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The myth of the eight-hour sleep
BBC ^ | 22 February 2012 | Stephanie Hegarty

Posted on 02/23/2012 5:17:34 PM PST by grundle

We often worry about lying awake in the middle of the night - but it could be good for you. A growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.

In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted an experiment in which a group of people were plunged into darkness for 14 hours every day for a month.

It took some time for their sleep to regulate but by the fourth week the subjects had settled into a very distinct sleeping pattern. They slept first for four hours, then woke for one or two hours before falling into a second four-hour sleep.

In 2001, historian Roger Ekirch of Virginia Tech published a seminal paper, drawn from 16 years of research, revealing a wealth of historical evidence that humans used to sleep in two distinct chunks.

His book At Day's Close: Night in Times Past, published four years later, unearths more than 500 references to a segmented sleeping pattern - in diaries, court records, medical books and literature, from Homer's Odyssey to an anthropological account of modern tribes in Nigeria.

Much like the experience of Wehr's subjects, these references describe a first sleep which began about two hours after dusk, followed by waking period of one or two hours and then a second sleep.

During this waking period people were quite active. They often got up, went to the toilet or smoked tobacco and some even visited neighbours. Most people stayed in bed, read, wrote and often prayed. Countless prayer manuals from the late 15th Century offered special prayers for the hours in between sleeps.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


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1 posted on 02/23/2012 5:17:36 PM PST by grundle
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To: grundle

special prayers for the hours in between sleeps.

Oh lord, let me go back to sleep.


2 posted on 02/23/2012 5:21:17 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: grundle

I pretty much sleep like that.

It’s good to know it’s natural.


3 posted on 02/23/2012 5:22:33 PM PST by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
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To: grundle

Why would this guy have to plunge people into darkness for 14 hours? Couldn’t he just interview a Swede in wintertime?


4 posted on 02/23/2012 5:24:20 PM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: grundle

Interesting article. I worked night shifts for nearly 20 years, at the end of which time my whole internal clock was out of whack. I ended up sleeping in stages consisting of four hours’ sleep, three hours’ waking and another three hours’ sleep. My most productive time is the three hours between sleeps, although admittedly it takes me more than half an hour to get my equilibrium right following the first awakening.


5 posted on 02/23/2012 5:25:16 PM PST by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: grundle

I remember as a child, my head would hit the pillow after a rigorous day going full steam, and it seemed I’d wake to daylight 3 seconds later, fully rested.

I think that’s natural for small kids.


6 posted on 02/23/2012 5:25:47 PM PST by fwdude
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To: grundle

You a CPAP user? :) I saw this on cpaptalk.com earlier today....interesting read.


7 posted on 02/23/2012 5:26:23 PM PST by The Unknown Republican
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To: grundle
That's one take.. here's another.

8 posted on 02/23/2012 5:26:49 PM PST by I see my hands (It's time to.. KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHER FREEPERS!)
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To: miss marmelstein

He tried that first. He sent his sister to interview a Swede in wintertime. But she got bitten by a moose.


9 posted on 02/23/2012 5:27:42 PM PST by Verginius Rufus
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To: grundle
They slept first for four hours, then woke for one or two hours before falling into a second four-hour sleep.

This is my default sleep pattern, when I have time for it.

10 posted on 02/23/2012 5:28:39 PM PST by TChad
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To: grundle
One size does not fit all. I LIKE to sleep for 8 hours uninterrupted, 7 will do but 8 is better.
11 posted on 02/23/2012 5:29:49 PM PST by Ditter
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To: miss marmelstein

As I recall this experiment, he was wanting to see what sort of schedule people would keep, if they were free from any way of regulating their body clock. So, no clocks or sun or anything was allowed.

The people were free to do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. Whether it be watch tv, on vcr tapes, or play board games, or read.

They just weren’t free to keep track of anytime whatsoever.


12 posted on 02/23/2012 5:30:33 PM PST by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
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To: grundle

Any correlation with the other primates, particularly the great apes?


13 posted on 02/23/2012 5:31:36 PM PST by Aevery_Freeman (Typed using <FONT STYLE=SARCASM> unless otherwise noted)
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To: Verginius Rufus

Was there cheese involved?


14 posted on 02/23/2012 5:33:07 PM PST by Osage Orange (A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.)
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To: grundle

8 hour sleep? What is that? Isn’t 4 the norm? (at least for me it is... out by 1, up by 5).


15 posted on 02/23/2012 5:34:08 PM PST by mnehring
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To: Ditter
Same here - but my days of an uninterupted 8 hours of sleep are long gone it seems.

But last year I was house sitting a friends place and did have one night in which I sleep the entire 8 hours. Brother, did I ever feel great the next day. Must have been the wonderful bed I was using.

16 posted on 02/23/2012 5:34:08 PM PST by warsaw44
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To: grundle
some even visited neighbours

Oh, i'll just BET they did. divorces followed.

either that, or shots rang out.

:)

17 posted on 02/23/2012 5:34:28 PM PST by ZinGirl
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To: grundle
so ya gotta goto bed at 8 or 9 to be up by seven???
18 posted on 02/23/2012 5:34:38 PM PST by Chode (American Hedonist - *DTOM* -ww- NO Pity for the LAZY)
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To: grundle

Depends on how much I drank the night before. 8 hrs usually at a minimum.


19 posted on 02/23/2012 5:34:44 PM PST by goseminoles
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To: grundle
Some more, but easier on the Aeia.

20 posted on 02/23/2012 5:34:44 PM PST by I see my hands (It's time to.. KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHER FREEPERS!)
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