Gei Shlufen

I take my sleep very seriously. It just doesn't happen. No tv past 9, at least 30 minutes of reading, dim lighting, pillow like so, loving my new position of laying on my right with my head facing up. It seems to be working. 

But then to awaken at 3? 

DOOM. 

But that feeling of terror is spitting in the eye of nature. 

I had read elsewhere how the current sleep premise of 8 solid hours is a new being, and this article reminded me.

See, before there was electricity and many avenues for artificial light, there were candles. But candles were expensive, and only the wealthy could afford to burn them at night. So what did everyone do? They went to bed when it got dark out. 

Sleeping Peasant by Zinaida Serebriakova

That sleep cycle, since it was so long, was in shifts of two. One would wake up in the middle of the night, and do some deep thinking, or potter about, pretty much relaxing. Then they would go back to sleep. 

Us techies freak out if we wake up in the night, running to the doctor to prescribe zombie-pills since being up at 2 am is unnatural. Right? Wrong.

Studies were done were the subjects were deprived of artificial light, and in no time their sleep pattern reverted to that of our ancestors. 

Instead of being expected to squeeze all of our productivity from 8 hours in bed, daytime naps should be permissible. Google, for instance, allows their employees a little shloof during the day, as do companies in China. 

Maybe that's why those ads for "Five Hour Energy" gets on my nerves. They need good ol' fashioned naptime, not a shot of caffeine.