I have read a few articles lately about evidence that people used to sleep in two parts. Apparently there is reference to this in the Canterbury Tales.
They claim people used to wake up in the middle of the night, stay awake for a couple of hours, and then go back to sleep.
Is there any truth to this? If so what would make more than one person regularly wake together at the same time during the night?
Monastic houses awake for worship at regular hours throughout the 24.
I have read about it too. It is called Second sleep or segmented sleep.
I suppose it makes sense in some times and places especially before electric lights were invented. People went to bed when it was dark but there are a whole lot of dark hours in northern North America and most of Western Europe during the winter. Most people don’t sleep for 12+ hours at a time plus the fires needed to be tended to in the middle of the night. It would make sense to go to bed, wake up when it was time to stoke the fires and do other chores and then go back to bed.
More cites:
Yes it is true. It is called segmented sleep - having issues with Wikipedia now, but here’s another site:
There is no doubt in my mind that this is real. Once I learned about this, much of my sleep “problems” made sense.
ETA: ninja’d by shagnasty!
Never heard of the stuff in the link. I awake 2 or 3 times during the night - I would rather not!
Was there a previous thread about this? It sounds familiar.
Yes there was.
In merchant ships the traditional watches were 4 hours on / 4 hours off so the most sleep you could get was 4 hours at a time. I realize this is very different from life ashore but it may have been set that way for a reason.
Sorry, newbie here.
Thinking about this…what if it was just a cultural norm? If it’s “natural”, then we should see preindustrial people all over the world who sleep like this.
I don’t think you can really separate out cultural, “natural” or technological factors in this case. Humans are a tropical species yet we spread all over the globe before good sources of artificial night lighting were invented. If there is such a thing as a “natural” sleep pattern, you would only see it among non-industrial people in tropical regions where the daylight doesn’t shift much over the course of the year. Everyone else had to adapt to a sleep pattern that either shifted over the course of the year, was augmented by artificial lighting or both. Those adaptions could be considered cultural but they are also born out of natural necessity as well.
I like to say that I sleep like a baby, because I wake up 3 or 4 times a night, to pee in my case. I didn’t think this kind of thing was supposed to happen to a woman; I know it does with men.
I’ve been doing this the past couple years but my doctor blames it on menopause, not archaic behavior patterns.
It could be both - it isn’t a stretch to think that menopause is effecting your melatonin production/secretion/whatever to an extent that would cause you to revert to more of a bimodal sleep pattern.
There isn’t a hole lot of research done on this as it takes a while to do these studies and most people have a life and can’t participate - they aren’t cheap - and there isn’t much money in it. Most doctors aren’t going to be trained in this theory - as it was not really “rediscovered” until recently and there isn’t much that can be done with it from a practical standpoint.
The one thing I have found helpful is to change my perspective from
“you should have 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep”
“It was one time very common - in fact normal to get two periods of ~ 3 - 4 hours of sleep”
And basically not feel like something is necessarily wrong if you wake up after 4 hours.
If you have young kids, you know a lot about segmented sleep.
I frequently do this.
I often wake up between 4 to 6 AM, begin my morning routine, then go back to sleep for another couple hours after realizing I’m still tired.
Does this have any bearing on three squares a day?
I experience interrupted sleep any time we have a power failure. Setting around with flashlights sucks. So we go to bed right after dark (6pm). Wake up at 11pm or earlier. Stare at the wall for an hour or two until falling asleep again. You manage to sleep until dawn if you’re lucky.
I have a generator now. My fridge uses most of its power. But I still go to bed early because it still sucks being awake in a dark house with only one light plugged into an extension cord. Still need flashlights to visit the toilet.