This article got me thinking, if artificial light forever changed the way people sleep, what other modern changes have also altered life or physical characteristics of people long ago. 200 years ago everyone had perfectly straight teeth, some think heavily blended/processed foods may have lead to under developed jaws and crooked teeth for alot of modern people or possibly high sugar, its not known but something in the modern era changed our teeth structure for the worse.
The medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’
31–40 of 254 posts
Re: The medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’
#32Considering this has been in the news for 10 years and pretty much no one does it, not even a weird sub community, we can safely say this is not a legitimate sleeping pattern for humans.
My parents (mid 50s) have been doing this for 5-10 years. It just kind of came about naturally with their workdays starting late and them being night owls, and they leaned into it. It's weird enough that I imagine many of the people who do this don't really talk about it with strangers.
Re: The medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’
#33This article got me thinking, if artificial light forever changed the way people sleep, what other modern changes have also altered life or physical characteristics of people long ago. 200 years ago everyone had perfectly straight teeth, some think heavily blended/processed foods may have lead to under developed jaws and crooked teeth for alot of modern people or possibly high sugar, its not known but something in th…
Didn’t people lose teeth more often back then as well? Which would naturally lead to more gaps in the mouth and thus less crowding to push teeth inward.
Re: The medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’
#34I've heard this theory before but the argument for universalness of this in all the previous ones were less than convincing because they only used European sources, This is the first article that looks at material from non-Western cultures and therefore makes a stronger argument that this may be a natural phenomenon rather than a cultural one.
Re: The medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’
#35This article got me thinking, if artificial light forever changed the way people sleep, what other modern changes have also altered life or physical characteristics of people long ago. 200 years ago everyone had perfectly straight teeth, some think heavily blended/processed foods may have lead to under developed jaws and crooked teeth for alot of modern people or possibly high sugar, its not known but something in th…
> 200 years ago everyone had perfectly straight teeth
What makes you think that? That's not what evidence has ever suggested. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/06/tooth-...
Re: The medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’
#36This article got me thinking, if artificial light forever changed the way people sleep, what other modern changes have also altered life or physical characteristics of people long ago. 200 years ago everyone had perfectly straight teeth, some think heavily blended/processed foods may have lead to under developed jaws and crooked teeth for alot of modern people or possibly high sugar, its not known but something in th…
The problem and solution has been known for almost a century now; check out the book 'Nutrition and Physical Degeneration' by Weston Price. 'The Dental Diet' is also solid reading.
I'm still working through the book, but the tl;dr is that it mostly just comes down to nutritional deficiency. People in the past ate pretty much strictly nutrient-dense foods, people today eat a lot of junk food, empty carbs, and generally foods that just aren't nutrient dense compared to what our ancestors ate (mostly vegetables and meats).
Re: The medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’
#37This article got me thinking, if artificial light forever changed the way people sleep, what other modern changes have also altered life or physical characteristics of people long ago. 200 years ago everyone had perfectly straight teeth, some think heavily blended/processed foods may have lead to under developed jaws and crooked teeth for alot of modern people or possibly high sugar, its not known but something in th…
Didn’t people lose teeth more often back then as well? Which would naturally lead to more gaps in the mouth and thus less crowding to push teeth inward.
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Re: The medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’
#38This article got me thinking, if artificial light forever changed the way people sleep, what other modern changes have also altered life or physical characteristics of people long ago. 200 years ago everyone had perfectly straight teeth, some think heavily blended/processed foods may have lead to under developed jaws and crooked teeth for alot of modern people or possibly high sugar, its not known but something in th…
The problem and solution has been known for almost a century now; check out the book 'Nutrition and Physical Degeneration' by Weston Price. 'The Dental Diet' is also solid reading. I'm still working through the book, but the tl;dr is that it mostly just comes down to nutritional deficiency. People in the past ate pretty much strictly nutrient-dense foods, people today eat a lot of junk food, empty carbs, and generall…
Can’t you make up for nutrition dense foods with supplements?
Re: The medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’
#39This article got me thinking, if artificial light forever changed the way people sleep, what other modern changes have also altered life or physical characteristics of people long ago. 200 years ago everyone had perfectly straight teeth, some think heavily blended/processed foods may have lead to under developed jaws and crooked teeth for alot of modern people or possibly high sugar, its not known but something in th…
Regarding teeth, one thought is that over/underbite was less frequent before cutlery became commonplace. Our ancestors had to bite/tear their food using their incisors and canines a lot more than we do, which meant their jaws would strengthen in the biting position - thus with their lower and upper incisors aligned.
Personally I wonder if this would affect speech as well, so perhaps out ancestors sounded different too?
Re: The medieval habit of ‘two sleeps’
#40Ekirch's theory has had many threads on HN over the years - some of them: Humans used to sleep in two shifts - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27334769 - May 2021 (60 comments) The History of Sleep - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9501610 - May 2015 (11 comments) We used to sleep twice each night - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5542453 - April 2013 (107 comments) Rethinking Sleep - https://news.ycom…
This was the first article I ever heard about this theory. I think its original form was longer, and the link is sadly just an excerpt.
“When Bandogs Howle and Spirits Walk” in Smithsonian Magazine - from January 2001!
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/when-bandogs-h...