I new it! bi-modal sleeping

[CraterCove]

This article here: http://disinfo.com/2013/08/how-our-a...present-shock/

puts forth the idea that a solid 8 hours is not the way to go for sleep. It recalls to my mind when I was going to college. I would stay up until after midnight and be up by 6am off to morning classed. Then in the afternoon I would sleep for a few hours and head off to late afternoon and night classes. I always arranged my schedule like this because free of my parent's habits I felt best dividing my sleeping time into two big chunks.

Cultures across the pond often have an afternoon sleep period. One should never labor in the full heat of the day, so why not sleep instead? I am surprised with our 24 hr world that there aren't more people going back to this old way. Heck, with a flood light over my field I could even work that after the sun goes down and not be sweating the life from me and getting sun sick!

ETA: I mean to use the word 'knew' not 'new' le sigh for not being able to figure out how to edit the title

[Harry Chickpea]

That web page is so difficult to read that I didn't. What kind of idiot uses a black background and dark grey as text?

[simi-steading]

white page with black letters for me..

Yep.. sleeping all night at night came mostly with the industrial revolution...

[CraterCove]

hmm weird... it's black text on white with a black and grey border on my screen... ~frown~

[Harry Chickpea]

Looks like the page didn't load fully the first time around. I clicked the link and got the dark grey on white background. It may have something to do with the satellite feed, which does a lot of compression at the NOC. From time to time I'll have to reload to see pics in a post. At least now I can skim the article.

-edit to add: some decent comments at the bottom worth perusing.

[Tabitha]

Originally Posted by simi-steading

white page with black letters for me..

Yep.. sleeping all night at night came mostly with the industrial revolution...

Nope, it came with nights being dark and not much by way of lights, so no reading in bed.
Now with electricity, some folks sleep during the day, when the sun shines for free, and stay up half the night and pay the electric bill. Like my kids used to do.
Dh also would like to be an owl.

[FeralFemale]

I've heard of this before, but never read anything about it like the article. Very interesting.

As a personal anecdote...since we moved, dh's transfer didn't include his shift preference. He gets home at 3am. I work regular day hours.

On the weekends, very oftenI will sleep on the couch so I wake up when he gets home in order to visit with him for an hour or two, and then I go back to sleep. When I do this, I feel very rested the next morning, more so than when I sleep straight though the night. And my total sleep time is about the same as when I sleep through the night.

But maybe it is just because I feel more calm, satisfied, happy, whatever, when I get a chance to spend time with him. I love talking to him. He helps me work through so many nagging issues in the life I have outside of our home.

[simi-steading]

Originally Posted by Tabitha

Nope, it came with nights being dark and not much by way of lights, so no reading in bed.
Now with electricity, some folks sleep during the day, when the sun shines for free, and stay up half the night and pay the electric bill. Like my kids used to do.
Dh also would like to be an owl.

Indians hunted all night.. Only the anglo's took the time to sleep all night once we started cities reliant upon a work force to churn out the mass produced goods.

[SageLady]

Sleeping in shifts is how I live my life. Back pain will do that to you. You sleep when you can, or rather when the pain level will let you sleep...

[Danaus29]

Originally Posted by SageLady

Sleeping in shifts is how I live my life. Back pain will do that to you. You sleep when you can, or rather when the pain level will let you sleep...

I know that feeling. Comfortable for a couple hours then stabbing pains awaken me from a deep sound sleep.

Back when the only heat was from fires and furs people would have to get up to add more wood to the fire. Once you get chilled you have to pee and then you are wide awake for a while.

[Harry Chickpea]

"Once you get chilled you have to pee and then you are wide awake for a while."

I think there is a Zen koan in there somewhere...