Why Your Ancestors Woke Up in the Middle of Every Night

For most of history, people didn't sleep in one long block. They went to bed soon after dark, woke up around midnight, stayed awake for an hour or more, and then went back to sleep until morning. They called it "first sleep" and "second sleep". And almost everyone forgot it ever existed. In this episode: The forgotten words historian Roger Ekirch found in hundreds of old documents What people actually did at 2 AM, five hundred years ago The 1990s experiment where modern volunteers started sleeping in two parts How street lights, coffee houses and factories changed the night What this might mean if you wake up at 3 AM Sources: A. Roger Ekirch, "Sleep We Have Lost", American Historical Review (2001) A. Roger Ekirch, "At Day's Close: Night in Times Past" (2005) Thomas A. Wehr, "In short photoperiods, human sleep is biphasic", Journal of Sleep Research (1992) This video is for education and curiosity, not medical advice. If you struggle with sleep, talk to a doctor. Grab a blanket, and let's get into it. #history #sleep #firstsleep #psychology #medievalhistory #animatedhistory #documentary