The myth of the eight-hour sleep
Is it better for us to sleep in four-hour chunks?
This is fascinating. I wondered about it after seeing the film Into Great Silence, which conveys the rhythms of the Carthusian monastery in the French Alps. Their rhythm included a reciting of scripture together in the middle of the night, breaking the current trend of desired sleep pattern. Knowing their practices haven’t changed for hundreds of years I wondered how normal this pattern may have been in the past. It seems there is a strong body of evidence that demonstrates this broken pattern of sleep, dividing it into two main chunks, is more natural.
It certainly reflects more closely my own sleep patterns – except I never do it properly as I head to bed too late, so the second chunk is always short.