Slumbered Sleep

According to the results of this sleep study, the researchers hypothesize
that segmented sleep became relevant after ancient communities
moved into Europe. Longer nights may have disrupted sleep
cycles and ultimately resulted in segmented rest.
The Greeks believed that sleep was a kind of intermediate state between
life and death. During this time, sleep was thought to consist
of two separate times rather than a continuous nighttime period. The
Odyssey has one of the oldest allusions to the practice of segmented
sleep. People would sleep for a couple hours then wake up and
may quietly converse, play music, unwind, or do nothing during the
break between the two sleep cycles and then go back to sleep a
couple hours later in the next sleep cycle. For centuries, that was the
situation. (Arianna Huffington, 2014)
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FIGURE 4