I recently heard about, and was able to find online references to work done by historian Roger Ekirch regarding pre-industrial sleep patterns.
According to him, prior to the industrial age, with little artificial lighting, people slept in two distinct chunks. People would sleep in the early nighttime, awaken for 1-2 hours, then sleep again until morning. This was considered natural and normal, the way multiple meals are normal for us. The “first” and “second” sleep were apparently mentioned frequently in a variety of different types of sources.
The debate is twofold, I suppose. First, is this guy’s work solid? I’d never heard of this first and second sleep thing before this year, and it sounds like the sort of thing that could be true, or complete BS. I do have a bit of difficultly seeing how this would work during summer, with much less true nighttime to work with.
Second, if Ekirch is right, are we doing ourselves a disservice by concentrating our sleep into an “unnatural” pattern? I’ve always found it curious that we have seemingly so many sleep issues, when we put a significant amount of effort into building sleep chambers for ourselves. We have specially designed mattresses, beds, bedrooms, etc. but people frequently have terrible sleep problems. Cats and dogs, OTOH, can flop down on a rug and sleep for hours without a problem.
Should people be actively pursuing a sleep schedule that mimics this pre-industrial pattern? Go to sleep early and do something during their nighttime wakeful period, like read, watch TV, or have sex.
I read that report too. I wonder whether it only applies to northern climates - would countries where siestas are common also need a split night.
I suspect it might have been forced on people by their environment - cold houses, lots of people living in the same house, different nutrition etc might have all mitigated against being able to sleep soundly for a straight 8 hours.
As an insomniac I’ve found this revelation to be quite pacifying. If/when I wake up after about 4-5 hours’ sleep, as I do quite often, I now tell myself it’s just my first sleep over with, then get up for a while and go back to bed for my second sleep. Works really well.
Even assuming it is true, number 2 does not necessarily follow. The single sleep time could be just as natural a pattern in response to the changing environment. And, from a scientific standpoint, there’s no reason that the old system might have been suboptimal altogether, but brought on by other natural factors. Heck, there are a lot of things we do that are suboptimal. Natural does not always mean better.
Here’s what i’d like explained in this.
What would pre-industrial age humans actually do with this period between 1st and 2nd sleep?
Just sit around in the pitch dark?
Assuming a community had somewhat staggered sleep times, the result would be that someone is always awake to keep an eye out for danger. Seems like a good idea.
You would not restoke the fire, that’s a complete waste of good firewood. The beds are the warm place. What tending did pre-industrial sheep need that more modern sheep don’t. Check the locks ? Who goes around the house checking locks, wasting good candles?
I don’t sleep in the “early nighttime”, but that pattern describes my sleep exactly. I usually wake up around 4AM, either toss and turn for an hour or get up, and then sleep again between about 5 and 6.
If I were a sleep researcher, I could see an interesting study where a group adjusts their sleep pattern to this archaic model. Comparing their quality of sleep to a control group might suggest that it is better or worse, or no different.
At a minimum, if it’s an acceptable sleep pattern overall, insomniacs like jjimm could work to follow a split sleep schedule rather than obsess over getting 8 straight hours.
Now I need to find time to read that paper. Maybe at 2am tonight…
My body, of its own accord, insists on a day length of at least 25 hours. Left to my own devices, as on a vacation, by the end of it I have completely flipped my sleep schedule.
I don’t know anything about the research paper, but personally I have found I LIKE to wake up / be waked up and go back to sleep. So I set an alarm for an hour or two before my actual start of day, wake up, and am quite pleased to settle in and snooze again until the second alarm goes off.
I once read an article in National Geographic several years ago about a very interesting experiment. A volunteer lived in a deep cave for several weeks or possibly a few months with no clocks or calendars. He reported to his support team when he woke up and went to bed. Without having any external clues about the passage of time, his body spontaneously adopted a 25-hour cycle.
Yes, it is called segmented sleep. I do it myself often. The reason is that I am bone tired after a long day, and especially a carb-rich meal can have me sleeping in my chair afterwards. I often ask my husband if I can go to sleep right after dinner so that he will watch our toddler the remainind hour or two untill toddler bed time. After those two hours, I wake up, put our toddler to sleep, and enjoy two more rested hours untill I go to bed again at 12 o clock.
I wonder if they just did it out of boredom. It’s 8 pm, and it’s been dark for two hours and I don’t feel like reading anymore. Might as well nod off. Oh, look, it’s midnight and I’m not tired anymore. Guess I’ll get up a bit. Yawn, I’m tired again. Time for bed.
And then the next morning, they’re only 14 hours from repeating it.
Only 2 of those are possible for humans early enough for the sleep pattern to be considered natural - neither smoking nor prayers are natural, and smoking was restricted to the Americas until the 16th century. And the other two, while it’s fairly useful to do them in the night, rather than wasting useful daylight, neither of them takes ‘hours’.
When I lived in rural Cameroon, this was pretty much the norm. In the hot season people slept outside, so I saw a lot of local sleep patterns. Myself, I’d go to sleep around nine, and wake up for an hour or so after midnight. I used this time to daydream, listen to my radio, check out the freaky noises around my house, etc. It was a good time for quiet time without any real duties.
Even without artificial lighting, you can do a lot under the moonlight on most nights. Married couples could chat quietly and spend time together while the kids slept (a biggie if you live in a one-room hut with six kids), set out the food for the morning, and do quiet contemplative things.
I think a lot of us have no idea what it feels like not to be sleep deprived. There is no big compulsion to stay up late to cram in more life, and you never really mind waking up with the sun.