A slightly different take on sleep

This is something I subscribe to via email and it's usually interesting but this really got my interest because it's the way I sleep and I thought there was something wrong with it. Hmm, guess not. Anyway, just sharing.

Simply Nan

ROOTED IN NATURE
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restoring awareness of nature and our place in it

About a month ago, as I was flying to San Francisco, I found an article on sleep in the inflight magazine. Since this is a subject I am very interested in, I read it immediately. I found some new information about sleep that I didn't expect.

The article referenced a book called At Day's Close: Night in Times Past by A. Roger Ekirch, a history professor. He did a massive study of how pre-industrial people perceived the night and how they slept, at a time when there was no electricity for light.

This book is full of fascinating details, but the part that interested me the most was his account of sleep patterns. Whereas today we expect that we should sleep the night through--and call it insomnia and take a drug if we don't--in times past, the acknowledged natural sleep pattern was quite different. For most of human history, sleep was broken into two segments, with one or more hours of quiet wakefulness in between.

The initial period of slumber was called "first sleep" or "first nap" or "dead sleep." The later interval of sleep was called "second sleep" or "morning sleep". The time of wakefulness was called "watch." Both phases of sleep lasted roughly the same amount of time, but there was no set timetable. Each person slept and waked according to their own rhythm. References to these periods of sleep and wakefulness are so common in pre-industrial writings that it appears to have been common knowledge. Wild animals also sleep in segmented intervals.

A sleep study done in the 1990s by the Institute of Mental Health confirmed this to be our natural pattern. Left to their own tendencies, without clocks or artificial light, the participants gradually eased back into the natural sleep pattern of two periods of sleep with a period of wakefulness in between. In an attempt to recreate conditions of "prehistoric sleep," subject were without artificial light for up to fourteen hours a night. Subjects tended to first lay awake in bed for two hours, sleep for four hours, spend two or three hours in quiet rest and reflection, and fall back to sleep for four hours before awakening and rising the next morning.

When electric lights were invented, people had more hours of activity available to them, and their time awareness shifted. Imagine for a moment if your activity was determined by the natural light of the sun. During the summer, there would be longer hours of active time available, and in the winter, fewer hours. Long dark nights would encourage more sleep, a kind of hibernation. Yet today, we just turn on the lights and ignore seasonal changes of natural light.

The availability of electric light has changed our whole culture. Activity is now available twenty-four hours a day. We can watch television all night, peruse the internet all night, shop and eat all night in 24-hour stores and restaurants. In our do-do-do culture, activity is valued, so we try to do more and more.

Is it any wonder that we are a society that suffers from sleep disorders? We are completely disconnected from the natural light cues our bodies need to signal sleep and we have disrupted our natural patterns. Sleep disorder experts now say that sleep is as important to health as food, water, and air.

I suspect there is a purpose to this mid-night wakefulness, and that is to have quiet time when we are awake, but not active, during the time when the world around us is also quiet. The Institute of Mental Health study found that there is actually a hormonal change in the body at this time that produces an altered state of mind that is "not unlike meditation." Perhaps this time is part of nature's design to allow us to have time for awareness of our spiritual nature, without the distraction of life.

I was relieved to learn about natural sleep patterns, because my own pattern of sleep is to sleep about four hours, wake up and be wide awake from two to fours hours, then want to sleep again. I often have profound realizations at this time and intuitive ideas. I usually get up and write in the middle of the night, as the quiet stillness is a perfect environment in which to create. In fact, I'm writing this article during my period of wakefulness. Now, instead of trying to force my body to sleep, I recognize this as a natural pattern and take advantage of this special time. And then, fall blissfully back to sleep. Here comes a yawn, and another...time to go back to sleep. Sweet dreams...


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Debra :-)

I know quite a bit about circadium rhythms and sleep patterns, in large part because my husband's best friend got his phd while working with one of the top researchers in the field at the time.

This is news to me and if it's correct, somewhat relieving as that is exactly my sleep pattern the last few years. It's been maddening to try and stay asleep the entire night.

That's interesting. I'm kind of like that too. I'll get up in the middle of the night and just sit and look out the window...then go back and sleep soundly. I like that! I want to do that a lot in the future when I don't have to get up at such an ungodly hour!
How cool!
Peace...d.