Do you ever fear any episodes where we wake up in the night, but this habit might not necessarily be problematic. There is strong evidence both scientific and historical, which suggests that sleeping for 8 hours uninterrupted might be an unnatural habit.
In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted an experiment for a month, so a group of people were kept in the dark by 14 hours a day.
Although it took some time to adjust their sleep by the end of the fourth week, subjects have established a distinct sleep pattern. They sleep on two occasions: first “sleep without a break” for four hours, then wake up 1-2 hours and then sank into a second course of 4 hours of sleep.
Although scientists specializing in the study of sleep were impressed by the finding, the idea that human should sleep 8:00 row persisted among the general public.
In 2001, historian Roger Ekirch from Virginia Tech Institute, published a work based on 16 years of research that brought to light a wealth of evidence that in the past people used to sleep in the two half.
Four years later, Roger Ekirch published book At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past in treating 500 historical references that prove that people had the habit of sleeping in two halves. Evidences of that discusses Ekirch were medical writings, diaries, testimonies in court, etc.
As in the case of Wehr’s study, evidence gathered by Ekirch describe the first half of sleep that began two hours after sunset, followed by a period of 1-2 hours vigil and a second half of sleep.
During the wake of two naps, people were quite active. Often get out of bed, went to the toilet, smoking and sometimes visit their neighbors. However, most people stayed in bed, writing or praying. This explains why many prayer books of the fifteenth century proposing special prayers for the two hours of vigil. In addition, the record indicates the time between the two half of sleep was not a single in its entirety. Many times, people were discussing or having sex.
A sixteenth century French medical manual advising couples to have sex during this time because it had a better chance of having descendants being less tired.
According to Ekirch, it seems that the references relating to the two stages of sleep started to disappear in the early seventeenth century. First, the custom has disappeared among the upper classes in cities in northern Europe, so that in the course of 200 years, he would be forgotten by those in western countries. Until the 1920s, two naps habit disappeared from the collective mind.
Roger Ekirch associates this change with improved street lighting system, to the domestic and a significant increase of cafes that were open even at night sometimes.
As the night became a time of legitimate activities, time that people could still devote for rest decreased.
In 1667, Paris became the first city in the world whose streets are illuminated using wax candles in glass lamps. In the same year, and Lille is part of street lighting, followed by Amsterdam where lighting was provided by oil lamps. At this rate, by the end of the seventeenth century, more than 50 major European cities benefited from street lighting.
So the night was not only a time for sleep. In fact, sleeping at night is considered a waste of time with the advent of street lighting.
“People are beginning to perceive the increasingly more time and be more sensitive about the effectiveness before the nineteenth century. But the industrial revolution intensified this attitude, “said Roger Ekirch.
An important proof that indicates this change of attitude towards sleep is reported in a medical journal in 1829 by the parents were advised to relinquished their children longer sleep in two halves.
Today, most people seem to have adapted quite well to the program for eight consecutive hours of sleep, but Ekirch believes that many of the sleep problems may have their roots in the body’s natural preference to receive segmented sleep.
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This could be the root of sleep problems in the middle of the night insomnia that individuals find it hard to fall asleep when they woke up during the night or very early morning. This sleep problem first appeared in literature in the nineteenth century, while the segmented sleep is gone forever.
“Throughout the development we slept in a certain way. So waking up at night is part of normal human physiology, “said Gregg Jacobs, a psychologist specializing in sleep problems.
The idea that We have to sleep eight o’clock in a row could be harmful, he said, explaining that often people who wake up during sleep become anxious. For its part this anxiety prevents sleep and so it can seep into the life of the individual.
Russell Foster, a professor specializing in circadian rhythm research, shares this view. “Many people are waking up during the night and panic. I explain that what they experience while a return to bi-modal pattern of sleep. Over 30% of the medical problems faced by physicians directly or indirectly goes from sleep. But until now, sleep was ignored and there is very little medical training centers where sleep studies, “he said.