About 5 years ago, Scientific American Mind magazine published an interesting article about sleep disturbances. The article features research done by a historian at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University named A. Roger Ekirch.

We modern people think we need 7 – 8 uninterrupted hours of sleep per night to be fully rested. But most of us still don’t feel all that good in the mornings. So, what’s up with that?

Ekirch found that in pre-industrial times, people slept to a totally different rhythm. This was before artificial light made it possible to have “daylight” 24 hours a day.

In those earlier times, about 2 hours after sunset, we went to bed and slept for about 4 hours. We woke up and did all kinds of things. According to the article, between the first and second sleeps, people got out of bed and did household chores or visited with family and friends. Ekirch says, “They did anything and everything.”

This time also afforded a chance “for quiet contemplation or – if you had company – sexual intimacy”.

Then we went back to sleep for another 4 hours. Presto! We had our 8 hours,
but in two chunks. And this seems to fit with what is called our circadian rhythms, which is our biological clock that influences how much we sleep and when.

Modern man has now changed this and ignores the circadian rhythm if it conflicts with our need for more social interaction. And it is not only the need to be around people, it extends to the almost perverse desire to be “interconnected” 24 hours a day. What else can explain many people’s total reluctance to turn off their cell phones, Blackberrys or PDAs, and have them next to their bed?

The desire for “nightlife” which is completely against our natural tendencies springs from the ever increasing pressure to work more and more during the day, leaving little time for real social interaction until after nightfall.

That leads us to a conclusion drawn by both Ekirch and other researchers, among them Thomas A. Wehr at the National Institute of Mental Health, that waking up after a few hours of sleep at night may not be insomnia at all. Instead it is our body resetting to its normal rhythm.

However, since most medical researchers and practitioners are not aware of this research, they continue to prescribe medication and other forms of therapy for what they may be incorrectly diagnosing as a sleep disorder.

So maybe waking in the night is just your body saying, “Hey, that’s enough for now. Wake me up for awhile and then let’s sleep again.”

And, if we’re honest, how often is our body right about what our body needs?

Here’s where you can find more more about the fine art of sleeping and here is where you can get some great sleep tips.