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<p>I had an indistinct memory that Woolf had problems with insomnia
- which is what one would expect, given her mental health
problems. A quick zip through various indices threw up a comment
in a letter to Vanessa, June 1921 (page 475 in the second volume
of the 2-volume Letters of Virginia Woolf ed. Nigel Nicolson and
Joanne Trautmann, 1976). "I'm practically all right, and slept
without a sleeping draught last night." I'm pretty sure that there
are other mentions of insomnia elsewhere, but couldn't locate them
offhand.</p>
<p>As for sleep patterns more generally. All my life from when I had
a paper round at the age of 11 until my retirement in 2012 at the
age of 70, I was what the Norwegians call an A-person, i.e. an
early riser. A-people ("larks" I think in English) get up early,
are at their best after breakfast, and the rest of the day is a
slow descent into inertia and mindlessness. B-people ("owls" in
English) are, if forced to get up before about 11, shambling
brain-dead monsters until about midday, at which time things start
to pick up and traces of humanity emerge. By teatime they are
working quite well, and in the middle of the night they are at
their peak and firing on all cylinders. Being an A-person has the
advantage that you usually have a few hours undisturbed time when
you are at your peak and your colleagues are waiting for the
coffee machine to work, but the disadvantage is that at social
events in the evening you desire nothing more that your bed from
about 9.30 pm. Once I retired, I decided just to sleep as long as
I liked, and to hell with the alarm clock. I then found myself
adopting exactly the two-sleep-cycle that Mark describes. Bed at
10, up at 3 for a hot drink and a read of the news in the paper or
online, then back to bed at 4 and sleep to an hour that I am not
prepared to disclose. I get a lot less done, but for the first
time in my life I remember my dreams (I'm told that this is
because being woken by an alarm clock cuts out the most
dream-filled part of one's sleep).</p>
<p>What I have learned is that if you cannot sleep there is no point
in lying in bed thinking about not being able to sleep. Better to
get up, relax, then go back to bed when you start to feel sleepy.<br>
</p>
<p>There must be some documentation of Virginia's sleep patterns:
can anyone help?<br>
</p>
<p>Jeremy<br>
</p>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 14.05.2020 15:10, Mark Hussey via
Vwoolf wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif">Thank you SO much for this Gretchen. For
the past couple of months I have been falling asleep almost
as soon as I turn out the light, then waking about 3 hours
later feeling that it is time to get up, around 2.30/3am,
and lying in the dark for hours before getting another
couple of hours around 5/6am. I have even resorted to
sleeping pills to break this cycle, but now perhaps I see I
should just get up and answer some emails, ha ha. Better
living through the Woolf listserv. Stay safe out there
everyone…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New
Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt">From:</span></b><span
style="font-size:11.0pt"> Vwoolf
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:vwoolf-bounces+mhussey=verizon.net@lists.osu.edu"><vwoolf-bounces+mhussey=verizon.net@lists.osu.edu></a>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Gretchen Gerzina via Vwoolf<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, May 14, 2020 8:48 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Vwoolf@lists.osu.edu">Vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Vwoolf] The Big Sleep<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Dear
Pavasha,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">There’s been
a lot written about the two-sleep cycle, which dates back to
Roman times, and was common throughout Europe and America. A
great book on this is E. Roger Ekirch’s <i>At Day’s Close</i>,
which gives the whole history of this. Lots of people wake
after 4 hours, then sleep again for several more. In early
New England, people used to get up after their first sleep
and greet others in the street, before going back to bed for
their second sleep. It wasn’t unusual for people to ask in
the morning, “how was your first sleep”?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt">Gretchen
Gerzina<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Jeremy Hawthorn
Emeritus Professor
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
7491 Trondheim
Norway</pre>
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