2 sleeps not 1 used to be the norm

[Brian G Turner]

Very interesting piece on sleeping patterns, which suggests that it used to be more common for people to have two broken sleeps, then one big one through the night:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

Possibly of particular interest for fantasy writing as a consideration.

 

[Ursa major]

It may be nostalgia, or a hankering for the traditions of their youth, but some older folk still punctuate their night's sleep....


I do wonder how widespread this two-part sleeping was. Five hundred references to it sounds impressive, but as the time window goes back to the semi-mythical Homer, that's less than one-fifth of an incident per year amongst many millions of people.

 

[HareBrain]

I believe brainwave measurements show we have two distinct sleep cycles per night, of between three and four hours each, so this pattern of activity makes sense.

 

[Ursa major]

But there's a big difference between sleeping more lightly, or perhaps waking, half-way through the night, and turning it into an opportunity to visit the neighbours, as some** were said to do.






** - By the way, this is the kind of thing that really gets up my nose. No, not the neighbours turning up at three in the morning (though I wouldn't like that at all), but the loose language. What does the word, some, mean? I suppose, with such a small sample size, it may be as low as two. (With larger sample sizes, the reader is left bewildered or misled.) I'm reminded of that saying: "The plural of anecdote is not data."

 

[David B]

Interesting article.

Some rural parts of southern Spain retain siestas, using afternoon naps to staying up at night. They’ve never succumbed to eight-hour blocks of sleep.

 

[Dave]

As I've got older I often wake in the night, empty my bladder, go downstairs, have a drink and sometimes I even check emails or watch TV. I thought I was strange until I read that BBC report.

 

[Zedition]

It would be interesting to conduct an experiment around this idea.

It's well known that much like body-temperature, that there is no single 'normal' sleep pattern. Instead there are several sleep patterns that people fall into. Sleep patterns also change throughout your life, even in adulthood. Pensioners commonly have one or two naps per day and a short night-time sleep. Teen's frequently have an night-owl sleep variation associated with an extra .5 to 2 hours of sleep compared to younger and older children. Not surprisingly, this is associated with growth spurts.

Mature adults will eschew naps and attempt to sleep in a single batch, but that batch varies. Recent research (Goel) indicates a uncommon north European gene or genes exist for short-sleep. Some adults sleep 4 to 6 hours (15%) a night compared to most people sleeping 6 to 8 hours a night (65%), a handful sleep over 8 hours or less than 4. As a person from a family where "all the men awake at 4am and read until dawn" will attest, there seems to be a strong genetic link for Goel to research.

Culture also varies sleep patterns. Hot cultures (deserts, jungles) frequently have an extensive mid-afternoon nap that is believed to be a cultural energy saving adaptation. If this article is true, then one should find that pre-industrial cultures (Amazon, Borneo) would follow this sleep first and second sleep pattern. Well, unless it has some kind of a melatonin link. There is evidence that lighter skinned people have greater variation in sleep patterns throughout the year due to the ease or scarcity of vitamin D produced in skin from sunlight. So potentially sub-cultures (homeless, mentally disabled) within a greater culture could be studied for evidence of a need for first and second sleep.

 

[Dozmonic]

Generally it's about getting enough REM sleeps throughout the day. The Uberman sleeping method is attempting to get 4 in a day if I recall correctly. Often if you nap in the day for long enough, you'll not need to sleep quite as long at night because you'll often enter one period of REM sleep. I don't recall if 4 or 5 is the norm, but there's some interesting ideas out there about napping for short periods in the day to reduce the sleep you need overall

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Bedroom - History of the Home.

This is really interesting. She reenacts (sp??) the medieval night.

 

[Pyan]

As I've got older I often wake in the night, empty my bladder, go downstairs, have a drink and sometimes I even check emails or watch TV. I thought I was strange until I read that BBC report.

Ditto, ditto: except, as my lavatory is in the ground floor extension (mid-Victorian terrace house), not quite in the same order....