While most of us at some point have enjoyed a nap during the day in addition to a full night of sleep, it’s crazy to learn that for millenia people slept in two shifts.. one in the evening and one in the morning. In the era between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution, there is a history recorded about the “first sleep” before the “second sleep”… the period between the two sleeps was called “the watch” and was a very useful window for getting things done – from household chores to checking on the farm animals to prayer time to socializing to being intimate – “Once people had been awake for a couple of hours, they’d usually head back to bed. This next step was considered a “morning” sleep and might last until dawn, or later.”
Before the Industrial Revolution, nightfall normally brought darkness and most did not keep candles burning long past that point, but with the invention of electricity evening routines began to change. Fast forward to the 1990s, and there was a sleep experiment where it was clear that human tendancies tend toward the biphasic sleep pattern! Even in 2015 where another study was done in a remote community in northern Madagascar, it still proves to be true.
Read HERE for a humorous and very enlightening detailed explanation and historical understanding of the story behind the facts!