I work a lot of double shifts at my job. My normal shift is on days, then I go home for a few hours and come back at midnight to work 16 hours. The first 5 or 6 hours are a slog, and I’m constantly trying to stay awake, but then I just reach a point where I feel “normal” so to speak, even energetic at some times. What causes this feeling? How do our bodies do this?
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Sleep has two systems. The first is sleep-wake drive. It makes to feel sleepy the longer you have been awake and less sleepy the longer you have been asleep.
The second is circadian rhythm. It will keep you awake when the sleep drive would have you sleep and keeps you asleep when you would be awake.
There can be different factors for a second wind. If it occurs in the morning around 6-8am that is probably because the circadian rhythm usually produces cortisol at that time which helps wake you up. If that’s not a normal time you wake up than that cortisol production might be different.
At night your sleep drive and circadian rhythm work together to get you to sleep. In what is called a sleep gate. The sleep drive is depleted and circadian rhythm produces melatonin. If you fail to fall asleep before the peak in melatonin than you might experience a second wind because the production slows down.
Third there is a forbidden sleep of wake maintenance zone. These are periods during the day where the need for sleep is low. One time is 1-3 hours before typical bedtime. It is caused by a production dopamine in proportion to how long you have been awake. This is a counterbalance to adenosine which the sleep drive uses to make you sleepy.
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