Did people practice multiphasic sleep in the Middle Ages?
score:14
Accepted answer
This BBC News article is pretty clear that "two sleeps" were the norm until the 17th century. It quotes not only historians, but literature that mentions "first sleep" and "second sleep" as relatively ordinary things. As well it mentions a study in the 20th century where some subjects adopted a two-sleep pattern when deprived of external time cues.
There is also a blog entry that uses biblical references and the prayer schedules of monks to make the same claim. It seems to rely on the same book as the BBC article, but uses different examples - which may have been pointed out by the book, but are quite easily checkable (eg, the Bible.)
The shift seems to have happened not so much as a result of the demands of the Industrial Revolution but the invention of artificial light allowing people to stay up later in the evening and then just sleep straight through from say 10 to 6.
More post
- 📝 Why was Benedict Arnold liked by the Tories but scorned by the Whigs?
- 📝 Why, in the Bill of Rights, is the right to a speedy trial a separate amendment from the right to a trial by jury?
- 📝 Did the Zone Rouge in France and Belgium make a difference in WWII?
- 📝 What is the earliest recorded example of an extradition treaty or law?
- 📝 Was it normal for New York schools in the late 1960s to be desegregated?
- 📝 Were Roman emperors in the first century AD shown as holding stars in their hands?
- 📝 How was the safety of allied leaders ensured in transportation for conferences during WW2?
- 📝 Was the reign of Galba covered in the missing books of Tacitus' Annals?
- 📝 Sources for letters written during the Boer Wars?
- 📝 Flag with dark border and light inner?
- 📝 How did Egypt become a protectorate of the British empire?
- 📝 Where can I find more information on the Katyn massacre?
- 📝 How did coach service in 18th century America work?
- 📝 How common was capturing a post-sail warship?
- 📝 Can you name a battle in 14th C (?) in which many knight got killed because of pointed shoes?
- 📝 Did the Japanese try to start peace negotiations while in a position of strength in WWII?
- 📝 Baron is to Barony as Earl is to what?
- 📝 How long did Latin survive in Bavaria?
- 📝 Were North African silver certificates actually printed in 1935?
- 📝 Difference between legions at the end of the Roman empire and around the beginning of the Roman Empire
- 📝 What did Lord Carnarvon study at Trinity College Cambridge?
- 📝 How old was Murasaki Shikibu when she married her second cousin? And why did she marry him?
- 📝 Division of Rome and Its Eventual Decline
- 📝 Uniform identification: c20th male, General, mid/light green double breasted, red facing, red neck tags, blue/green shoulder boards
- 📝 In Antiquity, were Persian arrows considered superior to their Greek counterparts?
- 📝 Whereabouts of the ancient Korean cannon in Kamchatka
- 📝 In exchange for forbidding strikes, did Napoleon guarantee high wages?
- 📝 When did Wiktoria Narutowicz die?
- 📝 Did the Welsh ever call Britain Albion?
- 📝 When was the White Feather first used as a symbol of cowardice?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did people practice multiphasic sleep in the Middle Ages?
- 📝 What did the people of the Middle Ages call their period?
- 📝 What did people of the middle ages call their periods?
- 📝 What did men wear at night in the Middle Ages in Europe?
- 📝 Before the imposition of Sakoku, did any Japanese people travel to Africa, the Middle East or Europe?
- 📝 How did people categorize each other in the middle ages, how did racism work?
- 📝 Do we have any idea what people in the Middle Ages (or before them) thought the far future was going to be like?
- 📝 What did the term "Parage" mean in middle ages Langued'oc?
- 📝 From 1200 B.C. until 100 A.D. did people in the Middle East sit on mats or mainly on chairs?
- 📝 (How) Did criminals in the middle ages get treatment for injuries?
- 📝 When did people decide that all caps means the writer is shouting?
- 📝 Was hay invented only in the Middle Ages in Europe?
- 📝 How did 300,000 people survive the 3 1/2 year siege of Sarajevo?
- 📝 When did the practice of formally "declaring war" cease and why?
- 📝 How did Medieval armies survive the use of mail armor in the deserts of the Middle East?
- 📝 When did official documentation stop referring to black people as Negros in the States?
- 📝 Did Native Americans ever fight the indigenous people living in Mexico before Europeans arrived?
- 📝 Did people use to marry much younger during the last millennium?
- 📝 How did people deal with ice on the roads during the horse-and-buggy era?
- 📝 Did people in China resort to cannibalism during the reign of Mao?
- 📝 What is the difference between the Middle Ages and the Dark Ages?
- 📝 How did people react to Cavendish bananas when they first replaced the Gros Michel strain?
- 📝 What did squires do in the middle of a medieval battle?
- 📝 During the Great Depression, did the US Army do a study involving paying people to dig a hole and fill it back up?
- 📝 How did people have access to ice in warm areas before the industrial revolution?
- 📝 Which European monarch of the middle ages died furthest from home?
- 📝 Why did some people need to pay a bond in the 1700s in order to get married?
- 📝 Did the Soviet leadership ever address the American people on American TV?
- 📝 Why did the Middle Kingdom stop building pyramid tombs?
- 📝 Did the German people actually know Joseph Goebbels as the "Minister of Propaganda"?