Historians and leading psychologists said the concept of pursuing an eight-hour undisturbed sleep cycle for staying healthy is a myth, this week, and suggested that historically humans typically slept for two four-hour shifts, with an hour or two in between.

Sleep psychologist Gregg Jacobs said people would typically meditate, copulate, chat and relax in-between sleep sessions, a pattern he said was both prevalent and positive before technological developments brought lighting and industrialisation from the 18th century.

"For most of evolution we slept a certain way," he told the BBC. "Waking up during the night is part of normal human physiology."
 
“It's not a coincidence that, in modern life, the number of people who report anxiety, stress, depression, alcoholism and drug abuse has gone up,” he added. (BBC: http://m1e.net/c?79654374-Y6bRd1EQ/2yFw%407262324-WVoz2UI9S3Kyc )

International DJs Kris Menace, Paolo Mojo and Way Out West’s Jody Wisternoff chatted to Skrufff about their own erratic sleep patterns, with all three admitting they rarely sleep straight through, whether DJing or not.

“The 4am wake-up is a classic,” said Paulo Mojo.

“I’ve done that so many times, usually with some half baked idea in your head that you can’t act on at that time anyway. So I usually end up turning the laptop on, waking up properly, not achieving what I tried to do then finding myself much too awake to fall back asleep again,” he shuddered.

“That’s actually my biggest sleep loser- composing things in my head,” he said.

Jody Wisternoff similarly said he wakes up in the early hours ‘every night without fail.’

“Partially because we have an 7 month old who feeds at 3am, and also I think because of my gradually diminishing bladder,” he laughed.

“I also get hungry during the night and usually find myself raiding the fridge in a semi conscious state. But honestly, I cannot remember the last time I got 8 hours uninterrupted sleep.”

“8 hours a night is rare.” Kris Menace concurred, “I’m mostly working during the night and when I go to bed everybody else is awake.”

US historian Roger Ekirch and British researcher Craig Koslofsky (author of Evening's Empire) told the BBC that up until the 18th century respectable people had stayed indoors from dusk ‘til dawn enjoying two sleeps, which shrunk to one as people started meeting after dark. Before that, he told the BBC, ‘the night had belonged to reprobates’.

“The night was a place populated by people of disrepute - criminals, prostitutes and drunks,” he added, "Even the wealthy, who could afford candlelight, had better things to spend their money on. There was no prestige or social value associated with staying up all night . . . (CLICK HERE FOR MORE: http://m1e.net/c?79654374-GMADXOe.meZNU%407262325-KcdsY9GVqE6bQ