Did People in the Past Get 8 Hours of Sleep a Night?

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2017

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Doctors love to say that eight hours of nightly rest is vital to good health. But did people in the past get this much sleep, more, or less? And how did the lack of a lightbulb affect their sleep cycles. Turns out quite a bit. People actually hit the hay very early and woke up a few hours each night—sort of a reverse midnight siesta. Important cultural activity took place during this time, including scheduled prayers, visits to neighbors, and doctors orders that children be conceived at this time. Learn more about how your ancestors slept, or didn't sleep. TO HELP OUT THE SHOW Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher

Transcript

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0:00.0	War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding right down to the present.
0:06.2	Wars made the United States independent, kept it together, increased its size, and established it as a global superpower.
0:13.2	Hi, I'm James Early, host of the Key Battles of American History podcast.
0:17.6	In each episode I discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's Wars.
0:23.2	To start listening now, go to pathanonpodcast.com or search Key Battles of American History on your favorite podcast and platform.
0:36.1	The history of North America podcast is a sweeping historical saga of the United States, Canada, and Mexico, from their deep origins to our present epoch.
0:46.0	Join me, Mark Vinet, on this exciting, fascinating epic journey through time,
0:51.1	focusing on the compelling, wonderful, and tragic stories of North America's inhabitants, heroes, villains, leaders, environment, and geography.
1:01.4	I invite you to come along for the ride.
1:06.5	Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast.
1:09.5	The unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes, myth busts historical lies, and rediscoveres the forgotten stories that changed our world.
1:19.6	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
1:27.6	Hi, everyone. Today's question is this.
1:29.9	Did people in the past get eight to nine hours of sleep a day?
1:34.6	Really interesting question.
1:35.8	When we hear that, we might think, I bet people got tons of sleep in the past because they didn't have the busy hectic lives that we have in the 21st century of having to run off to four different things to meet with people of the demands of work, demands of
1:49.2	meaning with family who live across the country, demands of different social organizations.
1:53.2	So I bet they got lots of sleep back then.
1:56.0	Well, in the past, people did get lots of sleep, but it's not quite accurate to say that they got eight or nine hours because people slept differently in the past.
2:06.4	A few years ago, the BBC reported on segmented sleep.
2:10.9	It's sort of a hot new health trend.
2:13.2	But that hot new health trend where you sleep according to the rising and setting of the sun, but you might wake up for a few hours in the middle of the night because during the winter there might be 14 hours of darkness and few people can sleep that long.
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