Posted on 09/09/2014 9:06:31 PM PDT by blam
Eric Barker, Barking Up The Wrong Tree
September 9, 2014
Roger Ekrich noticed many old books, including Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales", referenced two periods of sleep being the norm in their era.
Via Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep:
...Ekirch somehow rediscovered a fact of life that was once as common as eating breakfast. Every night, people fell asleep not long after the sun went down and stayed that way until sometime after midnight. This was the first sleep that kept popping up in the old tales. Once a person woke up, he or she would stay that way for an hour or so before going back to sleep until morning—the so-called second sleep. The time between the two bouts of sleep was a natural and expected part of the night and, depending on your needs, was spent praying, reading, contemplating your dreams, urinating, or having sex. The last one was perhaps the most popular.
So researchers did a study. When subjects had no exposure to artifical light they reverted to this 2 stage type of sleeping:
Soon, the subjects began to stir a little after midnight, lie awake in bed for an hour or so, and then fall back asleep again. It was the same sort of segmented sleep that Ekirch found in the historical records. While sequestered from artificial light, subjects were shedding the sleep habits they had formed over a lifetime.
Was this fragmented sleep bad? Far from it. Bloodwork showed that the time between the two sleeping periods was incredibly relaxing and blissful:
The results showed that the hour humans once spent awake in the middle of the night was probably the most relaxing block of time in their lives. Chemically, the body was in a state equivalent to what you might feel
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Well, things like polio, TB, and small pox would do in most folks today.
Best wishes to you.
whachootalkinboutwillis
It’s called REM intrusion
When one is awake and in REM sleep
At the same time
PTSD will do that.
In 1997, my most recent PTSD trigger was watching the death of two biker friends who were run down by a drunk.
For many years, and still, somewhat to this day, I wake up crying.
Since my mind apparently blocked out all conscious memory of the accident, I have to assume that I dream about it, often.
I also see things while awake that trigger it, such as dust flying off the road *just the right way*, because that was something I “saw” when it happened.
I wish I had an answer for you.
They tried hypnosis on me but I’m one of those trust-no-one types it won’t work on.
I cut out the middleman, and go to bed around 3 or 4 A.M., and sleep 6-7 hours.
Try Trazadone. 30 min knockout, no side effects. Sounds like you might need 150mg.
Two big problems in antiquity: women lived much shorter lives than men because of death in childbirth, and they had many more children, increasing their chances of dying. Second, infectious disease. Men who had good hygiene and nutrition could live long lives, even thousands of years ago.
Bogus: Have you ever tried those meds? They can take a while to kick in.
Trazadone is actually an anti-depressant whose side effects was knockout, peaceful sleep. I ran out a month ago, too heatstroke/tired to go get my refill and used IBUPM as a sub, didn’t work.
Cannot recall when the last time was I slept through the whole night not drunk or otherwise out of sorts.
It is that 0400 wake up and no more sleep that kills me.
Is that like those dreams you have where you’re really aslep but dreaming you’re awake and can’t move or scream?
I get those a lot and they absolutely terrify me. I’ll get a few seconds of lucidity and slowly scream myself awake.
... no refrigerator light!
I'm not just being picky: If the NIH/Democrats get their way, people being treated for "depression" will have a very hard time being cleared for firearms. Potentially that includes millions of people using "antidepressants" who've never had a depressive episode in their lives.
An hour of urinating? That's some bladder.
And yet another O’Brian fan... /s
Bump interesting
LOL!
That very well could be.
You have an excellent point.
It didn’t seem to be a problem until after I started to open my eyes.
Dumb as a box of rocks headliner. Electricity wasn’t invented! It was discovered. It’s one of the elemental forces a/k/a electromagnetism. Who the hell teaches these people science? Damned idiot journalists.
Chalk the longevity factor up under cosmic rays, bacteria, fleas and endless stupidity.
OMG!
We had an elderly neighbor who would go through the motions of working while he slept. He would do everything except get out of bed and fetch tools. He was 96 worked hard all his life and extremely old school and conservative.
IIRC his wife had to get a king sized bed so there would be enough space for him to thrash around without hurting him.
My family absolutely adored this man. He was a very good man tougher than nails and still could drive some heavy equipment almost until his passing.
We loved his wife too. She was a little younger, not in very good health and moved in with her daughter. Sometimes she’ll come back to town to visit her son and we get together and yak awhile or have lunch.
She’s almost 90 and still sharp as a tack but quite frail. She used to be a hell of a cook and she’s a smart lady. They used to be our neighbors.
I miss them.
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