All of have been told over and over and over that we need eight hours of continuous sleep every night as adults (more for kids and certainly teenagers). The pharmaceutical industry keeps telling us we need drugs like Ambien^R, Sonata^R, or Lunesta^R to get that full nights sleep or the alternative health industry keeps pushing melatonin or herbs like valerian to get the “needed” 8 straight hours of sleep. What if we didn’t need eight consecutive hours of sleep or if doing that may not be in our best interests health or brain wise?

Well guess what?  According to a book by Dr. A. Roger Ekrich a professor of History at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University called At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past, our ancestors did not sleep through the night but actually had  two sleep periods appropriately called first and second sleep. Before artificial lighting, people would go to sleep shortly after sunset for a few hours and then wake up. They might do chores, have sex with their mates, or visit with family and friends. After a couple of hours, they would go back to bed and start their second sleep. Of course this historical perspective alone wouldn’t mean much if except that other research seems to back this idea up.

Dr. Thomas A. Wehr, a one-time sleep researcher for the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) found that if given the chance, modern people would follow the same routine as their forbearers. According to an article published in the magazine Scientific American Mind, “Modern humans may be unique among animals in the extent to which they consolidate sleep.” Waking up during the night may not be abnormal at all; it may be a very normal thing to do. Instead of treating it as a disease or syndrome, maybe we need to imbrace this occurence and do as our ancestors did and make the time between our first and second sleep a period of quite contemplation, work, sex or reading (a more modern pastime).

One profound thing to take out of this is that maybe what we think is abnormal really isn’t. We may be out there treating diseases and syndromes not because they will negatively affect us, but because someone saw a market out there to sell into or because of our unwillingness to take time out of our busy schedules to do what is best for ourselves. We want a pill or a “magic elixir” to take our troubles away. Why exercise and stretch our leg muscles or take some extra magnesium when we can call it Restless Leg Syndrome, take Requip^R or Mirapex^R and we’ll take care of it for you. America, the land of instant pudding.