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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Segmented Sleep in Preindustrial Societies

A. Roger Ekirch, PhD
Department of History, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

I was intrigued to learn of the study conducted of three pre- 10 o’clock,” so that “before midnight their first sleep” was
industrial cultures, without access to electric lighting, by a “usually over.” 6
team of researchers led by Dr. Jerome Siegel in an effort to More recently, ethnographic evidence from the late 19th
determine how humans slept “before the modern era.” Titled century to the latter half of the 20th century indicates that nu-
“Natural Sleep and Its Seasonal Variations in Three Pre-indus- merous non-Western cultures not exposed to artificial lighting

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trial Societies,” it appears in the November issue of Current still experienced “first” and “second” sleep, from Surinamese
Biology.1 Having written on the predominance of “segmented Maroons on the northeastern coast of South America7 to the As-
sleep” in preindustrial Europe,2 I was particularly surprised by ante and Fante on the West African coast, for whom the phrase
the discovery reported by Yetish et al.1 that the members of all in their native Tshi language “woadá ayi d. fā” signifies “they
three of these equatorial societies did not “regularly awaken lie in the first sleep,” whereas “wayi (or wada) d. biakō” reads
for extended periods in the middle of the night.” In short, these “he has slept the first part of the night.” 8 Villages of the G/wi
individuals did not experience a “bimodal sleep pattern.” The in Africa were found to be alive at night with newly awakened
authors conclude, “by extension,” that this pattern was “prob- adults and children. Like the Ju/’hoansi studied by the team
ably not present before humans migrated into Western Europe. led by Dr. Siegel, the G/wi are among the San peoples who are
Rather, this pattern may have been a consequence of longer hunter-gatherers in southern Africa. Based on long intervals of
winter nights in higher latitudes.” Not only is this broad in- time living with the G/wi between 1958 and 1964, the remarks
ference highly questionable, but significant historical and eth- of the Australian anthropologist George B. Silberbauer are at
nographic evidence also exists to suggest the prevalence of the least suggestive: “A G/wi camp never has an uninterrupted
segmented sleep in preindustrial equatorial cultures. night’s sleep. There is always someone awake, adding wood to
First, segmented sleep was common across preindustrial the household fire, eating a snack, seeing to a child, listening
Europe throughout the year, not just during long winter nights. to a strange noise in the bush, or keeping watch if dangerous
Whether in northern England or southern Europe, this pattern animals are near. For this reason, the divisions of the night are
of sleep reflected, at most, the limited effect of seasonality, at almost as important as those of the day.” 9 The Tiv, by contrast,
least in countries located south of northern Scandinavia where are subsistence farmers in central Nigeria, who, according
seasonal variations in the availability of natural light were to a field study published in 1953, employed the terms “first
pronounced. Even in the “siesta cultures” of Spain and Italy, sleep” and “second sleep” in their own language as traditional
seasonal variations were modest despite reliance on napping to intervals of time,10,11 much as a folklorist discovered among the
combat the intense midday heat. During the summer months, Sinhalese in Ceylon in the late 1800s: “The time when a man
some men and women, to be sure, were apt to work or socialize wakens after his first sleep is rather indefinite, varying with the
later at night, but longer hours of daylight ordinarily extended habits of the sleeper,” though it normally fell before midnight.
sleep onset and, in turn, the time of “first rising” by at most 1 h. The conclusion of one’s first sleep, he added, was “a common
As in many preindustrial cultures, sleep onset depended less expression” for marking time.12 A British anthropologist wrote
on a fixed timetable than on the existence of things to do. In the in 1895 of the Woolwa people in Central America, “Frequently
winter, whether for conviviality or work, preindustrial house- at night, after the first sleep, the men would gather round the
holds remained active well after sunset, not retiring until 21:00 fires from their respective quarters in the lodge, and, as they
or 22:00, or later when visiting with neighbors. People relied warmed themselves in the flames from the chill of the night air,
on primitive illuminants, such as rushlights and oil lamps, or would enjoy some yarn with a quiet chuckle.” 13
on the natural light of the moon and stars on clear nights, even As for preindustrial Europeans, so too for these peoples,
to perform unskilled chores such as chopping firewood.3 awakening shortly before midnight or at a later hour was
Second, it is clear that biphasic sleep was not unique to thought completely natural. What, of course, all these cultures
Western households. Instead, it occurred well beyond the shared with early societies in Europe and, too, with the sub-
bounds of Europe and North America in other cultures jects of a well-known study conducted in the early 1990s at
and continents, including the Middle East, Africa, South the National Institute of Mental Health by Dr. Thomas Wehr,14
Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Latin America, thereby was an absence of artificial illumination. As I have recently
heightening the likelihood that throughout the preindustrial written at length, consolidated sleep to which the industrial-
world this form of sleep was not at all uncommon, including ized world aspires, if not always successfully—due perhaps to
in equatorial cultures.4 The French priest André Thevet, on the persistence of this once dominant pattern—is for Western
traveling to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1555, reported that the societies a remarkably youthful form of sleep, a product not of
Tupinamba Indians ate whenever they had an appetite, “even the primeval past but of forces grounded in technology (artifi-
at night after their first sleep they get up to eat and then return cial illumination) and shifting cultural attitudes toward sleep
to sleep.” 5 In the early 19th century, residents of Muscat, the over the course of the Industrial Revolution.4 This is not to
capital of Oman, were said to retire early, lying “down before argue that segmented sleep has been the predominant pattern

SLEEP, Vol. 39, No. 3, 2016 715 Letter to the Editor—Ekrich

of sleep among all preindustrial peoples in the non-Western 9. Silberbauer G. Hunter and habitat in the Central Kalahari Desert.
world. The research of Dr. Siegel and his colleagues offers a Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1981;111.
welcome, albeit singular, counterpoint that future studies will 10. Bohannan P. Concepts of time among the Tiv of Nigeria.
Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 1953;9:251–62.
hopefully help to clarify. [Link]
11. Bohannan P, Bohannan L. Three source notebooks in Tiv
CITATION ethnography. New Haven, CN: Human Relations Area Files, 1958.
Ekirch AR. Segmented sleep in preindustrial societies. SLEEP [Link]
2016;39(3):715–716. 12. Modder F. Sinhalese weights and measures. Journal of the Ceylon
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, xii.
1892:193.
REFERENCES
13. Wickham H. Notes on the Soumoo or Woolwa Indians, of Blewfields
1. Yetish G, Kaplan H, Gurven M, et al. Natural sleep and its seasonal

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River, MosquitoTerritory. Journal of the Anthropological Institute of
variations in three pre-industrial societies. Curr Biol 2015;25:2862–8.
Great Britain and Ireland, xxiv. 1895:201.
2. Ekirch A. Sleep we have lost: pre-industrial slumber in the British
14. Wehr T. ‘In short photoperiods, human sleep is biphasic. J Sleep Res
Isles. Am Hist Rev 2001;106:343–87.
1992;1:103–7.
3. Ekirch A. At day’s close: night in times past. New York, NY: W.W.
Norton, 2005. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
4. Ekirch A. The modernization of Western sleep: or, does insomnia have I thank Daniel J. Buysse, Benjamin Reiss, and Matthew Wolf-Meyer for
a history? Past & Present 2015;226:149–92. their comments on an earlier draft. Any errors are mine alone.
5. Thevet A. The peculiarities of French Antarctica, otherwise called
(French) America, the islands discovered in our times. Paris: SUBMISSION & CORRESPONDENCE INFORMATION
Maisonneuve et cie, 1878:147–9. Submitted for publication November, 2015
6. Shaik M. Seyd Said, Sultan of Muscat together with an account of the Submitted in final revised form November, 2015
countries and people on the shores of the Persian Gulf, particularly of Accepted for publication November, 2015
the Wahabees. London: John Booth, 1819;108. Address correspondence to: Professor A. Roger Ekirch, PhD, Department of
7. van Velzen H, van Wettering W. The great father and the danger: History, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061; Tel: (540) 798-4571; Email:
religious cults, material forces, and collective fantasies in the world of arekirch@[Link]
the Surinamese Maroons. Dordrecht: Foris Publications, 1988;324.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
8. Christaller J. A dictionary of the Asante and Fante Language called
Tshi. Basel: Evangelical Missionary Society, 1881;66. The author has indicated no financial conflicts of interest.

SLEEP, Vol. 39, No. 3, 2016 716 Letter to the Editor—Ekrich