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There is only one study in this article, and it involves how a group of people adapted to a 14-hour sleep pattern. Other than that, there are no studies of imp
by Xurinos 15y ago
There is only one study in this article, and it involves how a group of people adapted to a 14-hour sleep pattern. Other than that, there are no studies of importance here, nothing that confirms concretely that this kind of segmented sleep is effective for humans. It is based on historical hearsay but cannot make a prescriptive judgment. The evidence purely anecdotal. Please be careful in reading things like this that you do not immediately form a blind belief or justification.
- hessenwolf 15y agoAlso, don't Spanish people and sailors sleep in segmented blocks? Not exactly newsworthy, then.
- gk1 15y agoSailors' sleep patterns are mostly dictated by their watch schedule. Different ships have different schedules (eg, three eight-hour shifts, or four six-hour shifts, etc) and basically you try to get sleep whenever possible. I sailed on a ship that had six four-hour watches with three watch groups. That meant that one group would stand two 4-hour watches per 24-hour period (eg, 4am-8am then 4pm-8pm). With less than eight hours between watches, you had no choice but to sleep in two different blocks each day. The effects of such a schedule and standing watch in a windowless engine room deep in the hull of the ship are quite interesting. For example, people (myself included) would completely forget whether it is PM or AM. If you occasionally go outside--rather than straight from the engine room to your bunk--you never knew whether to expect it to be light or dark out. I often went out expecting to reminisce under the star-laden sky, only to find out it's broad daylight out.
- JeremyBanks 15y agoI don't see how your post could be "also" to the parent post: It's saying to be skeptical of the claims due to lack of evidence, while your post contrarily implies that this is already established knowledge.
- hencq 15y agoI think he's saying that the conclusion from the historical study (people used to have bi-modal sleep patterns) isn't exactly revolutionary either. So it's in line with the parent post in that there's not really anything noteworthy in the article.
- pjscott 15y agoLots of things are noteworthy for people who don't already know them.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- kmfrk 15y agoLink to relevant article for people who are interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siesta https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siesta.
- GFischer 15y agoSiesta (midday nap) is very common in Bolivia, Mexico and other Latin American countries, but I'd hesitate to call it segmented sleep.
- yariang 15y agoNot to detract from your main point, but I don't think Siesta is very common in Mexico and most other Latin American countries. I was born in Cuba, lived there for five years and lived in Mexico for about three or four. I don't know of a single person who regularly slept after noon. In fact, I had an opportunity to live in Barcelona for three months and while a lot of businesses do close down from noon to three, I got the impression that people were not using that time to sleep, and that the idea of siesta in Catalunya is on the decline.
- GFischer 15y agoOk, I did work for Bolivia for a time, and our Bolivian office closed for siesta, as did our main customer (the La Paz city council). Same for a more rural area of Mexico (Toluca surroundings), they also did siestas there. Googling a bit, acording to Time magazine, siesta was struck down in Mexico in 1944, so it's more a myth than reality now I guess (probably subsists in some more rural areas). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,850501,00.html http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,850501,00.h... My impression was that siesta still persisted in some countries, but that it tends to disappear as they conform to western work hours, and, as the Time article states, it does involve four commutes instead of two, so it's not workable in urban areas (btw, people who siesta still work the same amount of hours, I'm not saying they work less).
- redridingnews 15y agoObservation: In the Philippines, most parents force their kids to take a siesta. These are taken around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. However, some parents fail to wake their kids up after 3 hours of sleep. In this case, these kids are up till the wee hours of the night, making their sleeping habits more complicated than it should be. Regarding the article, I guess one should just do what works for them (their body). Some people find it necessary to get 8 hours of sleep, and some are okay with six.
- eduardo_f 15y agoNo, we don't. In Spain, some people take a quick 30-minute nap after lunch, but I wouldn't call that sleeping in segmented blocks.
- giulivo 15y agoI'm going to say something not so geeky but I think babies also sleep in segments and for shorter periods. We mainly adapt their "natural" habits to the society we're living. Is it for the better or not, I don't know.
- andycroll 15y agoThey do, however that is as much to do with the need for frequent feeding given their tiny stomachs!
- ars 15y ago> Please be careful in reading You should take your own advice. Bi-Modal sleep has a lot more evidence than just that, and the article includes some from historians, which I guess you missed. This sleep pattern is well accepted, and has been known for decades. Not sure why they are writing an article about it now, except maybe the author heard about it and decided it would make an interesting article.
- vacri 15y agoSo quote them. Xurinos is rightly pointing out the lack of referencing. By the way, I worked in sleep medicine, first as a medical tech, and then in technical support for the medical equipment. I never came across the idea that split sleep sessions was right or healthy, and never heard the sleep physicians or clinical specialists mention such a thing. It is far from "well accepted and known for decades", at least up until I left the industry in 2009 (though I spent less time with the specialists from about 2006). Xurinos is presenting the correct scientific position; you are presenting the antithesis of science: "Yeah, you're wrong, everyone knows it and has always known it, I'm sure there's some research somewhere".
- ars 15y agoReferences, many by Ekirch but not all: http://www.history.vt.edu/Ekirch/sleepcommentary.html http://www.history.vt.edu/Ekirch/sleepcommentary.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmented_sleep http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmented_sleep http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/106.2/ah000343.html http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/106.2/ah00034... http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc99/9_25_99/bob2.htm http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc99/9_25_99/bob2.htm http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/sleep-disorders/content/article/10168/56881?verify=0 http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/sleep-disorders/content/arti... http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00627.x/full http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.... http://www.nature.com/scientificamericanmind/journal/v17/n6/full/scientificamericanmind1206-14.html http://www.nature.com/scientificamericanmind/journal/v17/n6/... http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/sleep-deprivation/content/article/10168/55271?_EXT_4_pageNumber=3&_EXT_4_pageNumber=3&_EXT_4_pageNumber=3&_EXT_4_pageNumber=3&_EXT_4_comsort=of http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/sleep-deprivation/content/ar... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2647798/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2647798/ There is very little criticism of this, both modern studies and research of historical language and literature find the same thing.
- cinquemb 15y agoLike people now who just believe blindly now about the way they feel they should live their life by the norms? It goes both ways.