Segmented sleep

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Segmented sleep, also known as divided sleep, bimodal sleep pattern, or interrupted sleep,is a polyphasic or biphasic sleep pattern where two or more periods of sleep are punctuated by a period of wakefulness. Along with a nap (siesta) in the day, it has been argued that this is the natural pattern of human sleep.[1][2] A case has been made that maintaining such a sleep pattern may be important in regulating stress.[3]

Historian A. Roger Ekirch (2001,2005) argues that before the Industrial Revolution, segmented sleep was the dominant form of human slumber in Western civilization. He draws evidence from documents from the ancient, medieval, and modern world, which he discovered over the course of sixteen years of research.[4] Other historians, such as Craig Koslofsky,[5] have endorsed Ekirch's discovery and analysis.

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Segmented sleep as a historical norm [edit]

According to Ekirch's argument, typically individuals slept in two distinct phases, bridged by an intervening period of wakefulness of approximately one hour. Peasant couples, who were often too tired after field labor to do much more than eat and go to sleep, awoke later to have sex.[6] People also used this time to pray and reflect,[7] and to interpret dreams, which were more vivid at that hour than upon waking in the morning. This was also a favorite time for scholars and poets to write uninterrupted, whereas still others visited neighbors, or engaged in petty crime.[8]

The human circadian rhythm regulates the human sleep-wake cycle of wakefulness during the day and sleep at night. Ekirch suggests that it is due to the modern use of electric lighting that most modern humans do not practice segmented sleep, which is a concern for some scientists.[9] Superimposed on this basic rhythm is a secondary one of light sleep in the early afternoon and quiet wakefulness in the early morning.[citation needed]

The brain exhibits high levels of the pituitary hormone prolactin during the period of nighttime wakefulness, which may contribute to the feeling of peace that many people associate with it.[citation needed] It is in many ways similar to the hypnagogic and hypnopompic states which occur just before falling asleep and upon waking, respectively.[citation needed]

The modern assumption that consolidated sleep with no awakenings is the normal and correct way for human adults to sleep may lead people to consult their doctors fearing they have maintenance insomnia or other sleep disorders.[4] If Ekirch's theory is correct, their concerns might best be addressed by reassurance that their sleep conforms to historically natural sleep patterns.[10]

The two periods of night sleep in Ekirch's theory were called "first sleep" (occasionally "dead sleep") and "second sleep" (or "morning sleep") in medieval England. Ekirch finds that first and second sleep were also the terms in the Romance languages, as well as the Tiv of Nigeria: In French, the common term was premier sommeil or premier somme; in Italian, primo sonno; in Latin, primo somno or comcubia nocte.[11] He found no common word in English for the period of wakefulness between, apart from paraphrases such as first waking or when one wakes from his first sleep and the generic watch (in its old meaning of being awake). In French an equivalent generic term is dorveille ("twixt sleep and wake").

Ekirch suggests that, because members of modern industrialised societies, with late hours facilitated by electric lighting, mostly do not practice segmented sleep, they may misinterpret and mistranslate references to it in literature: common interpretations of the term "first sleep" are "beauty sleep" and "early slumber". A reference to first sleep in the Odyssey was translated as such in the 17th century, but, if Ekirch's theory is correct, was universally mistranslated in the 20th.[12]

Examples in early modern literature [edit]

I have known persons who have never indulged in a second sleep. One gentleman, who entertained a notion that a second nap was injurious, invariably got up as soon as he awoke, no matter how early the hour — winter or summer.
William Wadd. "Eating, Drinking, and Sleeping." Quarterly Journal of Science VIII 1828
It was his custom to go to bed early after a light supper, and rising as soon as he awoke from his first sleep, about the time that monks say their matins, he wrapt his head in a kind of cowl, and spent four hours in deep study.
"Aimar de Ranconet". William A'Beckett's Universal Biography, 1836
Never was there a worse swindle perpetrated on humanity than that which asserts that when a man wakes from his first sleep he ought to get up. If he wakes thoroughly refreshed after seven hours sleep it is certainly time to turn and stretch, and, after about fifteen minutes grace, to dress; but he who wakes at early morn after a rest of about four or five hours, will do well to turn over and go to sleep again.
Philadelphia Record, March 1, 1884
—The people are in bed and after their first sleep now, he said.
James Joyce. "Araby", 1914

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Wehr, T. A. (1992). "In short photoperiods, human sleep is biphasic". Journal of sleep research 1 (2): 103–107. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2869.1992.tb00019.x. PMID 10607034. 
  2. ^ Russell Foster, in Hegarty, Stephanie (22 February 2012). "The myth of the eight-hour sleep". BBC News. 
  3. ^ Gregg Jacobs, in Hegarty, Stephanie (22 February 2012). "The myth of the eight-hour sleep". BBC News. 
  4. ^ a b Hegarty, Stephanie (22 February 2012). "The myth of the eight-hour sleep". BBC News. 
  5. ^ Koslofsky, Craig (2011). Evenings' empire: A history of the night in early modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-521-89643-6. 
  6. ^ A. Roger Ekirch (2006), At Day's Close: Night In Times Past, New York: Norton, pp. 308–310 ISBN 0-393-05089-0
  7. ^ Frances Quarles (London 1644), Enchirdion ch. 54
  8. ^ A. Roger Ekirch (2005), At Day's Close: Night In Times Past, pp. 311–323 ISBN 0-393-05089-0
  9. ^ "Jessa Gamble: Our natural sleep cycle | Video on". Ted.com. Retrieved 2011-03-22. 
  10. ^ Brown, Walter A., MD (2006-05-26). "Acknowledging Preindustrial Patterns of Sleep May Revolutionize Approach to Sleep Dysfunction". Applied Neurology (CMPMedica). Retrieved 2008-02-03. "The discoveries of Ekirch and Wehr raise the possibility that segmented sleep is "normal" and, as such, these revelations hold significant implications for both understanding sleep and the treatment of insomnia." 
  11. ^ A. Roger Ekirch (2005), At Day's Close: Night In Times Past, pp. 301–302 ISBN 0-393-05089-0
  12. ^ A. Roger Ekirch (2005), At Day's Close: Night In Times Past, p. 303 ISBN 0-393-05089-0

Further reading [edit]

  • Everett, Daniel L. (2008) Don't Sleep, there are Snakes, Pantheon Books ISBN 978-0-375-42502-8
  • Koslofsky, Craig (2011) Evening's Empire: A History of the Night in Early Modern Europe.
  • Verdon, Jean, Night in the Middle Ages, trans. George Holoch (2002). ISBN 0-268-03656-X.
  • Warren, Jeff (2007). "The Watch". The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness. Toronto: Random House Canada. ISBN 978-0-679-31408-0. 

External links [edit]

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