In what could be considered a very bad idea, Robert Louis Stevenson trekked through Cevennes, France, among mountains and lower highlands, despite his youthful bad health, aboard a donkey named Modestine. It was the autumn of 1878 and he was many years, half a decade in fact, from the fame of his greatest literary success: Treasure Island. What did lend itself to a towering reputation was his embarking on the traditional grand tour of Victorian gentlemen, which explained his presence on top of a mountain range in the South of France, and it was no mean feat when he breached one of the highest ranges to make camp at a small clearing. After dining on chocolate, brandy, other delicacies that befit his social status, the budding writer made to kip in the sleep cap he carried with him under the day’s dying sun. But instead of embarking onto unforeseen travels in his dreams, his sleep was interrupted shortly after midnight.

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Waking to smoke a cigarette and enjoy the blissful silence of the bewitching hour, it was only after his wakeful contemplation that young Stevenson was able to return to his sleep. But not only did he forget about his sleep break, he also later recorded in his travel journey that “unknown to those who dwell in houses, when a wakeful influence goes abroad over the sleeping hemisphere, and all the outdoor world are on their feet.” Naming it his “perfect hour,” Stevenson continued that he felt delighted to be free from the “Bastille of civilization” and that his world had begun “afresh.” [1] What may have seemed like a simple sleep break did not appear to Stevenson that way, and he continued to ruminate on it’s origin and significance.

For Stevenson, the only difference in his sleeping pattern was that he was outdoors rather than in the confines of the city; and it caused him to wonder at the effect of the natural world on humanity. Was there some “thrill of mother earth below our resting bodies,” he wondered. “Even shepherds and country folk who are the deepest read in these arcana have not a guess as to the means or purpose of this nightly resurrections. Toward two in the morning they declare the thing takes place; and neither know or inquire further.” These new thoughts left him puzzled.

But unbeknownst to him, Stevenson had come upon the type of sleep that was commonplace among humanity prior to the modern era; where a wakeful hour or more of contemplation interrupted the blissful dreams of most Western Europeans, and not just those sleeping out under the stars. In fact, it was commonplace for people to wake up and complete tasks; either to smoke a cigarette, use the restrooms, or even converse with neighbors. This break between the “first sleep” and the second was time for thoughtful pondering on the earlier dreams of the night, even prayers, and were given great significance. In fact, these ruminations on early night sleep dreams lent themselves to the common superstition that dreams were somehow explanatory or predictive in and of themselves.

The sleep that we are more familiar with, which became commonplace after the rise of the Industrial Age and contains no midnight breaks for pondering, suggests that we spend less time contemplating our consciousness, and therefore are at a disadvantage to the interrupted, segmented slumber which expanded the minds of humanity prior to our race to mechanize.

Stevenson may have never known that he was making these claims, but the bare truth of the matter is this: have we lost some semblance of introspective in our attempts to get an uninterrupted night of sleep?

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To examine this topic, we must take a magnifying glass to the world of sleep as it was for the early modern British society, with occasional references to elsewhere in the Western World, including Europe and the Americas. Although England makes the bulk of this inquiry, it is true that England was the standard for western society, even before the Industrial Revolution, where we begin our search for patterns. Without regard to the somewhat sparse references in scholarly articles to the sleeping habits of pre-industrial congregations, it is through the records of dreams that we are able to piece together the bedtime rituals, sleep deprivation, and differences between the sleeping practices of the different ranks of society. [2] And although this article will mainly focus on the incredible importance of sleep in everyday life, the more important, and more defined argument will be in the investigation of segmented sleep and it’s affect on early modern dreams.

The lack of proper documentation of sleep is in part due to the understanding that contemporaries of the time simply overlooked it’s need to be studied due to it’s commonplace nature in the everyday life of humans. We can, however, decipher some hints from medical journals, diaries, imaginative literature and legal depositions, who often reference sleep. And while it was often contemplated by many people of the time, for the thinkers of the age it took an easy backseat to the broader issues affecting class, religion, race, and gender of the age. It is only in the modern times that historians, scientists, scholars, and doctors have researched how individuals during the pre-industrial revolution dressed, bathed, ate, and slept, and that it has not only had a profound impact, but indeed a profound difference, in the way our sleep has changed throughout modern history. [3]

With the factories and mills exploded with excitement and industry, the imaginative literature of the age became obsessed with the idea of restful, peaceful sleep, drawing to contrast the marked difference between the life they lived during wakeful hours, and the ones lived in one’s dreams. The bed became, in poetry, prose, and drama, places of serenity, a “respite from thought,” a place that led to “happier regions.” [4] Not only did it provide a respite from working life, it also allowed for a break in the rigid social norms of the time, when rank, finance, and privilege reined in the British class system; all these could be escaped in sleep, and it was long thought during the time that those who escaped it more fully with slumber were those of the peasants, who had “simple minds” and therefore eased more fully into the peaceful realms of sleep than those of a higher position. [5]

But lying in these discoveries of the time’s idea of sleep lies the questions that define the age: did all social classes, despite theories of the time, enjoy the same kind of sleep? How did the nature of the life of the lower class affect their sleep, and therefore affect their station? And finally, was there a secret to what sleep provided people, other than the much deserved, much needed rest, of the body, and reprieve from everyday life?

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Prior to the nineteenth century, little is known about the sleeping habits of the people; not the time at which they went to bed, nor the hour when they rose the next morning, or how their sleep varied throughout the night from one night to the next. It is only the understanding of light, and the expensiveness of candles, that it is assumed that many fled to their beds soon after sunset every night, and arose with the sun every morning. Because wealthier families had more opportunity to candles, their nighttime activities could vary greatly from most households of the time, who, at the appearance of darkness, stopped work and socialization. [6]

Physicians of the time followed the opinion of the Aristotelian belief that sleep originated in the abdomen as part of a digestive process called “concoction,” and therefore wrote of sleep as a credit to physical vitality, lively spirits and increased longevity for it’s role in the proces. In fact, “Bed as medicine” was a popular Italian proverb of the time, and contemporary thought was that retiring early would invoke the best benefits of sleep. [7,8]

At the same time however, contemporaries were known to look ill favorably on excess, saying it was cause for unnecessary sluggishness, that for the Puritanical Americans of the time, railed against as a mortal sin. [9] So what, in the end, predicated the perfect amount of sleep? Common among writers throughout the Continent urged a standard 6 to 8 hours of rest per night, unless under certain circumstances such as ill health, with some issuing seasonal adjustments to account for the longer summer daylight hours, and the short winter days. [10]

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Cropping up in the popular literature of the age; from Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Henry V we see the preoccupation with rest of seven or eight hours rather than twelve, and the smaller numbers were what drew such fascination. Dreams however, became just one side study of sleep, for conditions such as narcolepsy and sleepwalking permeated newspapers as well as literary works. Such colloquialisms such as the Scottish saying “ye sleep like a dog in a mill, which indicated light and anxious sleep, or the Welsh aphorism “Men thrive by sleep, not long but deep”, referencing it is the continuity rather than the length that measure good sleep, became common phrases, even medical advice, for the community at large. [11]

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With the rising importance placed on sleep, the contraptions that humans used to sleep evolved as well, mainly bedroom furniture. English beds moved from straw pallets made directly on the floor to wooden frames outfitted with pillows, sheets, blankets, and “flock mattresses” which were typically filled with rags and stray pieces of wool. More affluent homes began the trend of decorative headboards, feather mattresses, and heavy curtains surrounding the bed to block out drafts or light that could disturb sleep throughout the night. Not only were better beds becoming things of social entitlement, but also greater comfort and better sleep. This rise in significance led to the trend that newlyweds purchase, or be gifted, a new bed as one of their first married possessions, and it was one of the first items to be read off in a will. In somewhat jest Carole Shammas has said that the early modern era could be renamed: “The Age of the Bed”, for it’s importance, and transformative power, on society. [12]

Once bedtime became a thing of sacredness, households became painstakingly compulsive toward anxieties that could potentially interrupt their slumber. Many thought threats to their body and soul lurked throughout the night over their defenseless bodies, or that darkness was indeed the shadow of Death come to take souls to the grave through the night. [13] Other thoughts that worried the sleeping were those of thieves breaking in to steal household possessions; they barred doors, locked shutters,and carried swords or firearms to bed with them to allay the common fears of the time. [14] Fleas and bedbugs were also feared as sleep interruptions, as well as drafts caused by open windows or too much moonlight, and nightcaps were worn to shield against the cold air.

Other traditions that unfolded throughout the nighttime fears were prayers said by the man of the household to calm nerves, the use of a candle as a “night light,” the washing of hair, bodies, and teeth prior to sleep, the use of medicine such as brandy or laudanum to aid sleeping or calm anxiety, and the discouragement of late night suppers so that digestion did not interrupt slumber.

While we may think of pre-modern slumber as significantly more peaceful than our own, due to their less complicated world, in fact the 17th century sleep was much more likely to be interrupted and therefore contain restlessness, troubles, and fear. [15] And more than that, the medical maladies of the time were far more severe on everyday life; everything from angina, gastric ulcers, rheumatoid arthritis, influenza, asthma, and tuberculosis (known during the time as consumption) caused pain and sensitivity throughout the night with little to no relief. The poor experienced even worse conditions, usually being susceptible to freezing temperatures, insects, and annoying noises. Often the urban populations slept in the streets, devoid of fireplaces or proper homes, on top of or beneath wooden platforms, haystacks, stables, barns, or where applicable, in caves. [16] Ordinary men and women of the population suffered from sleep deprivations, sleep debts, and ultimately chronic deprivation, that could attest to loss of motivation and physical well being among the masses, complicating everything from the common mood to social friction.

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Until the end of the early modern era, Western Europe experienced two major intervals of sleep, separated by the hour of wakefulness Stevenson discovered on his adventure into the French countryside. The first sleep was often referred to as the “first sleep,” the “first nap” or “dead sleep.” [17] These terms were not only in English, but common in French, Italian, and Latin as well. And while Stevenson’s “nightly resurrection” has no common name, the term “watch” was coined by the Oxford English Dictionary to mean the “disinclination or incapacity for sleep.” The second of the sleep intervals was known as the “second” or the “morning sleep,” and both phases have been documented as lasting equal amounts of time, and for those falling asleep near sunset, it was common to experience the “watch” toward midnight and falling back asleep thereafter. So common was this sleep break that contemporaries felt little need to analyze it, and great writers of the time, including George Wither and John Locke, commented on it as a common feature of life, and despite minor disturbances throughout the night, the pattern of waking throughout the night was a customary division of night. [18]

In fact, many different parts of early modern society were aided by the break in sleep, or at least the result of it. Petty crime, theft, and burglary had opportunity if one or more hours of the night could be spent busy, many the echelons of high society extended their social hours to include the “watch,” and indeed it was suggested that fertility among laborers was increased due to the midnight wakefulness; men who came home physically exhausted were more likely to have enjoyment, and successful intercourse, if there was a rest period after the day’s troubles.

The effects of dreams on early modern society, which were pondered and pursued during the nighttime interval, were seen as informative of prospects as well as time’s past. While some visions were believed to be a reflection of nothing more than a sour stomach, other dreams carried divine prophecies and foreshadowed what was yet to come. In fact, there was a surging sale of dream books, entire compendiums, fortune teller books, devoted to translating different types of visions, that The Weekly Register in 1732 noted that “the English Nation has ever been famous for Dreaming.” [19] Ever a separation in the classes, dreaming among the poorer communities as see by playwrights and poets to soothe oppression and weariness, as well as provide the principal relief of drawing the poor out of their realities and into the independence of their souls and a daily escape from suffering, and in fact, in the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church believed doctrine that only monarchs and men of the church experienced dreams that were truly meaningful. However much dreams were part of pre-modern Western societies, the strength of their staying power has not endured as well as non-Western cultures, but were still important among British communities.

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While it is an interesting note to view the pattern of broken sleep in context to the deeply religious nature of the early Christian and pre-Industrialized Europe—St. Benedict required his monks to rise after midnight and recite psalms, which spread throughout Germanic monasteries, and it was a common practice among Catholics in the High Middles Ages to pray in the quiet hours of the morning—the Christian teachings, and therefore Church as whole, was not responsible for the actual occurrence, just the time spent while awake. Indeed, historical writers such as Plutarch, Virgil, and Homer, as well as non-Western cultures that practiced beliefs other than Christianity, exhibited similarly segmented patterns of sleep. [20]

Therefore the very basis of the puzzle remains; the curious anomaly, and genuine mystery of segmented sleep prior to the Industrial Revolution is juxtaposed with today’s consistent sleep patterns, and it’s cause seems not to be rooted in Middle Age writings. True, many wild animals still exhibit the midnight wakefulness, giving us reason to believe that in humanity’s natural state our natural pattern of slumber includes this nightly watch, and has very little to do with sleeping outdoors.

One such explanation for the change in modern human’s sleeping patterns is the invention of modern lighting, and it’s psychological impacts on sleep. “Every time we turn a light,” says chronobiologist Charles A. Czeisler, “we are inadvertently taking a drug that affects how we sleep” with changes directly to the brain as one of the apparent consequences of light exposure. But scientists hardly believe that light is the only factor; sleeping conditions, boredom, forced rest, darkness, financial class, and many other such factors of the modern world are undoubtedly also parts of the equation.

Today we live in a world that is characterized by it’s never-ending nature; non-stop lights to follow our all-night television and radios, non-stop action with twenty-four hour gas stations and supermarkets, and non-stop entertainments that has become the primary time of employment for many growing sectors of Western work forces. Edison’s invention of mechanical light, and his theory that “put[ting] an undeveloped human being into an environment where there is artificial light and he will improve,” has carried past our sunsets and our sunrises and has increased the pace of our modern lives. In the United States alone, around 30 percent of adults average 6 hours or fewer hours of sleep at night, and many consider sleep itself to be a waste of time. [21]

The one takeaway, and remarkable implication, of the segmented sleep of our historical communities is that our modern, non segmented sleep and all of its destructiveness has been a modern invention of the last 200 hundred years, rather than scientific or cultural phenomenon of our ancestors.

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Our dreams, however unimportant in our western culture, have been consolidated in our seamless sleep, and it is no small thing that by turning night into day with modern technology has increased our efficiency, but perhaps has also obstructed one of the oldest avenues of the human psyche for self awareness and personal growth.

Perhaps more than just the lack of hours, that is, perhaps, the biggest loss; to be “disannulled of our first sleep, and cheated of our dreams and fantasies,” as paraphrased by Thomas Middleton. [22]

READ MORE: The History of Working from Home

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