Plenty of people have told you ‘yes’ but I wanted to just say that this meme resonates with me, not because I wake up in the middle of the night, but because I’ve developed a really bad habit of eating about 1-2 hours before bed on snacks. I know it’s a habit and not just being hungry because I’ve been still-full from dinner and went “This is about when I’d be having a snack” and suddenly I want one.
Not having late night snacks really is the best way to break that habit but yeah the meme is a mood.
Good question and a great segue into a fun fact: it seems quite possible people waking up in the middle of the night was the norm for centuries, and that the assumption of sleeping the whole night is potentially a more modern idea.
I am having trouble finding a specific article, but a historian recently catalogued a large number of historical entries which note ‘the second sleep’. He basically posited that it’s likely that for ages, people in the pre-industrial world would sleep for about 3-4 hours, wake up in the middle of the night for an hour or two, and would then go back to sleep.
Article talking about it.
Articles quite often say that writing as far back as homer talk about an hour which terminates the first sleep like a normal thing everyone knows about. I haven’t read much of homer or Virgil so i can’t personally confirm or deny that.
This also relates to evolutionary traits like why older people wake up early and younger people stay up late. Some suggest it was to sort of act in like shifts to watch over the camp at night.
Yeah, in fact there’s a lot of evidence that biphasic/segmented sleep was quite common through history.
It isn’t really until the industrial revolution and long artificially strict working days that things shifted towards a single longer sleep period being more common.
Do people just like… awake in the middle of the night?
Plenty of people have told you ‘yes’ but I wanted to just say that this meme resonates with me, not because I wake up in the middle of the night, but because I’ve developed a really bad habit of eating about 1-2 hours before bed on snacks. I know it’s a habit and not just being hungry because I’ve been still-full from dinner and went “This is about when I’d be having a snack” and suddenly I want one.
Not having late night snacks really is the best way to break that habit but yeah the meme is a mood.
Good god i wish i slept through the night
Good question and a great segue into a fun fact: it seems quite possible people waking up in the middle of the night was the norm for centuries, and that the assumption of sleeping the whole night is potentially a more modern idea.
I am having trouble finding a specific article, but a historian recently catalogued a large number of historical entries which note ‘the second sleep’. He basically posited that it’s likely that for ages, people in the pre-industrial world would sleep for about 3-4 hours, wake up in the middle of the night for an hour or two, and would then go back to sleep. Article talking about it.
Articles quite often say that writing as far back as homer talk about an hour which terminates the first sleep like a normal thing everyone knows about. I haven’t read much of homer or Virgil so i can’t personally confirm or deny that.
This also relates to evolutionary traits like why older people wake up early and younger people stay up late. Some suggest it was to sort of act in like shifts to watch over the camp at night.
I was under the impression that is also where the concept of the “witching hour” originates
Some monks are still doing that.
In Monastics rules that have been written centuries ago it’s wrote common to have an hour or two of prayer in the middle of the night, around 2-3 am.
#ThingsYouGetBulliedForAtEtonCollege
Yeah, I’ve got a toddler
Why do birds suddenly appear?
Yeah, in fact there’s a lot of evidence that biphasic/segmented sleep was quite common through history.
It isn’t really until the industrial revolution and long artificially strict working days that things shifted towards a single longer sleep period being more common.
2nd sleep
Being awake at night is just normal for me.
No, you’re supposed to stay up until 3an when you need to wake up at 7am
I do, it’s awful honestly.
I can follow a strict diet all day, no problem.
However, when I wait up at 1am it’s hard to explain, like I’ve already given in so I can just go ahead and eat whatever.