An Amazing Fact About Sleep I Never Knew
This past weekend, I learned something about sleep that I never knew before. Apparently, as recently as just 200 years ago, humans used to sleep in two shifts. They would go to bed around dusk and sleep for a few hours, and then they would wake up and work around the house, outside in their fields or gardens, or they would get to know their partner better, if you know what I mean. True story! They called this their first sleep.
After about three or four hours, they would then go back to sleep for the rest of the night in what they called their second sleep. Obviously, Mattress Firm wasn't around back then.
I'm not sure I would prefer sleeping in two 3-4 hour shifts, as opposed to sleeping all night. You would get a lot done, I'm guessing, but that's a big time commitment, which I'm guessing they weren't worried about 200 years ago. Also, another point to consider is that when people were sleeping in shifts, the average lifespan was only about 35-40 years.
Sleep is so important to a long life, that's why if you're not getting a solid 6-7 hours a night, you're compromising your longevity. The correlation with longer lives and one extended sleeping session is not by chance, I don't think.
If you want to read to read more about how we came to sleep the way we do now, check out this article.