Turn your lights off at dusk to enjoy the deep, mystical sleep of our ancestors | Hacker News Reader

Turn your lights off at dusk to enjoy the deep, mystical sleep of our ancestors

washingtonpost.com

15 pointsigonvalue8 comments

I've heard about this before, that prior to ubiquitous artificial lighting, people slept in two blocks of time. What fascinates me is that we seem to have collectively forgotten about it. Only now are researchers going back, as the article says, to old journals and stories, which often mention "second sleep". As someone who has trouble sleeping enough, I'm tempted to try this out some day.

That definitely happens with me any time that I'm not on a set schedule. I tend to go to sleep after the evening meal, wake up for a couple of hours in the middle of the night (which is productive coding time...), then go back to sleep until morning.

I suspect that a lot of the stuff we take as "natural" these days where actually artificially introduced during the industrial revolution to help the factory owners get as much bang as possible out of the workforce.

For example there was the enclosure movement in England that possibly lead many a former farmer to move to the city to get a job. This because they no longer had access to enough common grazing land and such.

> in about three week’s time, beginning around six hours after sunset each evening

At the height of summer the night doesn't even last five hours (northern europe), how would you cope with that?

The article implies that this is some sort of replacement for meditation, yet meditation predates one cycle sleep.

Anecdotally I've found that different people need different amounts of sleep, but many people benefit sleeping sooner rather than later. Most people will strongly defend their late sleeping, that they've "tried early sleeping" and it's just not for them. Usually they haven't committed long enough for their body to get used to it.

Personally I would rather wake early than stay up late to work on something. At least you're approaching the problem with a clear mind and well rested. Many hours are wasted in the night where people aren't thinking clearly, spinning their wheels on problems which could be solved with a different approach. This only gets worse with age.

I'm sure I'll hear accounts of people who are "not morning people". A little exercise in the morning will wake you right up.

I would think that there are several evolutionary advantages for a species with non-homogenous sleeping patterns. Someone has to be mentally alert through the night.

What makes you think that your personal preferences hold true for everyone?

I tried that for a year; still not a morning person. I do my best work at night no matter how I try to move to office hours. The morning exercise will indeed wake me right up... /during/ the exercise that is only... so after the exercise I go right back to sleep... I just do not like mornings at all and I guess there are many people with those same feelings. Which actually serves me well as I can wake up in the EU when the US wakes.

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