Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Solar-based sleep patterns compared to modern norms

dylan.gr

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 103 posts

Re: Solar-based sleep patterns compared to modern norms

#21

Post by consp »

stereolambda wrote: post #10
opan wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think you, the breadwinner, did NOT go to the shops. Your wife did. This is an interesting point. It makes me wonder what unmarried people did, though. I suppose if you stayed with family, your mother would go to the shops. Did young people not used to live on their own as commonly?

You'd buy your meals in diners instead of buying food to cook, if you were someone non-wealthy working in a factory or an office. You probably wouldn't be buying that much outside of this: for cigarettes, newspapers etc. there were newstands you could shop at while running to work. For big purchases, I imagine you would get a day off. Buying a fridge would be a major event, for example. But also one I'd expect people…

> you would get a day off

A day off? Are you mad! During the industrial revolution as a factory worker? Only on Sundays, if you are lucky.

Re: Solar-based sleep patterns compared to modern norms

#22

Post by ljf »

p2detar wrote: post #8

> unbroken and uninterrupted eight hour sleep schedule didn't exist and is in fact, a totally modern invention and a consequence of the rigid 9-5 work schedule > An unbroken eight hours of sleep did not always fit with the cycles of the sky above and sleep was therefore rhythmically polyphasic. I tend to disagree. There is serious literature suggesting this, but to my knowledge no concrete evidence confirms it. In fa…

Apparently it was common in pre industrial Britain https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20220107-the-lost-medie...

Re: Solar-based sleep patterns compared to modern norms

#23

Post by Ekaros »

opan wrote: post #7
niobe wrote: post #4

I think you, the breadwinner, did NOT go to the shops. Your wife did. I don't know when 9-5 started, but it kinds of smacks of the British being that regimented. By contrast, my observation is that MOST of the world's population still works from about an hour after dawn until early afternoon, or sometimes until dusk, depending on their age, job, station in life and the general level of resources they have versus what…

>I think you, the breadwinner, did NOT go to the shops. Your wife did. This is an interesting point. It makes me wonder what unmarried people did, though. I suppose if you stayed with family, your mother would go to the shops. Did young people not used to live on their own as commonly?

Either you lived with parents or maybe other relatives. Or in case of agricultural labour the living space and food was part of compensation and thus someone else cooked. Same goes for lot of seasonal work cooking was shared or someone did it for larger group. Then you had boarding houses that included well board meaning food and possibly laundry. Or you simply ate in communal ways with food from vendors.

Actually single person living alone in place solely being their use is rather new development.

Re: Solar-based sleep patterns compared to modern norms

#24

Post by OutOfHere »

There are three aspects of solar sleep:

1. Going to bed early and rising early, closer to 8 pm to 4:30 am.

2. An afternoon nap is extremely beneficial to having an attentive and productive evening. The nap makes quick work of clearing accumulated waste from the brain. Employers would do well to have nap pods for a 30 minute nap as a default, although longer is useful if you don't have a 9-5 job. A nap doesn't negate the need for exercise.

3. Biphasic sleep at night as needed, taking care that excessive caffeine intake isn't harming nighttime sleep.

Re: Solar-based sleep patterns compared to modern norms

#25

Post by readonkeyless »

cyberax wrote: post #17

> In Greece remnants of these old ways of rest can still be found in the Summer siesta and "quiet hours" where the workday is split in two by a few hours of rest. Practiced religiously and an unshakeable part of its culture, it is the norm for businesses to open at 9AM, close at 2PM, reopen again at 5PM and close again around 10PM. This second work period is what the Greeks call the "afternoon". Researchers who lived…

It's interesting to compare this with non-solar based pattern as in the Siffre cave experiment where they ended up falling into 48 hour sleep cycles instead.

I also fall into the camp where I believe that there are probably a variety of different sleep cycles that people are just predisposed to. I haven't seen any studies definitively indicating that there are a common sleep cycle. Even anecdotally, I know several people that are just more alert at night.

I've always wondered if there was a way to structure society so that there could be more time variety in socially needed functions. Perhaps one bank could be open 9-5 but another bank could be open 5-12. Or at the very least, improved flexibility for jobs where constant communication is not needed and can be done asynchronously. A set of core hours where communications could happen and then allow workers to work on their own cycles, taking naps as needed so that they can operate when they are most productive.

Re: Solar-based sleep patterns compared to modern norms

#26

Post by manmal »

usernametaken29 wrote: post #20

One additional quirk of the modern world is that we now sleep on average one hour less than a century ago (median of 7,5 instead of 8,5). Sleep science says this is probably ok ish but really actually not. If you’re constantly tired just remember 8 hours of sleep was invented 60 years ago…

For me, sleep before midnight is the most important factor. If I need my brain working well the next day, all I need to do is go to bed by 10PM. Even if I wake at 5:30, it will be fine.

BTW, nights were I have dream recall afterwards, are the best. Anyone else have made the same observation?

Re: Solar-based sleep patterns compared to modern norms

#27

Post by txzl »

manmal wrote: post #26
usernametaken29 wrote: post #20

One additional quirk of the modern world is that we now sleep on average one hour less than a century ago (median of 7,5 instead of 8,5). Sleep science says this is probably ok ish but really actually not. If you’re constantly tired just remember 8 hours of sleep was invented 60 years ago…

For me, sleep before midnight is the most important factor. If I need my brain working well the next day, all I need to do is go to bed by 10PM. Even if I wake at 5:30, it will be fine. BTW, nights were I have dream recall afterwards, are the best. Anyone else have made the same observation?

same. but, mostly no recall lately. as I go to bed at 2:00 and sleep 6 hours max

Re: Solar-based sleep patterns compared to modern norms

#28

Post by andai »

aarroyoc wrote: post #9

As someone who lives in Spain, a country that also has a tradition of siestas (that's where that name comes from after all), I have a lot of doubts and I think people romanticize the idea too much. First of all I have no doubts about the health benefit of siestas, but in the current society they have some issues. When I was younger I hated siestas because I had energy and everything was closed, you couldn't do anythi…

We should just work less. Problem solved!

Re: Solar-based sleep patterns compared to modern norms

#29

Post by draven »

manmal wrote: post #26
usernametaken29 wrote: post #20

One additional quirk of the modern world is that we now sleep on average one hour less than a century ago (median of 7,5 instead of 8,5). Sleep science says this is probably ok ish but really actually not. If you’re constantly tired just remember 8 hours of sleep was invented 60 years ago…

For me, sleep before midnight is the most important factor. If I need my brain working well the next day, all I need to do is go to bed by 10PM. Even if I wake at 5:30, it will be fine. BTW, nights were I have dream recall afterwards, are the best. Anyone else have made the same observation?

Same, and most of the times it’s when I sleep longer. Perhaps because there’s a lot of REM sleep towards the end of the night (as my Garmin watch tells me) and/or because I’m kind of half awake at that time. So maybe dream recall indicates I slept a whole night

Re: Solar-based sleep patterns compared to modern norms

#30

Post by nkrisc »

kristjank wrote: post #13

This resonated with me especially since the 9-5 maxxing of modern society constantly discriminates against working members of society. My post office is open so sparingly that I have to find an unemployed friend or my grandmother to pick up my packages sometimes. Same story with health services, banking or any store that isn't a huge grocery store. I could get inflammatory and say that functional members of society a…

People working night shifts or other odd hours are not functional members of society? WTF?

Get mad at your employer. My 9-5 office jobs always allowed me to take an hour or so to run errands that could only be done during work hours.

Post reply on HN