Sleep: why they used to do it twice a night

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/feb/24/sleep-twice-a-night-anxiety

This is not a new idea. For centuries we were accustomed to the idea of "first sleep" or "dead sleep" and "second sleep". It was accepted that between this first bout of slumber and the next there would lie an hour or so of quiet wakefulness, sometimes known as a "watch". This period was often used for prayer, or writing, or sex, or even for visiting the neighbours. But the idea of two sleeps dwindled in the late 17th century, so that by 1920 it was practically obsolete. For the last century or so we have been wedded to the idea of eight solid hours abed. And since the key to our sense of restedness often lies in our perception of how much sleep we have had, the figure of eight hours looms large.

[dfwgator]

[Idaho_Cowboy]

I've seriously been considering trying a poly-phasic sleep cycle to get more done.

[Sanguine]

I wonder why it fell out of fashion?

[Idaho_Cowboy]

I wonder why it fell out of fashion?

I've read that our hormones change based on our light exposure time. If you limit yourself to only 10 hours or so of bright light a day you can get on a biphasic cycle. So it's not that great unless you want to work in the dark.

[Sanguine]

I've read that our hormones change based on our light exposure time. If you limit yourself to only 10 hours or so of bright light a day you can get on a biphasic cycle. So it's not that great unless you want to work in the dark.

That makes sense.

[r9etb]

I wonder why it fell out of fashion?

Probably due to the increased availability of inexpensive artificial light (candles, then oil, then gas, then electric); or, the rise of the middle class allowed more people to afford artificial light.  Stay up later, and your sleep cycles converge.