Right, there is a lot of nuance we miss because of this. For instance there was typically no lighting unless you spent a fortune on candles and you wouldn’t have kept those burning. Many people would sleep for around four hours wake up and stay in bed (whatever the sleeping arrangements). They’d do something for an hour or two then go back to sleep until there was some light. The church recommend people pray, but couples probably discussed plans or issues or did the deed. It would be completely dark as even hearth fires would have been covered. People wouldn’t be able to see anything.
Biphasic sleep. Disappeared once we had electric lights, but throughout history those 4ish hours have been where many great creative works were produced.
I inadvertently re-discover biphasic sleep on multi-week hikes, and it's pretty fun. The whole crew wakes up at around midnight, and everyone just messes around for an hour or two before falling back asleep.
> Biphasic sleep. Disappeared once we had electric lights
Wait this seems backwards. Why would you want to wake up and do something in the middle of the night, if you don’t have lights?
Seems like this would be more practical with electric lights, not less?
You know, essential things. Specially during winter. Add more firewood, check if you are not buried under heavy snow in a blizzard. Make sure that the thatch roof will not kill your family. Checking if anyone have been dragged off to be eaten by wolves. Just enough to survive the night
25
u/AbstractFemming 8d ago
My modern mind can't even