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I read somewhere that Freud and psychoanalysis became an issue only after electric lighting was a thing. Before that, it was argued, people got a lot more sleep
by leobg 5y ago
I read somewhere that Freud and psychoanalysis became an issue only after electric lighting was a thing. Before that, it was argued, people got a lot more sleep.
(In fact, in the time before artificial lighting, it was common to speak of your “first sleep“ and your “second sleep“: People essentially slept two times a night. They went to bed at sunset. Then, they woke up for an hour or two around midnight, which apparently was used, everything being dark, for sex and contemplation. And then they fell asleep for a second time, until sunrise.)
- shadowfox 5y ago> People essentially slept two times a night. They went to bed at sunset. Then, they woke up for an hour or two around midnight, which apparently was used, everything being dark, for sex and contemplation. And then they fell asleep for a second time, until sunrise This, as far as I can tell, was not a very universal thing, at least across cultures.
- sn41 5y agoThis is very plausible. It seems, for example, in India, the ideal time for morning prayer and meditation was the Brahma Muhurta, which is variously said to be between 3:30 - 6:30 am (probably dependent on the seasons and sunrise). This implies that people went to sleep around 8 pm or 9 pm, as many people in rural India still do. There is no mention of people getting up in between, in any of the traditional descriptions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmamuhurtha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmamuhurtha