Waking up from a deep sleep may seem like one of the most unfortunate thing ever, but people as recent as one hundred years ago would do it purposely! A citizen would fall asleep for a few hours, wake up for approximately one hour, and then go back to sleep for the rest of the night.
Historians have come to a few conclusions as to why this was a social norm amongst every day citizens. Poorer couples would be too tired after field labor to do much more than eat and go to sleep, thus they woke up later to 'do the dirty', if you know what I mean.
Other citizens would use this peaceful time at night to pray, reflect, interpret their dreams which were more vivid late at night than they would be in the morning. Poets and scholars also preferred to do most of their writing late at night, because they would be uninterrupted.
Learn more about this historical phenomenon known as Segmented Sleep by clicking the source!