Your Ancestors Slept TWICE Every Night. Here’s What They Did in Between

Before electricity, people didn't sleep in one long block. They slept TWICE every night: a "first sleep," then an hour or more awake in the dark, then a "second sleep." That hour in between was one of the busiest of the day. Here's what your ancestors really did all night, and how the light bulb erased it. 🌙🕯️ ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 Your night vs. 1720 1:20 The mystery of "first sleep" 2:07 Curfew: cover the fire 2:41 When light was a luxury 3:25 Sharing one fire 4:02 Night watchmen & link boys 4:31 Living by the full moon 5:01 The two sleeps 6:10 The 1992 experiment 6:52 How light conquered the night 7:39 Is waking at 3 a.m. normal? 8:16 Two nights in one 📚 RESEARCH & SOURCES ▸ A. Roger Ekirch, "Sleep We Have Lost: Pre-industrial Slumber in the British Isles," American Historical Review 106 (2001), plus his book "At Day's Close: Night in Times Past" (2005): first and second sleep, curfews, night watchmen, link boys, veillées, rushlights. ▸ Thomas A. Wehr, "In short photoperiods, human sleep is biphasic," Journal of Sleep Research 1 (1992): 14 hours of nightly darkness → sleep split into two blocks. ▸ William D. Nordhaus, "Do Real-Output and Real-Wage Measures Capture Reality? The History of Lighting Suggests Not" (1997), and Matt Ridley, "The Rational Optimist" (2010): the cost of light in hours of work. ▸ Jenny Uglow, "The Lunar Men" (2002): the Lunar Society of Birmingham, which met near the full moon. ▸ Fabio Falchi et al., "The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness," Science Advances (2016): ~80% of humanity under light-polluted skies. 🎨 Animation & story by Curious Planet 🎬 Watch next: You Could Once Walk From Europe to Africa 👉 [PASTE MEDITERRANEAN VIDEO LINK] 🔔 Subscribe to Curious Planet for new stories every Tuesday, Friday & Sunday. #History #Sleep #BeforeElectricity #MedievalLife #CuriousPlanet