(image from library.thinkquest.org)
The papers have been full of it this week,as you can see here in the Guardian's sleep article. If you can’t be bothered to read the article, I’ll explain. Apparently, as many of you probably know from experience, we are not designed to sleep eight hours non-stop. Traditional tribes, as well as 18th and 19th century literature point towards the time-honoured idea of two four-hour sleeps separated by a gap of an hour or so in the middle.
This time was traditionally spent playing cards, visiting neighbours, praying or having sex, you might even be able to fit in a couple of these activities if you are particularly effective, or multitasking.
I am very fortunate in that I am very, very, rarely insomniac, the sleep of the just I like to think. This is a pity because my children most definitely were, for a very long time. Instead I prefer to have second sleep on the sofa, with the cat and the newspaper just after lunch, very relaxing after years spent dozing off in cinemas, or even once in the play area of the local fast food restaurant.
I have heard of people at work who would have their second sleep at 12.30 every day on a sofa in the corner of the workplace, to be woken at one o’clock with a coffee, giving them just the time to wipe the dribble off their chin and before they go off to save the universe.
So, when and where do you prefer your second sleep? Is it ten minutes after the alarm has gone off, or something a little more civilized?
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