First Sleep, the Watch, Second Sleep

 

by Pa Rock

Seasoned Sleeper

It's early morning and dark outside.  It will be dark for another thirty minutes or so.  I am up, semi-prepared for the day ahead, and yet it is still dark.  That's the way I roll.  I got to bed early, almost literally "with the chickens," and I rise-and-shine early - ahead of the chickens.  Often now, due to natural conditions associated with aging, I also wake during the middle of the night and spend a couple of hours lying sleeplessly in bed or puttering around the house.  

That may not sound like a normal sleep routine to the many (I wish!) who are reading this, but it is surprisingly normal from a historic perspective.  Over the past several decades there has been much discovered about the sleep habits of our more ancient ancestors.  This new focus on yet another aspect of human history and development originated with the gradual increasing perusal of medieval texts and legal documents which revealed that sleep by the ancients was broken up into segments.

A "normal" evening's rest consisted of a "first sleep" of two or three hours not long after dark, a period of wakefulness of one or two hours (sometimes called "the watch"), and then another segment of a "second sleep" which lasted a couple of hours.  That was a normal routine, so normal, in fact, that those terms made their way into literature, court documents, and even personal correspondence of the times.  It was the nighttime routine and it appeared to be fairly universal.

The most interesting part of the normal, pre-industrial, nighttime routine was the middle segment, or "the watch."  It was when people were awake that they had the opportunity to get things done.  During "the watch" people would often take care of unfinished chores, take medications, chat, have sex, and even conduct criminal activities in the cloak of darkness.  "The watch" would have also been the time to be alert and "watch" for criminals.

The old standard of segmented sleep apparently ended with the advent of the industrial revolution and with it the implementation of long, hard workdays and evenings that were becoming increasingly lit up.  As the world brightened at night, our circadian rhythms were affected and old sleep patterns began breaking.  There is some modern research showing that when exposed to prolonged periods of darkness, as in the days of old, the old sleep patterns of segmented sleep begin re-emerging.

Could that be why ghosts are thought to walk at midnight?

While reading through some old articles on the subject of "when" people slept in olden times, I also came across material which talked about "how" they slept.   The very poor would often bed down on the ground or on the dirt floors of their hovels - if they are fortunate enough to have hovels.  Some with more means had a mattress ticking which they would fill with leaves, and if they were exceedingly wealthy, with feathers.  One mattress would often accommodate an entire family, with the oldest daughter sleeping on one edge with younger sisters nestled in next to her.  Next to them would be the mother, the father, and then the sons - with the oldest son being on the other far edge.  Company also shared the mattress if there was room.  Overnight guests at roadside inns would often share a mattress with other guests, whether they knew them or not.  Common etiquette dictated that once you laid down for the night you remained relatively quiet and in one position so as not to disturb others.

All of that put me in mind of a friend from high school who always took a roll-away bed with him on campouts.  My friend would not have enjoyed the Middle Ages!  And that thought put me in mind of a former history professor who always referred to the Middle Ages as "500 years of camping out."  But I digress - it must be from a lack of sleep!