I Slept Like a Victorian for a Week 

I'm loving my Brooklinen sheets! You can get yours using my code BIRCHWOOD to get $20 off any order over $100. Link: bit.ly/Birchwood_BrooklinenJan23 So what do you think, will you try Victorian sleep?! 🥰

My friend lived in a house that had no electricity. They used oil lanterns and candles a lot. One of the really cool things they taught me was how to amplify the light a candle gives off. They had mirrors that would reflect the light and used smooth jars of water to intensify it. You can get a great deal of light this way. You can all move the jar of water (Use a rounded circle-like jar) so that it narrows the light beam onto the thing you are working on. It's almost as bright as a flashlight and lets you sew without straining your eyes.

Victorians: “wake up at dawn“ Me a northern Norwegian: “ah ok, wake up at 21st of January gotcha"

I started sleeping like this about 5 years ago as a way of coping with PTSD. Getting up and moving around helps me shake off a nightmare and gives me time to calm down and relax before going back to sleep. I normally use this time to do some quick things that will make my next morning better. Things like: put a glass of water next to my desk, refill the electric kettle, start a load of laundry or the dishwasher, move dirty dishes to the kitchen and get them soaking in the sink, or take a relaxing shower. I've kept it up after I stopped having regular nightmares. Right now I'm watching a bit of youtube while I nurse my baby. I'd imagine that Victorian mom's would also spend time nursing babies considering how many kids they had.

As an introvert who is busy with a full time job & housework this sleeping schedule sounds more sustainable then just staying up to read or have relaxing time late at night.

My step-great-grandmother who I knew as "Oma" lived on a farm in rural Pennsylvania during the early 20th c. She ascribed to this "two-step" method of sleep all her life. Into her 80s, she would get up and bake fresh bread, sew, or paint (she became an accomplished oil painter in her golden years) before going back to bed again.

In Norway, and in many other countries as well, it’s traditionally normal to sleep for a couple of hours after dinner (which, as the name “middag” implies, used to be eaten at or shortly after midday). In southern Europe they call this afternoon sleeping period “siesta”, and in their case it’s partly to avoid the hottest part of the day. After all, as Rudyard Kipling said: “Mad dogs and Englishmen Go out in the midday sun.”

the idea of having those couple hours in the early morning when the rest of the world is still asleep honestly sounds amazing... i'm so tempted by this. my only concern would be getting back to sleep after waking up, especially during summertime when the daylight creeps in much earlier. but i'm definitely considering trying this out! great video as usual :)

I've always found the notion of biphasic sleep interesting.I think there may have been a few times in my life doing this to some level unintentionally. I have a mood disorder and very bad insomnia nowadays so doing something like this and not trying to force a 'normal' sleep routine is helpful sometimes.

As someone who wakes up between 3 and 4 a.m. automatically I'm always amazed by people who can sleep till 7! Hadn't heard of this sleep pattern. I experimented at one time with not using artificial light beginning before sunset and ending after the sun was well up and bright. Even covered my windows to keep out the neighbors intrusive paranoia lights! Only used candles and oil lamps. Best sleep I ever had!! Only draw back was my job which required me to clock in at 6 a.m.. Oh well, the bills must be paid. Whenever I finally retire I fully intend to go back to that routine. Restful sleep and a more peaceful feel to my life. A lot of folks could benefit from a change of pace like that. Everyone take care.

Wow, this is fascinating ! I've actually done it a few times by accident when I was really tired and really enjoyed being awake AND not overtired in the middle of the night. I had no idea that's how people slept before but that makes sense. We are often led to believe that our schedule, especially when it comes to eating or sleeping is somewhat normal and universal. But after years of being told as a child that my habbit of not eating in the morning was bad for your health and weird, and finally learning that it is not, I'm not that suprised it's the same for sleeping habbits 😊

I've been biphasic sleeping naturally for over a year. I really like it. Thanks for teaching me the term for the thing I do 😅

I would imagine that the Victorians and other generations that slept in this manner did a lot more physical labor during the day and into the evening that would likely have made it much easier for them to fall asleep by 10 p.m. In fact, perhaps that's how the schedule arose to begin with. Maybe people needed a rest after the incredible amount of labor they did during the day, so everyone goes to bed shortly after supper, has a rest, gets up for awhile, and then can enjoy their "free time" before having another rest to prepare for the next day. Also, someone probably needed to keep the fires going anyway.

As a mom of a 1 yr old, I have to wonder how much of this 2 sleeps thing had to do with how many babies/small children people tended to have in their homes. A middle of the night wake up is pretty common through toddler years

I can’t imagine that people historically used an alarm to get up in the middle of the night. I had heard of double sleep before but assumed people went to bed much earlier (particularly in winter) so by 9 pm at the latest, and naturally woke up in the middle of the night (perhaps because of a banked fire burning out and being colder and needing tending?)

I have not heard of biphasic sleep before, how interesting. I will now no longer feel desperate to get back to sleep if I wake at 3am, but will try reading, or maybe even get up and get a snack! Love the cozy feel of this video Vasi. Happy belated birthday and may you have the sweet dreams.

I've been doing this naturally for several years now. like maybe ten or so. I used to have terrible insomnia and then falling asleep in daytime after 3 or 4 days of no sleep, but gradually this has become sleeping from about 5pm until about 7/7;30 ish, when I get up and do evening chores and catch up with projects etc. Then I go to bed and do internet or read, until about 2;30 AM. I then fall asleep until about 9 AM, and then get up properly. I realise this isn't exactly like you did, but it does work quite well for me to get a normal amount of sleep, and now only have occasional nights of insomnia. It seems very much like medieval sleeping habits; I watched a bbc program a few years ago. I think it was History of the Bedchamber, where they talked about medieval sleeping habits, and how they went to bed at dusk, slept 3 or 4 hours, then woke up for a few hours before returning to sleep until daybreak. In the middle of the night they did chores, read, played board games, etc. For outdoor work and pursuits, it seems they were much governed by dawn and dusk. This seems much the same thing, and I do think it indicates what humans natural sleeping rhythms are.

Literally how I have operated for YEARS and never knew it was a thing. It’s always been natural for me to wake up for an hour or two and then go to bed again….Does this mean I lived as a Victorian in a past life? Whatever you were randomly recommended to me and I dig it. Looking forward to exploring more of your content.

Learning about biphasic sleeping finally answered my lifelong question about how the parents in those large, poor families wwhere everyone shared a room - or even a bed - went about the task of... y'know. Making more family members.

you know what, i do this at night as well. i've been doing this almost a whole year. i go to bed at 8pm, get up at 2am to pump for my 9m old son, and then go to bed from 3am to 7am. i actually hate it 😂😂😂 but maybe tonight i'll pretend i'm a victorian and it won't seem so bad

I find the biphasic sleep pattern interesting. I do it sometimes, and have found it helps. I suspect that were we to exclude our modern lighting, that it would be much easier to follow the pattern. I know that when I'm camping, it is very easy to match the pattern. I hope you had a lovely birthday!

the ruffles on the edge of your nightgown and the candlelight all look so pretty together

This is how my father used to sleep. I think the habit came from him growing up off the grid with his great-grandparents. Strangely it's how I've started sleeping now that I'm older. I was frustrated at first, my nights become so much longer this way, but now I'm getting used to it.

I sleep on this schedule and love it. I read about it in “At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past”, by Ekirch, as it so happens. Tonight I went to sleep around 9, woke at midnight, will be back asleep by 4, after chatting with my husband when he comes to bed, up between 7 and 8. My husband is very nocturnal so there’s a built-in hangout time, but also more sleep time for me, who needs it more. Other times I’ll just read a bit. I really like the routine.

A recommendation... if you want to continue to sew at night using non-electric sources. Find a kerosene or parafin lamp, sometimes referred to as hurricane lamps, because of the glass shade and the light source, the light provided is a bit brighter, sometimes equivalent to that of a 40 watt lightbulb. I've done this multiple times due to long power outages to to severe weather damaging the power lines in my area. Last time I moved, my lamps got broken. I so badly need to replace them.

I think it's so interesting that there's a historical precedent for sleeping like this because most of my life I slept like this, 4hr asleep, awake for maybe 10-30mins, then asleep for 4hr more. Surprisingly I feel more rested than when I tried to sleep a continuous 8hr.

it’s so interesting that i’m playing a decades challenge in the sims and my sims have sort of naturally gotten into this routine. they go to bed and sleep for a few hours and then get up and tend to the plants/children/cross stitch, get something to eat. and then they go back to bed until it’s time to get up for the day

Happy Birthday! In tracking my sleep through fit bit I have found that I am often awake for an hour and a half in the middle of the night. I am now giving thought to possibly making proper use of that time instead of stressing myself about trying to go back to sleep. Thank you for doing this experiment.

Thank you so much for sharing your studies on this. Right away in the first five minutes. I had to pause the video and go look up data on this pattern. This is my natural sleep pattern and has been for the last 20 years, try as I might to break out of it. It is such a blessing to me now to realize that I just may naturally be this way. I find it further amusing, because in the last 10 years I have gotten into living history and reenacting, and my favorite era to reenact is of course the Victorian era. I cannot thank you enough for sharing this information! Bless you lady!

For this kind of experiment to make sense, one should also live the whole day doing physical labour, which will make it easy to fall asleep out of exhaustion at a proper time. That’s why people back then woke up half way through the night, after that deep exhaustion sleep was done. They didn’t set alarms and forced themselves to get up in order to purposelly get sewing done, they woke up naturally, and didn’t have anything else to do but to sew, and fell back to sleep once they were tired again.

Yes wouldn't this be lovely if I didn't have to be at work at 6:30am and have to get me and my child ready and drop her at daycare before I go to work. Is it any wonder we have so many sleep disorders and anxiety.

This has become my way of sleeping during lent. In 2019, I decided to give up electronics (no electric light, no screens except what was essential for work) for lent, and so I ended up doing everything by daylight or candlelight and my body naturally ended up in this biphasic sleep pattern. It was the most energetic and well rested I have ever been in my adult life! Personally, I think it's important to let it happen naturally, rather than trying to force it by setting alarms, and the best thing you can do is just decide not to have any electric light (including screens) after sunset, because it means that your body is responding to the cues of the natural light cycle, and you will get sleepy earlier and find it easier to go to bed - it also means that you have to finish doing everything you need to do before the sun does down!

Thank you for this lovely experiment. It was the first time i heard that Victorians would have two separate times to sleep. This kind of reminds me how, in Italy mainly, it's not uncommon to wake up in the morning, and take a nap after noon for 2-3 hours. I also wish you a late happy birthday and i wish you all the best.

Well thank god someone did this! I remember reading about it for the first time and being so interested in doing myself. I couldn't for a few reasons. So it's great having an example to look to. And a belated happy birthday btw!

I’d love to know what my natural sleep pattern would be without artificial light and distractions. I love the idea of quiet time to yourself in the night.

Honestly, getting up in the middle of the night for an hour or two has always been my natural pattern. I just used to think there was something wrong with me. When I read an article about how this used to be the normal thing to do I just stopped freaking out about it and I feel so much better ever since. My times are a bit different. My first sleep is actually the shorter one and I get about three hours before I wake up and the second one is about four to five hours depending on how long I can sleep. It actually has gotten to a point where I notice that I was stressed out the day before or put too much of a strain on my body because I sleep through the whole night.

I sleep very light, and though I usually get to bed around 10pm I’ll not fall fully asleep till 12 or 1am. The struggle to get up at a socially acceptable 7 or 8am is real! I’ve always wanted to try a biphasic sleep schedule to see if it would “fix” my circadian clock to be more socially normal (because I work on a farm in the summer and need to be working by 8), maybe now that the light is returning to my little Canadian tiny house I will try this experiment as well ^-^

Perfectly normal , after a certain age we start waking up regularly around 3 am . It's the part of the 24h cycle in which we attain our lowest vitality , in hospitals that's when most life or death situations happen . It is also when the sun is the farthest away from your position . According to some it was our normal wake up call to start another day , of course the conditions in which we lived was different so 6 hours sleep was enough . Now even after 9 hours of sleep some people still wake up tired .

One summer i did sleep that way for quite a while, and found that i was able to get quite a lot of work done during those night time hours. What I found was that my eating habits were turned topsy turvy, which is hard, if you are trying to diet.

This was wonderful. I’d been intrigued about the concept before, and seeing this was fantastic. And it was SO BEAUTIFULLY FILMED ❤

This has been happening to me for the last few days. I think of this video whenever I allow myself to get up & read, or have a tiny meal, in the "middle" of my sleep cycle. I was actually going to search for this video, but, RU-vid provided it below another creator's sleep-related post. 🙂

I recently found your channel and this is super fascinating!! I think I would definitely have difficulty with this because I sleep so hard. It’s like I fall asleep and I become dead to the world 😂

Thanks for conducting this experiment. I am always a fan of conducting mini-experiments like this: low risk with potential rewards and memories created regardless of the outcome. I think one's sleep pattern may be a product of the environment one is in. I now get amazing sleep and it is straight through the night. But historically, I am sleeping in a much safer environment than my ancestors. As someone else previously mentioned, very few of us have to worry about fire, murder, or assault while we sleep in today's world. I do know that I tend to adopt a multiphasic sleep pattern when I am out in the wild sleeping. Perhaps my body knows it is not safe to let my guard down for too many hours at a stretch. And happy birthday!

This was a fascinating video! I had never heard anything about this sleep method. I want to try it now!

I start work usually around 5am, so hearing you talk of the struggles of getting out of bed in winter, I found very relatable. 😂😂

Happy belated birthday, wishing you the very best this coming year, and then much more. Love from Canada

I could never do this, but I truly enjoyed watching you go through this experiment! Amazing!

Happy belated birthday! Thanks for the video!

I came back to watch this again for the comfort of it. I hope your birthday was wonderful!

I have four kids and after waking up in the middle of the night for many, many months to nurse them, it’s very hard for me to fathom why anyone would actually choose to wake up then! Maybe it’s different when you’re not waking up to a crying baby, but I was never able to adjust to having my sleep disrupted like that. It was always a struggle to get out of bed in the middle of the night, I always had trouble falling back asleep, and I was always exhausted the next morning. I was very, very happy once all my kids started sleeping through the night! Now I have to wake up early in the morning (6 a.m.) to get my kids ready for school, and over time I’ve come to enjoy how quiet the house is early in the morning. I am very protective of my nighttime sleep though. I guess everyone is different!

This was super interesting and informative for me! I naturally fall asleep around 2, wake up at 4, then sleep from 7 till 11ish. I had no idea it was a form of sleep pattern. I just thought it was a weird adhd insomnia 😂

I used to do this every night as a teenager and my parents used to say it was bad for me, but i always felt so well rested all the time. I would get home from school, fall asleep about 4.30-5.30 sleep until 7.30-8.30 and wake up for a bit to eat dinner, get ready for school the next day, catch up with my family and then fall back asleep until about 7am. I didn’t realise there was a name for this.

I'm definitely going to try this!!!

this video was very relaxing to watch

i think this sleep schedule only makes sense during winter when the nights are long and days are short. In the summer it would make no sense to work in the dark and then try to sleep when there is still daylight outside.

When I moved to a much more northern state a few years ago, I was in a temporary situation where I didn't have internet. I didn't have a TV. No smart phone. And no artificial lighting in the living room. (It was one of those 'I move first and then you come along after your finish up this job' sort of deals.) It was autumn. I was only vaguely aware of biphasic sleep and didn't quite grasp that my 'weird sleep schedule' that popped up during this was the phenomenon I had only read about.

I've been thinking about doing this for a while but didn't yet... I feel like it would probably be a good way for me to have an earlier bed time and wake up time, without giving up the late night hours that feel so important to me. So thank you for sharing this experiment with us! Also eventually for sure I need to get those linen sheets :) I love this fabric, plus it's so durable! And happy birthday ^^

Such a lovely channel! Thank you, looking forward to exploring the rest...

what a first video of yours for me to finally see of you, my goodness thank you so much for doing this, it was incredibly fascinating and soothing with the music. I cannot believe that victorians would sleep oddly, not to mention hanging out with their neighbors in the middle of the night lol.

Love this! My body naturally follows this schedule.

Happy birthday! I did not know of this sleep practice was a Victorian thing. I have been doing that naturally recently. Getting to bed around 10pm and getting up around 12am then going back to sleep after reading or meditating or writing in my journal and drinking some cold water. Thank you for sharing your videos, have a great n I got! Much love and peace! Ruth

watching this at 2am is so ironic because i can't sleep lol but honestly, kudos to you for trying this out!!!!! i never knew they did this! Surprisingly very similar to what I've been doing while school has been out for a few weeks recently, though I don't do the sleeping early thing as much haha ^^; also wow, i love how ambient the video is! Dunno if you always do this since this is my first video of yours but I enjoyed seeing you trying to recreate similar conditions! Also, considering how much you had to do back then, i can see why the victorians did this! Even cooking must've been so much more of a hassle :0 but yeah!

What an experiment V! I'm almost sure I would not adapt. 😄I usually go to bed late and when I go i only want to get up in the morning. It was really fun to watch it happening though! And Happy (very belated) Birthday to you! 🎂🎈🎈🎈

I just realized that Proverbs 31 may be mentioning this custom of a middle of the night wake period with, "she rise the while it is yet night and prepares food for her household and a portion for her maid servants." Did the members of a household appreciate a snack when doing their nightly activities?

One thing to consider with biphasic sleep, is that in times before central heating and such it gave one the chance to check and tend the fire during the night; thus ensuring that it continued to burn through the night. This means that one wouldn't wake to a cold house the next morning, and would also have coals to cook breakfast on.

Happy belated birthday. Wishing you the best for this coming year, and then much more. Love your channel and enjoy your vlogs tremendously. Love from Canada

Ever since having kids (my youngest is now 6), my sleep patterns changed from single phase to a mix of biphasal nights and single phase nights across each month. There are definitely days where I suddenly wake at 2am, get up and sew in the quiet until 5 or 6am then sleep a little more before it is time to get the day started. It always feels like bonus time.

Currently watching this at 2am because I naturally sleep this way! I use this time to use the bathroom, get some water and sometimes a snack, do a little reading, and maybe set out my clothes for the next day if I have somewhere to go.

Wow, that's fascinating! I wonder what about this sleep schedule made in the default for most of human history, and how abiding by it might change our health/lifestyles in certain ways. It's definitely worth looking into.

I really enjoyed this video. It was so relaxing to watch. I have heard of this sleeping schedule before and you have inspired me to maybe give it a try.

This is something I do as a mom as well. I eventually fell out of it when my son stopped waking for milk and slept through the night regularly. I’m now doing it again with my baby daughter. I’m considering keeping it going even after she starts sleeping through the night. I really enjoy getting a few things done early in the morning before everyone is awake, but still need a bit more sleep so I’m not too tired during the day.

This was very interesting. I used to wake up at 2/3am quite naturally and never really understood but its apparently a more natural thing than I thought. Happy belated birthday!

Happy birthday! I am quite curious to see how you Irish working class outfit comes together!

probably once or twice a week, I sleep like this. It's a hangover from chronic insomnia many years ago. Once I got my sleep pattern back in order, I found that waking in the night and lying tossing and turning was a recipe for disaster. Instead I started doing stuff, especially writing, and when I got tired again, I'd go back to bed till daylight. When my daughter was young, I'd often go to sleep same time as her, and then wake in the middle of the night to tidy and do the dishes and go back to bed to wake with her.

Sleeping that way is something that I naturally tended to do while aboard my boat....not sailing with on and off watch but while at anchor....my normal thing was to wake up after a few hours and go topside to check things were ok, maybe have a brew and then go back to sleep again.

Great video concept, V!

Happy Birthday 🎂🎈🎊🎉🎁! Wishing you the very best of years!

I love this V... and I love this idea. You always inspire :^)

I really want to try this. I have just given up something that was really weighing me down, and I think that I will now have more time to do my work in the day, and leave more room to get things done, and I'm really interested in this! It sounds really peaceful. Great video!

Im 22 and don’t have anymore close friends that I get to see regularly because I’ve grown out of old ‘habits’ (drinking and drugs lol) but you’re the type of friend I’m looking for now in my life and it’s so encouraging to see that people like you exist

Happy belated birthday! Very cool video! I'm going to try this!

I've wanted to try this split sleeping method for ages. It's great to have a reference point from a modern person who tried this!

Aww! Happy Birthday! You should've had a Victorian Party with music and food and drink of that era. This video reminds me of wrapping Christmas Presents in the night while children sleep. But your mornings are like my Winter ones, stick a toe out,Brrr, back in until the Sun comes out and warms the day.

Belated birthday greetings! Fun video. I've wondered about this sleep schedule for a while. Interesting!

Happy belated Birthday! The information you presented and your experiment were very interesting. This biphasic sleep schedule may be a good answer for my Mother. I've enjoyed your vlogs for at least a year and apologize to you because it wasn't until today that I realized I had not subscribed previously. I look forward to another year of learning from you.

Very interesting video! I can't imagine how hard it was to get out of bed at 2:30 while it's so cold and windy! Happy birthday, hope it's a great year for you!

This was fascinating! Really cool to see someone actually try the two sleeps system, makes me want to have a go too!

You are so naturally beautiful! I really enjoyed your demeanor and the way you live your life. It was comforting to watch. Thank you for sharing your experience with us!

Interesting idea. Thank you.

I do wake up for an hour during the night. Usually I take time take care of myself but sometimes I just rage for no reason that I don't have the long night of sleep I used to have. You make me think I should'nt and I can be grateful for it. I guess you are quite young and it's harder for you too feel comfortable with this schedule. No need to rush it even if it was great seeing your experiment. Thanks you.

I accidentally slept like this last night and I loved it so I think I’m also going to try this out for a while. I love being awake after midnight but that causes me to then wake up in the afternoon so this seems like the perfect solution!

Coziest content ever!

This was cool to watch. I feel like back then u were more physically tired so it was easier to go to sleep I imagine at 10pm. I fully believe we should sleep something like this again more so a wake up for 9 though because it does take a long while to fall back asleep sometimes imo

Thank you for sharing your experiment and your birthday with us🙂🌻💗 On the rare times I cannot sleep in the middle of the night, I let myself wake up and have some short/small productive, or "down" time. So, knowing this was a way of life for many people makes sense to me.

Happy birthday! Wishing you an amazing personal new year with many adventures! I am a Two Sleeps person but more to do with my disAbility & sleep issues. On the nights I can not go back to sleep, usually at about the 3 hour mark, I get up & entertain my brain by reading for awhile or maybe work on a project. After about 2-4 hours or so I usually have a small breakfast & then go back to sleep for another 3 or 4 hours. I usually feel pretty good. I learned to do this from an article about insomnia, bed is for sleeping - not thinking of everything under the sun - so get up. I have deep breathing exercises that help me sleep be it the first or second sleep. It's not a Victorian sleep routine but it is my routine of being a Two Sleeps person.

Although personally I prefer sleeping 8 hours straight rather than in separate segments, I can definitely see the appeal of waking up in the middle of the night for a quick hour or two before going back to sleep. I've had the occasional restless night where I wake up at 3:30 a.m. or 4:00 a.m. and I can't go back to sleep easily, so I get up and have a cup of tea while getting some fresh air to help me go back to bed. It's incredibly calm and peaceful at that time of night. I would almost like to be up regularly at this time if I didn't prefer being up at dawn even more lol! 😂

I love the simple but amazing effect created by the candle lighting at the 8:00 area. The contrast of shadows is so stark and gorgeous

This is really fascinating! I admire how people are/were determined to live through the horrible process of waking up twice a day =D In another life I might try this, but (un)fortunately I sleep like a rock. Once I'm asleep it's blissful unconsciousness for 7-9 hours. Before that I have 1-3hrs of trouble with falling asleep though. I wonder what the reasons were for biphasic sleeping? Keeping the fire going? Nursing? Religious reasons like midnight mass?

When i was younger at my moms house me and my 2 siblings would wake up at different times of the night to make sure the fire would still be one, and i definitely didn't enjoy that, I'm a way bigger fan of how my sleep schedule works now, go to sleep at 20-21 and wake at around 4 naturally without an alarm and then head of to work between 5-9 ( i have flexible work hours so i show up pretty much whenever i want, within that time frame) you still get the quiet of the night in the morning and I seriously love that so much

I've doing something similar for about a decade now. But it not just bi-phasic, but poly-phasic; it's a bit more hardcore, but it works for me. I take a few half-hour naps during the day/evening and only sleep for a few hours for my core sleep at night. It's much more difficult to adjust to, but it's worth it for me. I always had trouble falling to sleep each night and would just toss and turn for hours before finally falling asleep, then I'd wake up and feel like a zombie all day 👀. I HATED it. So I looked online for something to help and discovered poly-phasing. It's been a godsend and I refuse to ever go back to mono-phasic sleep; that's just a nightmare for me 😖!