Insomnia & Sleep Issues: The Myth of 8-Hour Sleep | SimpleBreath

The Early Waking "Bug"

Sleep issues are complex. I’ve been attempting to see if I can fix this “bug”:

Actually, for many people, the problem isn’t that they can’t fall asleep, but that they wake up too early.

This is typical for most programmers. We use our brains heavily during the day, so we actually fall asleep quite quickly. The problem is that the sleep is light; we tend to wake up in the middle of the night, and once awake, we can’t get back to sleep.

I used to get a bit anxious about this too: Is it caused by some illness? Did I eat something wrong? If I’m wide awake now and can’t go back to sleep immediately, how am I going to handle that meeting tomorrow?

Later, I watched a video by Liang Dong (a well-known Chinese media personality) about sleep, and I finally patched this “bug”.

He said: “Why would you waste such a rare moment of clarity?

“If you wake up and can’t sleep, don’t make yourself miserable by forcing it! Get up and read a book.”

It turns out: regarding everything that happens in life, is your mindset one of resistance, or joyful acceptance?

Things themselves haven’t changed, but with a shift in perspective—a turn of thought—this bug is resolved.

The Truth About Segmented Sleep

German historian Roger Ekirch conducted research and found through ancient texts that before the invention of the electric light, “segmented sleep” was common in Europe and elsewhere: sleep for 3-4 hours (First Sleep), stay awake for 1-2 hours in the middle of the night for activities, and then sleep for another 3-4 hours (Second Sleep).

So, Point 1: If you wake up early, don’t be anxious. Humans might naturally tend toward segmented sleep, and sleeping for 8 continuous hours isn’t the only correct mode.

Let go of anxiety: When you wake up in the middle of the night, don’t force yourself to fall asleep immediately. The more anxiously you think “I must get to sleep right now,” the more you activate stress hormones, making sleep even harder.

You can be like our ancestors and use this quiet time for relaxing activities, such as reading, meditation, listening to soothing music, or planning for the next day.

TCM Perspective on Sleep

The Song Dynasty text Huaiying Lu records the practice of “sleeping when the night divides, rising when the night divides,” which also illustrates that the ancients considered the dead of midnight a good time for thinking and introspection.

Ancient people divided the night into five watches (or geng). The Second Watch (Hai period, approx. 9 PM to 11 PM) was called “Ren Ding” (People Settling), meaning this was when people should be peacefully asleep. The time of waking after the first sleep was often around the Third Watch (Zi period, midnight). By the Fifth Watch (Yin period, 3 AM to 5 AM) when the sky was about to brighten, people would wake up again to start the new day.

Therefore, sleep patterns are meant to be diverse and flexible. The continuous 8-hour sleep schedule widely accepted by society today is, to a large extent, the result of irresponsible research propaganda by Western doctors.

So, don’t believe them, and don’t be anxious.

Practical Solution: Breathing & Vipassana

Second, waking up in the middle of the night is an excellent opportunity to practice breathing and Vipassana (Inner Observation).

The Max Planck Institute in Germany found that the brain wave activity of segmented sleepers during their midnight waking period is similar to a meditative state, suggesting it might be a natural window for decompression.

I usually take this time to go to the bathroom, empty my bladder, then lie back in bed and start practicing the Inner Observation Breathing Method, focusing only on key areas (for details, you can check my pinned paid column).

At this time, my stomach begins to rumble—described in Traditional Chinese Medicine as “dragons roaring and tigers howling”—as the spleen and stomach get to work. A warm current flows through my whole body, feeling incredibly satisfying. Very quickly, usually within ten or twenty minutes, I can fall asleep again.

Even if I don’t fall asleep, when I crawl up at 7 AM to go to work, I don’t feel groggy; instead, I feel quite energetic.

If you haven’t developed this habit yet, generally speaking, counting your own breaths is a good start for most people, because this helps train your ability to focus without distraction. Our mind and consciousness are like muscles—they can be strengthened through training.

Sleep is a complex system related to many physical and mental conditions, and it’s hard to solve everyone’s problems at once.

But at least grasp these two points, and you will no longer fear insomnia:

Don’t be anxious—our ancestors did this too.

Focus on breathing—start practicing the Inner Observation Breathing Method.