rested. I do remember when I was young waking up in the night and going downstairs to find my Dad sitting in a chair smoking (those dangable) cigarettes, we would talk. He would say the same things I would tell people when I was asked why I was up all night, he would say "I've never been able to sleep through the night, I have insomnia." If he was still around I would tell him he was much more normal than he suspected.

It's good being "Normal". 

  I could return to my old pattern, if someone would only get up with me and visit for a few hours from 2-4 am, I imagine my wife will not volunteer for this experiment. I do still wake up at 4:30 am every morning, I lay there and think about what I'm going to blog about when I get out of bed.
  Thanks for reading and sharing, it's estimated 1/3 of the population either purposely or surrendering to their natural rhythm's have two periods of sleep, they may be a little more "normal" (I laugh at the word normal, what is that?) than the rest of the population. I kind of like being awake when no one else is, that's the advantage if you happen to be an introverted loner like me.

jacquesandkate  emergencykitsplus.com