BBC News - The myth of the eight-hour sleep

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- 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.
- Though sleep scientists were impressed by the study, among the general public the idea that we must sleep for eight consecutive hours persists.
- 6 more annotation(s)...
- - 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.
  - Ekirch found that references to the first and second sleep started to disappear during the late 17th Century. This started among the urban upper classes in northern Europe and over the course of the next 200 years filtered down to the rest of Western society.
  - By the 1920s the idea of a first and second sleep had receded entirely from our social consciousness.
  - "People were becoming increasingly time-conscious and sensitive to efficiency, certainly before the 19th Century," says Roger Ekirch. "But the industrial revolution intensified that attitude by leaps and bounds."
  - "For most of evolution we slept a certain way," says sleep psychologist Gregg Jacobs. "Waking up during the night is part of normal human physiology."
  - the majority of doctors still fail to acknowledge that a consolidated eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.
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- Ekirch found that people used the time to meditate on their dreams.
20 Mar 12

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- They slept first for four hours, then woke for one or two hours before falling into a second four-hour sleep.
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- They slept first for four hours, th
- revealing a wealth of historical evidence that humans used to sleep in two distinct chunks.
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- - references to the first and second sleep started to disappear during the late 17th Century.
  - He attributes the initial shift to improvements in street lighting, domestic lighting
  - As the night became a place for legitimate activity and as that activity increased, the length of time people could dedicate to rest dwindled.
  - With the advent of street lighting, however, socialising at night began to filter down through the classes.
10 Mar 12

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- "Associations with night before the 17th Century were not good," he says. The night was a place populated by people of disrepute - criminals, prostitutes and drunks.
  
  "Even the wealthy, who could afford candlelight, had better things to spend their money on. There was no prestige or social value associated with staying up all night."
  
  Roger Ekirch says this 1595 engraving by Jan Saenredam is evidence of activity at night
  
  That changed in the wake of the Reformation and the counter-Reformation. Protestants and Catholics became accustomed to holding secret services at night, during periods of persecution. If earlier the night had belonged to reprobates, now respectable people became accustomed to exploiting the hours of darkness.
  
  This trend migrated to the social sphere too, but only for those who could afford to live by candlelight. With the advent of street lighting, however, socialising at night began to filter down through the classes.
- In 1667, Paris became the first city in the world to light its streets, using wax candles in glass lamps. It was followed by Lille in the same year and Amsterdam two years later, where a much more efficient oil-powered lamp was developed.
  
  London didn't join their ranks until 1684 but by the end of the century, more than 50 of Europe's major towns and cities were lit at night.
  
  Night became fashionable and spending hours lying in bed was considered a waste of time.
  
  "People were becoming increasingly time-conscious and sensitive to efficiency, certainly before the 19th Century," says Roger Ekirch. "But the industrial revolution intensified that attitude by leaps and bounds."
  
  Strong evidence of this shifting attitude is contained in a medical journal from 1829 which urged parents to force their children out of a pattern of first and second sleep.
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- - The idea that we must sleep in a consolidated block could be damaging, he says, if it makes people who wake up at night anxious, as this anxiety can itself prohibit sleeps and is likely to seep into waking life too.
08 Mar 12

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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.

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- "Over 30% of the medical problems that doctors are faced with stem directly or indirectly from sleep. But sleep has been ignored in medical training and there are very few centres where sleep is studied," he says.
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How sleep patterns have changed over the course of history.

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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...[that] 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.

"It's not just the number of references - it is the way they refer to it, as if it was common knowledge," Ekirch says.
01 Mar 12

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- 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.
29 Feb 12

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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.

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RT@AndyDiggle The myth of the 8-hour sleep http://t.co/O5ZgVGVB | via @Shane_McCarthy

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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.

Though sleep scientists were impressed by the study, among the general public the idea that we must sleep for eight consecutive hours persists.

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.

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27 Feb 12

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- Ekirch found that people used the time to meditate on their dreams.
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The myth of the eight-hour sleep http://t.co/2OHkmPHF
26 Feb 12

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"euroscience at Oxford, shares this point of view.

"Many people wake up at night and panic," he says. "I tell them that what they are experiencing is a throwback to"

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bi-modal sleep and the background of human sleep being broken up into two sections ...

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The myth of the eight-hour sleep http://t.co/OURX3EbK for #AoW ? @scanloe

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25 Feb 12

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In a full sleep cycle, a person goes through all the stages of sleep from one to four, then back down through stages three and two, before entering dream sleep

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- Though sleep scientists were impressed by the study, among the general public the idea that we must sleep for eight consecutive hours persists.
  
  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.
  
  Roger Ekirch says this 1595 engraving by Jan Saenredam is evidence of activity at night
  
  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.
  
  "It's not just the number of references - it is the way they refer to it, as if it was common knowledge," Ekirch says.
  
  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.
  
  And these hours weren't entirely solitary - people often chatted to bed-fellows or had sex.
  
  A doctor's manual from 16th Century France even advised couples that the best time to conceive was not at the end of a long day's labour but "after the first sleep", when "they have more enjoyment" and "do it better".
- By the 1920s the idea of a first and second sleep had receded entirely from our social consciousness
- 6 more annotation(s)...
- - Today, most people seem to have adapted quite well to the eight-hour sleep, but Ekirch believes many sleeping problems may have roots in the human body's natural preference for segmented sleep as well as the ubiquity of artificial light.
  - "For most of evolution we slept a certain way," says sleep psychologist Gregg Jacobs. "Waking up during the night is part of normal human physiology."
  - Every 60-100 minutes we go through a cycle of four stages of sleep
    
    Stage 1 is a drowsy, relaxed state between being awake and sleeping - breathing slows, muscles relax, heart rate drops
    Stage 2 is slightly deeper sleep - you may feel awake and this means that, on many nights, you may be asleep and not know it
    Stage 3 and Stage 4, or Deep Sleep - it is very hard to wake up from Deep Sleep because this is when there is the lowest amount of activity in your body
    After Deep Sleep, we go back to Stage 2 for a few minutes, and then enter Dream Sleep - also called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep - which, as its name suggests, is when you dream
    
    In a full sleep cycle, a person goes through all the stages of sleep from one to four, then back down through stages three and two, before entering dream sleep
  - "Many people wake up at night and panic," he says. "I tell them that what they are experiencing is a throwback to the bi-modal sleep pattern."
  - "Over 30% of the medical problems that doctors are faced with stem directly or indirectly from sleep. But sleep has been ignored in medical training and there are very few centres where sleep is studied," he says.
  - In many historic accounts, Ekirch found that people used the time to meditate on their dreams.
    
    "Today we spend less time doing those things," says Dr Jacobs. "It's not a coincidence that, in modern life, the number of people who report anxiety, stress, depression, alcoholism and drug abuse has gone up."
    
    So the next time you wake up in the middle of the night, think of your pre-industrial ancestors and relax. Lying awake could be good for you.
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"Today, most people seem to have adapted quite well to the eight-hour sleep, but Ekirch believes many sleeping problems may have roots in the human body's natural preference for segmented sleep as well as the ubiquity of artificial light.

This could be the root of a condition called sleep maintenance insomnia, where people wake during the night and have trouble getting back to sleep, he suggests. "

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- The myth of the eight-hour sleep
- 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.
- 3 more annotation(s)...
- - fourth week
  - They slept first for four hours, then woke for one or two hours before falling into a second four-hour sleep.
  - that we must sleep for eight consecutive hours persists.
24 Feb 12

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"We often worry about lying awake in the middle of the night - but it could be good for you" (BBC)

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@busterbenson maybe you are sleeping wrong... not sure how this impacts #programmableself projects like ours http://t.co/ruvDlNxw
The best news I've read in a long time: http://t.co/cmzPPgZc Maybe waking up after 4 hours is natural and healthy. Are 3 am meetings next?

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