Continuous sleep is a contemporary habit, not an evolutionary constant, which helps explain why lots of us still get up at 3 a.m. and wonder if something is mistaken. It might help to acknowledge that it is a deeply human experience.
For most of human history, a Snooze for eight hours straight It was not normal. Instead, people normally slept in two shifts each night, often called “first sleep” and “second sleep.” Each of those sleeps lasted several hours, separated by an hour or so of waking in the midst of the night. Historical record Explain that in Europe, Africa, Asia and beyond, families would get up around midnight after going to bed early at night, then before going to bed within the morning.
Breaking the night into two parts might need been how time felt. The calm interval gave a transparent middle to the nights, which could make for long winter evenings Feel less persistent And easy to administer.
The midnight interval was not dead time. This time it was seen, whose form is How long nights are experienced. Some would stand up to do things like stir the hearth or check on the animals. Others prayed in bed or stayed to reflect on the dreams that they had just had. Letters and diaries from pre-industrial times mention individuals using quiet times to quietly read, write, and even socialize with family or neighbors. Many couples took advantage of this midnight awakening For intimacy.
Literature to the extent of the traditional Greek poet Homer and the Roman poet Virgil One comprises references to “the hour that ends the first sleep”, showing how common the two-shift night was.
How we lost the 'second sleep'
2. Disappearance of sleep Due to the profound social changes that took place within the last two centuries. Artificial lighting is one among them. In the 1700s and 1800s, first oil lamps, then gas lighting, and eventually electric lighting began to show night right into a more usable waking time. Instead of going to bed soon after sunset, people stayed up till dusk under the lamplight.
biologically, Bright light at night It also shifts our internal clocks (our circadian rhythms) and makes our bodies less inclined to get up after just a few hours of sleep. Lighter Time Matters. General “room” light before bed Suppresses and delays melatoninwhich promotes later sleep onset.
The Industrial Revolution not only modified how people worked, however it didn't change while they slept. Factory schedules encouraged a block of rest. By the early twentieth century, the concept of eight uninterrupted hours replaced the centuries-old rhythm of two sleeps.
In multiweek sleep studies that simulate long winter nights in darkness and take away clocks or evening light, People in lab studies Two sleeps are sometimes followed by periods of quiet wakefulness. 2017 study Among Madagascar's agricultural communities without electricity, it was found that individuals still mostly sleep in splits, rising in the midst of the night.
John Singer Sargent/Shutterstock
Long, dark winter
Light sets our internal clock and affects how quickly we perceive time to pass. when Those hints disappearas in winter or under artificial light, we drift.
In winter, later Weak morning light Makes circadian alignment difficult. It is morning light Especially important for Regulating circadian rhythms Because it comprises a high amount of blue light, which is essentially the most effective wavelength for exciting the body's cortisol production and suppressing melatonin.
In time-isolated labs and cave studies, People stay for weeks Lives without natural light or clocks, and even in constant darkness. Many people in these studies misjudged the passing of the day, showing how easily time slips with no light cue.
An analogous distortion is present in polar winters, where sunrise and sunset are absent Feel time suspended. High latitudes, and long-term residents with stable routines, often cope higher with auroral cycles than short-term visitors, but this varies by population and context. Residents adapt higher once they share their community Regular daily schedulefor instance. And 1993 Icelandic Population Study And their descendants who immigrated to Canada, they found that those people showed unusually low rates of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) within the winter. The study suggests that genetics may help this population deal with long Arctic winters.
Research from Environmental Semantic Cognition Lab At the University of Kelly, where I'm director, shows how strong this link is between light, mood and the perception of time. In 360-degree virtual reality, we matched UK and Swedish scenes for setting, light level cues and time of day. Participants watched six clips of roughly two minutes each. He Decided the two-minute intervals were too long Dusk or low-light scenes in comparison with daytime or vivid scenes. The effect was strongest amongst participants who reported low mood.
A New Perspective on Indira
Sleep therapists take note This transient awakening is normal, often appearing in stage transitions, including near-REM sleep, which is related to vivid dreaming. What matters is how we respond.
of the mind The sense of duration is flexible: anxiety, Boredomor low light Extending time, while Engaging and calm It may be compressed. Without a break where you bought up and did something or chatted together with your partner, waking up at 3 a.m. often feels sluggish. In this context, the main focus is on time and minutes Seems too long.
Cognitive behavior Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) Advises people to get off the bed after about 20 minutes of being awake, do a quiet activity in dim light corresponding to reading, then return when sleepy.
Sleep experts also recommend it Covering the watch And stop measuring time if you're struggling to sleep. Calm acceptance of awareness, paired with an understanding of how our minds perceive time, is usually a surefire technique to calm down again.