Segmented sleep?

[Epictetus]

I was reading the thread How to sleep in a contubernium, and this got me thinking about an old article I had read about segmented sleep in preindustrial times.

The basic idea is that our ancestors used to sleep twice every night. They would sleep a couple of hours at sunset, then wake up for a couple of hours, then sleep a few more hours till sunrise. Here is an article from the BBC about it: The myth of the eight-hour sleep.

The idea seems good enough, I suppose, but I cannot ever remember finding anything about this in primary sources. According to the BBC article, one researcher even found it mentioned in the Odyssey, but they don't give a citation as to where. Do any of you ever recalling anything like this? What do you think about it?

[Frank Anthony]

I have been really enjoying that sleeping topic myself. I kind of hate giving personal experiences on historical forums (although I quite often do) but I know that personally I used come home from work, sleep a three hour nap, and then go to bed rather late and wake up early. I wonder what other studies have shown about sleep patterns. It might be rough for a while but humans are pretty adaptable. And maybe it does take quite a tole on the body. How long was the average life-span during the Roman Republic/Empire?

Interesting point about the Odyssey. I remember thinking the same thing about Illiada.

[Robert Vermaat]

I was reading the thread How to sleep in a contubernium, and this got me thinking about an old article I had read about segmented sleep in preindustrial times.

The basic idea is that our ancestors used to sleep twice every night. They would sleep a couple of hours at sunset, then wake up for a couple of hours, then sleep a few more hours till sunrise. Here is an article from the BBC about it: The myth of the eight-hour sleep.

The idea seems good enough, I suppose, but I cannot ever remember finding anything about this in primary sources. According to the BBC article, one researcher even found it mentioned in the Odyssey, but they don't give a citation as to where. Do any of you ever recalling anything like this? What do you think about it?

Interesting subject, isn't it? mile:
I came across it in an article a few days ago, which I can't seem to find again. :-x
The article mentioned examples in literature, but more modern ones than Homer.

Meanwhile, a good read:
http://www.history.vt.edu/Ekirch/sleepcommentary.html

Edit:

This is the passage from Homer (Odyssee): Homer writes, "In his first sleep, call up your hardiest cheer." (book IV.555)

[Epictetus]

I think I need to read that book by Roger Ekirch. It looks really interesting.

Thanks for the Odyssey citation. This is fascinating. In the Chapman translation, from circa 1616, we have:

In his first sleep, call up your hardiest cheer,
Vigour and violence, and hold him there,
In spite of all his strivings to be gone.

Now in the 1898 Butler translation (in prose), we have:

The moment you see that he is asleep seize him; put forth all your strength and hold him fast, for he will do his very utmost to get away from you.

I assume this fits into Ekirch's theory: that the earlier translator realised Homer was talking about first and second sleep, but the later translator didn't even know about it.

[richsc]

Some additional verbiage.

http://disinfo.com/2013/08/how-our-ances...ent-shock/

[Lyceum]

Odyssey. Not really. Chapman is an awful translator more interested in creating good English verse. The second translator is closer, I can see how Chapman got confused in how to take πρῶτα and κατευνηθέντα together since the way Greek uses the adjectives and adverbs with participle formations is alien to an English speaker. The entire sentence τὸν μὲν ἐπὴν δὴ πρῶτα κατευνηθέντα ἴδησθε is something like "just as soon as you so him sleeping". Basically "πρῶτα" doesn't always mean first.

Also in general sleeping in the Odyssey usually closes off a scene, so a character will fall asleep and then we'll hear the formula for rosy dawn etc. Its the basic paratactic composition Homer favours. One of the most interesting sleep scenes is Odysseus trying, and failing, to ward of sleep since it goes back to a type scene thousands of years old. A wonderful metaphor for the trappings of mortality.

As for the theory itself I buy it, I thought it was always accepted that in pre-industrial societies that was the case. Moreover it's a pattern I fully endorse. When we'd be training for competitions sleeping in bursts was the only way to be able to recover between training sessions and hand in essays. Eliminates soreness. Providing you've eaten enough.

[Epictetus]

Thanks, Richard. That's another good article.

Thanks for the clarification on Homer, Jass. This might mean that Chapman was thinking about segmented sleep, but not Homer.

I did a word search through Suetonius and found Augustus slept like this. Evidently when he woke up in the night he wanted to do something productive, and not just sit around and wait to fall asleep again. One might say this bolsters the idea of segmented sleep, but the fact that Suetonius found it interesting enough to mention makes one wonder if it was unusual.

[Vindex]

Perhaps it is more Suetonius' favouring the depiction of Augstus as the hard working, never ceasing statemen?

[M. Demetrius]

Modern soldiers in the field are constantly being waked up. When they stop in relative safety, they tend to drop off and "power nap". Do they suffer physically for that? Probably. But soldiers are not villa-dwelling citizens. Their aims and goals are different, and their incentive to be ready and on guard at a moment's notice are imperatives, not casual goals.