The word “sleep” derives from the Proto-European base *sleb, “to be weak,” and is related to “slack.”
Ancient peoples actually slept in two periods, sometimes termed “first sleep” and “second sleep,” each lasting four hours with a two hour reprieve in between. Additionally, most people would take a mid-afternoon rest ranging from 30 minutes to 2 hours.
July 27th is the feast day of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, a group of youths who were said to have hidden in a cave to escape religious persecution around 250 AD. According to the legend, they fell asleep and woke up 300 years later. The legend has led to July 27 being celebrated as National Sleepy Head Day in Finland.
In the city of Naantali, National Sleepy Head Day is marked by throwing a local dignitary into the sea at 7am. Often it is the mayor.
The phrase "sleep tight" originated in Shakespeare's time when mattresses were filled with straw and held up with a rope stretched across the bed frame. If the rope was tight, sleep was comfortable. Hence ......... 'goodnight, sleep tight.
A single seven-to-eight hour sleep pattern like our didn't happen until the Industrial Revolution. With the invention of artificial light, like kerosene lamps and the eventual electric light bulb, the days became much longer and it became customary to continue working into the dark so as to maximize productivity and consequently consolidate rest into one long chunk.
Before the invention of electricity, human beings slept for 90 minutes longer than they do now.
In 1963, Andy Warhol made the film Sleep. The movie consisted of long take footage of John Giorno, his lover at the time, sleeping for five hours and 20 minutes.
Confucius compared his disciple Zai Yu to rotten wood because he slept during the day.
Joseph Merrick (August 5, 1862 – April 11, 1890) whose very severe face and body deformities were exhibited at a freak show as the "Elephant Man", had to sleep sitting up because of the extra weight his deformities put on his head. According to his autopsy, he died of a dislocated neck by trying to sleep lying down, in order to "be like other people."
On May 24, 1920 President Paul Deschanel of France was traveling by train from Paris to Montbrison when he fell out of the train window after taking some sleeping pills. He was found uninjured wandering in his nightshirt by a platelayer, who took him to the nearest level-crossing keeper's cottage. The incident had significant repercussions for Deschanel's presidency. He was widely criticized for his recklessness and resigned from his position just a few months later in September 1920.
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HISTORY
July 27th is the feast day of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, a group of youths who were said to have hidden in a cave to escape religious persecution around 250 AD. According to the legend, they fell asleep and woke up 300 years later. The legend has led to July 27 being celebrated as National Sleepy Head Day in Finland.
In the city of Naantali, National Sleepy Head Day is marked by throwing a local dignitary into the sea at 7am. Often it is the mayor.
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| Illuminated manuscript from Menologion of Basil II. (985 AD), |
The phrase "sleep tight" originated in Shakespeare's time when mattresses were filled with straw and held up with a rope stretched across the bed frame. If the rope was tight, sleep was comfortable. Hence ......... 'goodnight, sleep tight.
A single seven-to-eight hour sleep pattern like our didn't happen until the Industrial Revolution. With the invention of artificial light, like kerosene lamps and the eventual electric light bulb, the days became much longer and it became customary to continue working into the dark so as to maximize productivity and consequently consolidate rest into one long chunk.
Before the invention of electricity, human beings slept for 90 minutes longer than they do now.
In 1963, Andy Warhol made the film Sleep. The movie consisted of long take footage of John Giorno, his lover at the time, sleeping for five hours and 20 minutes.
FAMOUS PEOPLE'S SLEEPING HABITS
Confucius compared his disciple Zai Yu to rotten wood because he slept during the day.
Joseph Merrick (August 5, 1862 – April 11, 1890) whose very severe face and body deformities were exhibited at a freak show as the "Elephant Man", had to sleep sitting up because of the extra weight his deformities put on his head. According to his autopsy, he died of a dislocated neck by trying to sleep lying down, in order to "be like other people."
On May 24, 1920 President Paul Deschanel of France was traveling by train from Paris to Montbrison when he fell out of the train window after taking some sleeping pills. He was found uninjured wandering in his nightshirt by a platelayer, who took him to the nearest level-crossing keeper's cottage. The incident had significant repercussions for Deschanel's presidency. He was widely criticized for his recklessness and resigned from his position just a few months later in September 1920.
A Hungarian soldier named Paul Kern stayed awake for 40 years after being shot in the head during World War I. Doctors encountering his condition were always skeptical, but Kern traveled far and wide, allowing anyone who wanted to examine him to do so. He died in 1955.
The Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov famously slept three hours a night for 40 years.
The Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov famously slept three hours a night for 40 years.
Eugene Aserinsky was a pioneer in sleep research who, along with his colleague Nathaniel Kleitman, discovered rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in 1953. He died on July 22, 1998 in a car crash after falling asleep at the wheel. It is a tragic irony that the man who helped to unlock the secrets of sleep would himself die from a sleep-related accident.
HUMAN SLEEPING
Human beings spend less time sleeping than any other primate. However, humans also sleep deeper than other primates. Because we kip on the ground (no risk of falling from trees) and are well-defended from predators, we can afford to get deeper, higher-quality sleep—so we don't need to snooze as long.
The average 70-year-old takes over 25 minutes to fall asleep, whereas a typical young adult takes only 10 minutes.
According to NASA researchers, an optimal nap will last between 20-30 minutes and a perfect nap will last exactly 26 minutes. They found that a sleep of that length improves performance by 34 per cent and alertness by 54 per cent.
The United States Navy Pre-Flight School created a routine to help pilots fall asleep in two minutes or less. It took pilots about six weeks of practice, but it worked - even after drinking coffee and with gunfire noises in the background.
More than two million Britons are insomniacs, Londoners get the least rest, with just 54 per cent managing the UK average of seven hours.
Children need many hours of sleep per day in order to develop and function properly: 14-17 hours for newborn babies, with a declining rate as a child ages.
Western people are getting over an hour less sleep than people did in the 1940s. Back then, the average was slightly more than 8 hours of sleep a night, while today we are down to around 6 hours, 45 minutes of sleep nightly.
Around a third of us get five hours sleep or less, a night.
There is rare genetic variation (SNP rs121912617) that allows people to sleep two hours less a night with no ill effects.
More than two million Britons are insomniacs, Londoners get the least rest, with just 54 per cent managing the UK average of seven hours.
Children need many hours of sleep per day in order to develop and function properly: 14-17 hours for newborn babies, with a declining rate as a child ages.
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Western people are getting over an hour less sleep than people did in the 1940s. Back then, the average was slightly more than 8 hours of sleep a night, while today we are down to around 6 hours, 45 minutes of sleep nightly.
Around a third of us get five hours sleep or less, a night.
There is rare genetic variation (SNP rs121912617) that allows people to sleep two hours less a night with no ill effects.
Kleine-Levin Syndrome is an extremely rare illness, which causes episodes of being mostly asleep for weeks at a time. If awake during an episode, sufferers are confused about what is real and what is a dream. The condition appears in adolescence and resolves itself 10-15 years later.
In South Korea, where great emphasis is placed on academic success, children average 4.9 hours of sleep a night.
The average person in France sleeps 8.83 hours per day, the most in the developed world.
People getting only 6 to 7 hours of sleep every night have a longer life expectancy than those who sleep 8 hours.
1-3% of people are equipped with a mutated gene called hDEC2 which allows their body to get the rest it requires from just six or less hours of sleep a night, rather than the general recommendation of eight hours.
If removed from the stress of the modern world, the average human would sleep about 10 hours a day.
In July 1962, the French speleologist Michel Siffre took off his watch and descended into the abyss of Scarasson in the French Alps. He spent two months living in total isolation in the subterranean cave, without time cues to study how his body clock adapted. Siffre repeated the experiment for even longer on himself and more subjects, and discovered that their bodies tended to switch to a 48-hour clock. In one case, one even slept 34 hours.
In South Korea, where great emphasis is placed on academic success, children average 4.9 hours of sleep a night.
The average person in France sleeps 8.83 hours per day, the most in the developed world.
People getting only 6 to 7 hours of sleep every night have a longer life expectancy than those who sleep 8 hours.
1-3% of people are equipped with a mutated gene called hDEC2 which allows their body to get the rest it requires from just six or less hours of sleep a night, rather than the general recommendation of eight hours.
If removed from the stress of the modern world, the average human would sleep about 10 hours a day.
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| Noon – Rest from Work (1890) by Vincent van Gogh (after Millet) |
In July 1962, the French speleologist Michel Siffre took off his watch and descended into the abyss of Scarasson in the French Alps. He spent two months living in total isolation in the subterranean cave, without time cues to study how his body clock adapted. Siffre repeated the experiment for even longer on himself and more subjects, and discovered that their bodies tended to switch to a 48-hour clock. In one case, one even slept 34 hours.
Whenever we sleeping in a new environment for the first time, the left side of the brain stays awake and the right ear, which is connected to the left side of the brain, remains more alert to unusual sounds.
Scandinavians are adamant about letting their children nap outside, even in cold weather. Parents report that babies take longer and deeper naps when they sleep comfortably bundled up outside.
3:44AM is the most common time to wake up at night.
Your brain is more active when you sleep than when you watch TV.
A study by the British Cheese Board in 2005 to determine the effect of cheese upon sleep and dreaming discovered that, contrary to the idea that it commonly causes nightmares, cheese's effect upon sleep was positive.
In the course of an average lifetime you'll, while sleeping, eat 70 insects and 10 spiders.
Sleeping through winter is hibernation, while sleeping through summer is estivation.
Staying awake for more than 18 hours impairs your physical performance as much as being drunk.
A good night's sleep protects the brain, heart and lungs as well as boosting your mood. It also reduces the pain from many injuries and boosts your immune system giving you a great protection from diseases.
Sleep literally cleans your brain. During slumber, cerebrospinal fluid flushes through the brain to wash away harmful proteins and toxins that build up during the day.
Watery sounds help us sleep because non-threatening noises can drown out sounds that might activate the brain's vigilance system.
Sleep is directly proportional to weight gain. People who sleep less, eat more. Due to decreased levels of Leptin in the body, an individual feels hungry, making him/her eat more than necessary.
Just as some people talk in their sleep, sign language speakers have been known to sign in their sleep.
Sleep literally cleans your brain. During slumber, cerebrospinal fluid flushes through the brain to wash away harmful proteins and toxins that build up during the day.
Watery sounds help us sleep because non-threatening noises can drown out sounds that might activate the brain's vigilance system.
Sleep is directly proportional to weight gain. People who sleep less, eat more. Due to decreased levels of Leptin in the body, an individual feels hungry, making him/her eat more than necessary.
Just as some people talk in their sleep, sign language speakers have been known to sign in their sleep.
World Sleep Day is held the Friday before Spring Vernal Equinox of each year. It is organized by the World Sleep Day Committee of World Sleep Society (founded by WASM and WSF) and aims to lessen the burden of sleep problems on society through better prevention and management of sleep disorders.
The longest period anyone has stayed awake is 11 days, or 264 hours. The record was set by Randy Gardner (born August 7, 1949), when he was a high school student in San Diego, California. He was raising money for charity.
On the eleventh day, when Gardner was asked to subtract seven repeatedly, starting with 100, he stopped at 65. When asked why he had stopped, he replied that he had forgotten what he was doing.
REM sleep occurs in all animals.
Humans are the only mammal who willingly delay sleep.
The term "cat nap" for a short rest refers to the cat's tendency to fall asleep (lightly) for a brief period.
The sleepiest animal in the world is the koala, who averages between 20 and 22 hours shuteye a day. Little brown bats have also been clocked sleeping for 20 hours.
In 2008 it was found that sloths in the wild sleep no more than human teenagers. Sloths in captivity, however, sleep about 16 hours a day.
Elephants and giraffes only sleep around 3-4 hours a day—the shortest known sleep time of any land mammal. Giraffes can go for weeks without napping, needing 30 minutes to fully recharge.
The bullfrog is the only animal that can survive without sleeping for months at a time. While they shut their eyes and go on to rest, they remain alert during these periods. The only time they do go into ‘deep sleep’ it is to hibernate to survive freezing winters.
Many aquatic animals, including ducks, whales and dolphins, sleep with one eye open.
Hippos can sleep underwater using a reflex that allows them to bob up, take a breath, and sink back down without waking up.
SLEEPING RECORDS
The longest period anyone has stayed awake is 11 days, or 264 hours. The record was set by Randy Gardner (born August 7, 1949), when he was a high school student in San Diego, California. He was raising money for charity.
On the eleventh day, when Gardner was asked to subtract seven repeatedly, starting with 100, he stopped at 65. When asked why he had stopped, he replied that he had forgotten what he was doing.
ANIMAL SLEEPING HABITS
REM sleep occurs in all animals.
Humans are the only mammal who willingly delay sleep.
The term "cat nap" for a short rest refers to the cat's tendency to fall asleep (lightly) for a brief period.
The sleepiest animal in the world is the koala, who averages between 20 and 22 hours shuteye a day. Little brown bats have also been clocked sleeping for 20 hours.
In 2008 it was found that sloths in the wild sleep no more than human teenagers. Sloths in captivity, however, sleep about 16 hours a day.
Elephants and giraffes only sleep around 3-4 hours a day—the shortest known sleep time of any land mammal. Giraffes can go for weeks without napping, needing 30 minutes to fully recharge.
The bullfrog is the only animal that can survive without sleeping for months at a time. While they shut their eyes and go on to rest, they remain alert during these periods. The only time they do go into ‘deep sleep’ it is to hibernate to survive freezing winters.
Many aquatic animals, including ducks, whales and dolphins, sleep with one eye open.
Hippos can sleep underwater using a reflex that allows them to bob up, take a breath, and sink back down without waking up.
Worker ants take up to 250 naps everyday, with each one lasting just over a minute. This equates to 4 hours and 48 minutes of sleep per day.
Here is a list of songs about sleep.
Sources Daily Mail, Daily Express, Huffington Post
Here is a list of songs about sleep.
Sources Daily Mail, Daily Express, Huffington Post
how do snails sleep
ReplyDeleteUgh. That sounds horrible. I usually have no problem sleeping and I rarely wake up at night… if I have a bad night every once in a while where I toss and turn, I am so grumpy in the morning that I don’t know how people, who suffer from this regularly, do it.
ReplyDeleteI have no advice. Maybe try sleeping with ear plugs? Make sure you don’t eat or drink anything that my ‘stimulate’ your system (like caffeine would).