$87 billion is spent treating a “Disorder” that didn’t exist before 1820.
Direct Rumble link: https://rumble.com/v77w8do-87-billion-is-spent-treating-a-disorder-that-didnt-exist-before-1820.html
Have we lost sleep? A reconsideration of segmented sleep in early modern England
Via: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/medical-history/article/have-we-lost-sleep-a-reconsideration-of-segmented-sleep-in-early-modern-england/B70D0BFF8E77CFB81A839E9B72240CF2
(Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2023)
Abstract
The theory that the people of the early modern period slept in well-defined segments of ‘first’ and ‘second’ sleeps has been highly influential in both scholarly literature and mainstream media over the past twenty years. Based on a combination of scientific, anthropological and textual evidence, the segmented sleep theory has been used to illuminate discussions regarding important aspects of early modern nocturnal culture; mainstream media reports, meanwhile, have proposed segmented sleep as a potentially ‘natural’ and healthier alternative to consolidated blocks of sleep. In this article, I re-examine the scientific, anthropological and early modern literary sources behind the segmented sleep theory and ask if the evidence might support other models of early modern sleep that are not characterised by segmentation, while acknowledging that construction of such models is by nature limited and uncertain. I propose a more diverse range of interpretations of early modern texts related to sleep, with important implications for medical and social history and literary scholarship.
Introduction
Roger Ekirch’s theory that the people of the pre-industrial age split their sleep into two distinct periods, filling gaps of up to an hour inbetween with social activity or private meditation, has been widely accepted by historians, literary scholars and the general public in the two decades following its original publication. The segmented sleep theory proposes that:
Until the modern era, up to an hour or more of quiet wakefulness midway through the night interrupted the rest of most Western Europeans […] Families rose from their beds to urinate, smoke tobacco, and even visit close neighbors. Remaining abed, many persons also made love, prayed, and, most important, reflected on the dreams that typically preceded waking from their ‘first sleep’. Not only were these visions unusually vivid, but their images would have intruded far less on conscious thought had sleepers not stirred until dawn. […] In addition to suggesting that consolidated sleep, such as we today experience, is unnatural, segmented slumber afforded the unconscious an expanded avenue to the waking world that has remained closed for most of the Industrial Age. More at https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/medical-history/article/have-we-lost-sleep-a-reconsideration-of-segmented-sleep-in-early-modern-england/B70D0BFF8E77CFB81A839E9B72240CF2