Sleep in a historical context – could there be a more “boring” title? Well I just made it up, the title I mean. What it is about, is what I was listening to on my drive back to Yorkton this evening. On CBC’s Ideas, there was a program called “While you were out”, about sleep, and how recently scientists, anthropologists, and historians have discovered new ideas about sleeping. Pre-industrial people, and those who live outdoors might have a more typically ancient sleep pattern like the elderly, where a long period of an hour or more can pass in the night where they wake up. That signifies the end of their “first sleep” and it’s been written about in about two dozen languages, in times before artificial light was common. It seems our bodies react to light changes, in ways that affect our sleep cycles.
It was very interesting stuff, and I hope to remember to turn the radio on for Tuesday evening to catch the second part of the program August 8th, 2006. Check out CBC Ideas Tuesday too, if you want to catch some sleep, err, ideas about sleep I mean.
@hotmail.com
![[EFC Blue Ribbon - Free Speech Online]](http://www.efc.ca/images/efcfreet.gif)
Saskboy | 08-Aug-06 at 10:48 pm | Permalink
I caught most of the second night’s broadcast. they talked about lucid dreaming and sleep walking and why they might happen. I heard you can buy the broadcast on tape for about $26, but that seems a bit too much to me. If you’re some kind of sleep researcher though, it would be worth it I guess.