Mediaeval people had two sleeps

[Gramm838]

Brit tourists ? - yeah, they're funny.
Travelling abroad for experiencing something different - then expecting it to be like home
Get up early and go to les puces/the markets - they close at noon

I only wear a football shirt occasionally while I'm on holiday

But why would I want to get up early to go to a market when I'm on holiday..? I do enjoy the differences abroad (I lived in Germany for over 11 years) and I really like France as well and, gasp, speak good German and some French!

The Tower of London doesn't close down for two hours during each afternoon...

 

[Mirannan]

Anivid - Interesting. I used to sleep the traditional 8 hours or so, but the last couple of years I have found that biological needs (to put it politely) wake me up about 5:30 to 6 AM and I need a couple more hours after that. Also, I find I can't get back to sleep without having a little bit of breakfast.

Quite a long time ago, I was working in a bakery; starting time was 6 AM and 5 AM on Saturdays, which meant getting up about 5 and 4 respectively. Fortunately, baking stopped around 1-2PM (depending on how busy we were) which meant that having a Spanish-style siesta was viable.

Being sleepy after lunch is fairly natural, especially if you live somewhere hot - I suppose that's why the siesta developed in the first place.

 

[Brian G Turner]

And the BBC has a new article on how a "first and second sleep" was normal and ordinary before the advent of artificial lighting:

The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps'

For millennia, people slept in two shifts – once in the evening, and once in the morning. But why? And how did the habit disappear?

www.bbc.com

 

[Danny McG]

It's one of the main plotlines in The Second Sleep by Robert Harris.

A somewhat dreary SF novel set in a medieval type "broken society' England but 850 years in the future

 

[Stephen Palmer]

And the BBC has a new article on how a "first and second sleep" was normal and ordinary before the advent of artificial lighting:

The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps'

For millennia, people slept in two shifts – once in the evening, and once in the morning. But why? And how did the habit disappear?

www.bbc.com

Fascinating!

 

[Foxbat]

I have two sleeps most nights. I usually awaken from my first at around 0200, maybe have an apple or banana then read a book or watch TV and then about an hour and a half later, go back to bed. I get up around 0500 and go for a cycle. It’s been going on for more than a decade now. This article makes me feel quite normal

 

[Dave]

I thought it was well established that people awoke during the night. There are contemporary writers that mention talking with their neighbours.

I would agree that it is probably staying awake late into the evenings that changed things. It is hard to do any productive activity after dusk, even by gas lights, and especially after your eyesight gets beyond a certain age.

somewhat dreary SF novel

I liked it, and didn't think it "dreary", though "pedestrian" possibly, but the title was a clever play on words. The future people had already lost their knowledge of the past once, and at the end of the book were in danger of losing it a second time but that would be a spoiler!

 

[Montero]

A while back, an article, or maybe a Alice Roberts documentary, commented on the survival advantages of staggered sleep patterns - so if you have a tribe surrounded by dangerous countryside - have some people awake at all times is helpful. So the variation in sleep patterns between people, could be a survival trait.

 

[Judderman]

I wonder if in winter some people split the sleeps with a break due to long nights, but perhaps had one sleep in summer.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Didn't (famously - at least famously on QI) French Peasants just 'hibernate' throughout winter. So not just two sleeps but just stay in bed as long as possible.

The Big Sleep

It’s that time of year again. Cold, windy, wet or snowing and we really don’t feel like venturing out. We might call it hibernating, but the French could

www.angloinfo.com

EDIT: Thinking about, it makes a lot of sense. I believe sleeping suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin, so if you have little food, you're very poor and the land can't produce anything cause it's winter, better to spend most of your time asleep and be inactive to conserve energy.

 

[Bowler1]

I think sleep would fit into work activities, with less sleep in summer when farming work had to be done, with less work and more sleep in winter, if only to pass the time.

My lockdown sleep patterns were nearly all two sleeps as my working day was less regulated. Now I'm back in the office I'm back to one very modern night time sleep. Not quite proof positive of my proposal, but I'm sticking to it

 

[Danny McG]

I wonder if in winter some people split the sleeps with a break due to long nights, but perhaps had one sleep in summer.

I find I tend to catnap and short sleeps all through the summer but do several hours at a time in winter.

In like late August/early September I'm looking forward to the long dark nights to catch up on my kip.

(On the other hand I actively dislike winter weather!)

 

[Montero]

I think sleep would fit into work activities, with less sleep in summer when farming work had to be done, with less work and more sleep in winter, if only to pass the time.

Reading Annie Hawes on living in Italy, she was told a story by an elderly smallholder, of waking up on moonlit nights and seeing his mother working by the window, doing such things putting walnuts on a string for market. Her reaction was initially "aw" for the lovely childhood memory and she was rapidly put straight by the elderly man that the point was that his mother had to work hard any time there was enough light to see by to do work.

@Danny McG I put yellow filter specs on in the evening from about 20:30 to cut out the blue light which definitely helps, and I have a cloth eye mask to sleep in to keep out dawn's really early light...... can get a little hot. Also useful for napping mid-afternoon.