I think being woken up rather than naturally reaching the end of a sleep cycle is very very different. When our baby was waking up a lot we were lucky to function much less do anything super creative.
Article tries to make the case that historically people would have a period of wakefulness in the night based on historical writing. I'd like to see some more actual research before modifying my life and sleep habits as I'm not sure that this says anything more than sleep requirements are personal.
My sense from working/living/traveling with lots of different folks is that sleep is just as personal as the types of foods you like to eat. Some people like napping, some don't. Some people like waking up early, some people like staying up early. The only real constants I see is that you absolutely have to get some and that the "experts" don't really know why...
I don't know that you, personally ought to be modifying your sleep schedule any. If you're doing something that works, that's fine.
However, if you do go to sleep early (like 9pm), and wake up in the middle of the night, maybe it's not necessary to stress about that too much. If you can get something useful done, then you can do that, and then go back to sleep in a couple hours.
I think the point is if you're feeling awake in the middle of the night, that isn't necessarily insomnia, and it isn't necessarily a problem. Maybe you can make it work and also get enough sleep to function well during the day.
I know your pain. However, I started going to bed for 12 hours a night knowing I'd be woken up a couple of times, and on the odd nights it didn't happen, I woke up on my own and experienced a state like this article talks about, awake but a little foggy, able to practically "see" the things I was thinking about in a way I never do in the daytime.
