Most people believe that life can become a bit of a nightmare without
getting an unbroken eight hours of shuteye each night – but sleep experts are
arguing the case for the broken sleep pattern.
Historian Roger Ekirch from Virgina Tech has been researching sleep for
the past 16 years and has produced a wealth of evidence that it is perfectly
normal for slumber to be interrupted. In fact, one sleep expert even suggests
that broken nighttime patterns can help regulate stress.
Sleep psychologist Gregg Jacobs told the BBC World Service during a
debate: “For most of evolution we slept a certain way. Waking up during the
night is part of normal human physiology.” He added that when people were
forced into periods of rest and relaxation, this increased the ability to keep
stress under control.
Ekirch, meanwhile, in his book At Day’s Close: Night In Times Past,
references more than 500 examples of disrupted sleep patterns throughout
history. The evidence ranges from diaries to court records, and medical text
books to classic literature, including Homer’s Odyssey.
Not only did people in the past sleep in stretches, but some used the
periods when they were awake to pray, smoke or even visit neighbours.
Also taking part in the BBC debate was Russell Foster, a professor of
body clock neuroscience at the University of Oxford, who concurred with the
other experts. He said: “Many people
wake up at night and panic. I tell them that what they are experiencing is a
throwback to the bi-modal sleep pattern.”
