joboo
15th February 2013, 04:49 AM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2211431/Insomnia-Stop-losing-sleep-insomnia--natural-wake-night.html
"These are the controversial suggestions to emerge from two newly published books that challenge our widely accepted rules about what constitutes ‘healthy sleep’.
Their authors argue that the ‘eight hours uninterrupted’ rule is, in fact, a myth that was created to suit factory owners in the Industrial Revolution. Instead, our natural state is to have segmented periods of sleep that are nowadays thought unhealthy.
However, the ‘tyranny’ of the eight-hours message has meant that the many people who don’t conform to this end up suffering ‘sleep anxiety’, as David Randall argues in his book, In Dreamland: Adventures In The Strange Science Of Sleep.
http://i.imgur.com/sVOVtY1.jpg
‘We know we should be getting a good night’s rest, but imagine we are doing something wrong if we awaken in the middle of the night,’ he argues.
‘Related worries turn many of us into insomniacs and incite many to reach for sleeping pills or sleep aids.’ "
Before this electrically illuminated age, our ancestors slept in two distinct chunks each night,’ he says.
‘The so-called first sleep took place not long after the sun went down and lasted until a little after midnight.
'A person would then wake up for an hour or so before heading back to the so-called second sleep.’
This forgotten way of sleeping was rediscovered by Professor A. Roger Ekirch, a historian at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
There was also an English doctor who had written that the time between the ‘first sleep’ and ‘second sleep’ was the best time for study and reflection. "
"Research suggests this wakeful cycle may indeed be our natural sleeping pattern when we are away from light bulbs, screens and other electronic distractions.
A study by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health found that when people are deprived of artificial light they go to bed earlier, then wake up a little after midnight and lie awake for a couple of hours.
Once the study volunteers learned to stop worrying about their broken sleep, they started to enjoy their time in the middle of the night as a chance to relax — to think and reflect on their day just done, and the day to come, explained Thomas Wehr, a psychiatrist and research scientist who led the research.
Anthropologists have now observed a similar pattern in some contemporary African tribes.
The Tiv people of central Nigeria even use the same terms — first sleep and second sleep.
Blood tests conducted by Wehr suggest the waking time between first and second sleep may be highly relaxing.
During this period, his volunteers brains’ were found to have raised levels of prolactin, a hormone that helps reduce stress and is responsible for the relaxed feeling after an orgasm."
http://www.worldmag.com/media/images/content/576_576_/book3_5.png
"These are the controversial suggestions to emerge from two newly published books that challenge our widely accepted rules about what constitutes ‘healthy sleep’.
Their authors argue that the ‘eight hours uninterrupted’ rule is, in fact, a myth that was created to suit factory owners in the Industrial Revolution. Instead, our natural state is to have segmented periods of sleep that are nowadays thought unhealthy.
However, the ‘tyranny’ of the eight-hours message has meant that the many people who don’t conform to this end up suffering ‘sleep anxiety’, as David Randall argues in his book, In Dreamland: Adventures In The Strange Science Of Sleep.
http://i.imgur.com/sVOVtY1.jpg
‘We know we should be getting a good night’s rest, but imagine we are doing something wrong if we awaken in the middle of the night,’ he argues.
‘Related worries turn many of us into insomniacs and incite many to reach for sleeping pills or sleep aids.’ "
Before this electrically illuminated age, our ancestors slept in two distinct chunks each night,’ he says.
‘The so-called first sleep took place not long after the sun went down and lasted until a little after midnight.
'A person would then wake up for an hour or so before heading back to the so-called second sleep.’
This forgotten way of sleeping was rediscovered by Professor A. Roger Ekirch, a historian at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
There was also an English doctor who had written that the time between the ‘first sleep’ and ‘second sleep’ was the best time for study and reflection. "
"Research suggests this wakeful cycle may indeed be our natural sleeping pattern when we are away from light bulbs, screens and other electronic distractions.
A study by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health found that when people are deprived of artificial light they go to bed earlier, then wake up a little after midnight and lie awake for a couple of hours.
Once the study volunteers learned to stop worrying about their broken sleep, they started to enjoy their time in the middle of the night as a chance to relax — to think and reflect on their day just done, and the day to come, explained Thomas Wehr, a psychiatrist and research scientist who led the research.
Anthropologists have now observed a similar pattern in some contemporary African tribes.
The Tiv people of central Nigeria even use the same terms — first sleep and second sleep.
Blood tests conducted by Wehr suggest the waking time between first and second sleep may be highly relaxing.
During this period, his volunteers brains’ were found to have raised levels of prolactin, a hormone that helps reduce stress and is responsible for the relaxed feeling after an orgasm."
http://www.worldmag.com/media/images/content/576_576_/book3_5.png