Sleeping EIGHT hours in TWO chunks is better for you, apparently!

Huh, so it was recently found that the invention of street and home lighting drastically and negatively changed our sleep pattern. It now resembles something more like the one of a modern human -- an eight hour "off" period instead of the original dual four-hour cycles.

Fig1. Human species' discovery of fire have inspired the creation of a much brighter light sources such as a nuclear reactor, an inertial confinement fusion reactor, an arc-welder, and a modern LED flashlight or a lamp. Image from Wikipedia.

Since we evolved naturally using the latter method, the new "trend" is being simply rejected by our bodies. All we did was decrease the on/off switching frequency, and are now realizing what a terrible mistake that was. Thanks to the monkey's invention of the "synthetic" or "non-solar" photon generators, which non-coincidentally later discovered to be excellent power sources, rapidly modernized our little monkey butts and gave birth to an iPhone.

But the human body doesn't like the side effect of the sleep pattern change!

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Fig2. Insomnia.

So yes, we are supposed to be getting the eight hours of a rejuvenating shut-down time within 24 hours, but the original and healthiest way is to split the eight into two a four, so that you don't feel as tired during the new shorter "days", or "recharge mode periods". It can perhaps even be reduced to much shorter wavelengths of our sinusoidal existence - some claim that we can go all the way down to 1.5-hour cycles to increase efficiency, life quality, productivity, and ultimately life expectancy!

"The myth of the eight-hour sleep" By Stephanie Hegarty BBC World Service:

"He attributes the initial shift to improvements in street lighting, domestic lighting and a surge in coffee houses - which were sometimes open all night. As the night became a place for legitimate activity and as that activity increased, the length of time people could dedicate to rest dwindled."

So what are we supposed to do now??? One thing certain: we would no longer have to fool our neurotransmitters with coffee. Sounds like it's time to sell your coffee industry stocks and then go take a nap.



References:
-- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
-- http://www.canada.com/topics/bodyandhealth/story.html?id=e9427be1-6146-4cca-afe8-fd165dc11601