Most of you, when you go to bed at night aim to sleep for eight hours or till dawn. Unfortunately, in the middle of the night, you wake up.
Here is the feedback from ten persons who wake up regularly at night:
- Take photos of the city: Brennan Wenck-Reilly, 36, San Francisco, US – Spent two years living high in the Andes in a town that had no electricity where he went to sleep and rose at sunrise. He wakes up around 01:00 or 02:00 and then becomes tired again around 03:00 and sleeps until 07:00 or so. He has decided to use this time creatively and run around San Francisco taking pictures in the night.
- Late night yoga: Annelieke Dirks, 33, Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Wakes up at about 04:00 every night to practise yoga. Most of the time she does at home, but once a week she drives to a yoga studio in Amsterdam, where she practises with about 20 others.
- Draw pictures: Carolyn Cornell, 78, Austin, Texas, US – She wakes up around 03:00 and sometimes gets a strong image that she grabs a piece of paper and draw it immediately. Her Trainee, young Jonathan, Cartoonist had a bad relapse of cancer and died. Carolyn dreamt about him and one night she woke up with a vivid picture of his face. She drew the image immediately and made this painting of him.
- Muslim prayers: Reham Samir, 25, Cairo, Egypt – Wakes up in the third stage of the night before sunrise, for Tahajjud, the Arabic word for night prayer. As dawn prayer is obligatory, he stays up until dawn and then goes back to sleep.
- Play with friends in the tribe: Iain Wilson, 37, Papua, Indonesia – Grew up among the Yali people in Papua, Indonesia. The neighbourhood would go to bed more or less after sunset and people would always wake up during the night and someone would start a fire. Sometimes eat some sweet potatoes before going back to sleep until 05:30 or 06:00.
- Have dinner: Candra Caballero, 36, Daytona Beach, Florida, US – Her husband, a sous-chef in a restaurant , gets home around midnight. They eat together, catch up and might watch a quick show on TV, until about 03:00. After working for eight-hours a day she gets home and goes to bed for about four hours, then get up and start preparing dinner.
- Watch Korean TV dramas: Karen Rochon, 69, Sequim, Washington, US – As a toddler she woke up at night. As a student, she had to get up early to go to classes. When she became a nurse, she started on night shifts.
- Think about dreaming: Bernie O’Leary, 55, Cirencester, UK – Most nights she wakes up in the middle of the night. As a full-time teacher, she has two hours of wonderful sleep to come with brilliant dreaming. Her dreams reflect what she was thinking that day.
- Meditate at church: Theresa Laturnus, 58, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada –Her husband snores like a Harley Davidson motorcycle and wakes up in the night. They decided to go to bed early on a Saturday night and get up around 02:30 to go meditate at the church, which is open for special prayers called 24-hour adoration. According to these prayers, someone has to be there 24 hours a day’ they relieve the person who lets them in and stay until someone else shows up. That hour usually flies by. They return relaxed, go back to bed and sleep again until dawn.
Listen to music: Jiri Janata, 72 Atlanta, Georgia, US – Due to advanced age, he sneaks out of his room, where he turns on the NPR programme Music Through the Night. After that, he goes back to sleep for another two hours.