Second wind (sleep)

This article is about the sleep phenomenon. For other uses, see Second Wind (disambiguation).
A second wind may come more readily at certain points of the circadian (24hr) biological clock than others.

Second wind (or third wind, fourth wind, etc.), a colloquial name for the scientific term wake maintenance zone, is a sleep phenomenon in which a person, after a prolonged period of staying awake, temporarily ceases to feel drowsy, often making it difficult to fall asleep when exhausted.[1][2] They are the result of circadian rhythms cycling into a phase of wakefulness.[3] For example, many people experience the effects of a second wind in the early morning even after an entire night without sleep because it is the time when they would normally wake up.

While most "winds" coincide with the 24-hour cycle, those experiencing extended sleep deprivation over multiple days have been known to experience a "fifth day turning point".[4]

  1. ^ "How can I get my baby sleeping through the night?". parentsconnect.com. Archived from the original on 26 February 2009.
  2. ^ Stephen H. Sheldon; Meir H. Kryger; Richard Ferber; David Gozal (2005). "Principles and Practice of Pediatric Sleep Medicine".
  3. ^ "PsychEd Up, Vol. 2, Issue 2" (PDF). p. 6. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
  4. ^ Waters, Flavie; Chiu, Vivian; Atkinson, Amanda; Blom, Jan Dirk (2018-07-10). "Severe Sleep Deprivation Causes Hallucinations and a Gradual Progression Toward Psychosis With Increasing Time Awake". Frontiers in Psychiatry. 9. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00303. ISSN 1664-0640. PMC 6048360. PMID 30042701.