According to a sleep researcher, historically, humans naturally slept during the night in two shifts with a time of wakefulness for one to three hours. “The period of wakefulness that followed was known as ‘the watch’—and it was a surprisingly useful window in which to get things done. ‘[The records] describe how people did just about anything and everything after they awakened from their first sleep,’ says Ekirch. … For peasants, waking up meant getting back down to more serious work—whether this involved venturing out to check on farm animals or carrying out household chores, such as patching cloth, combing wool or peeling the rushes to be burned. … But the watch was also a time for religion. … For Christians, there were elaborate prayers to be completed, with specific ones prescribed for this exact parcel of time. One father called it the most ‘profitable’ hour, when—after digesting your dinner and casting off the labours of the world—'no one will look for you except for God.’ … One major side-effect of much of humanity's shift in sleeping habits has been a change in attitudes. For one thing, we quickly began shaming those who oversleep, and developed a preoccupation with the link between waking up early and being productive” (Zaria Gorvett, “The Forgotten Medieval Habit of ‘Two Sleeps,’” BBC, January 9, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220107-the-lost-medieval-habit-of-biphasic-sleep).
