"We often worry about people who lie awake in the middle of the night - but it could be good for you. Scientists have been making the case for 20 years that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural, and now historians are backing them up." - M F from Bookmarklet

Thanks for sharing! Great article. I usually do wake up at night. My kids do too most nights. - Zulema ❧ spicy cocoa tart from Android

Each time this pops up, something about that woman reminds me of Alix. I think it is eyes, but am unsure. - Michael W. May

If I have 8 hours of sleep I feel exhausted in the morning. Usually 6.5-7 hours is all I need. - Chris Topher

It's the tyranny of the time clock, really. A lot of things would be different if we all went to bed after sunset, and woke up with sunrise. - Victor Ganata

A sun tyranny is still a tyranny isn't it? - Todd Hoff

Yeah, but that's a biological tyranny. It's the tyranny of the pineal gland :) - Victor Ganata

I keep waking up in the night. It is NOT good for me, I can assure you :-/ - Heleninstitches

I did a bit of a double take, too, Michael, since I was scrolling by quickly. - Pixie

MWM, actually me too. :) - Zulema ❧ spicy cocoa tart

This article reminds me of a half-baked plan I had in college. After learning about REM and non-REM sleep, I figured that two 4-hour cycles of sleep should be just as good as one 8-hour cycle. So after class, I'd go back to bed for 4 hours, do some problem sets, screw around on the Internet, then go back to sleep for another 4 hours. It didn't really work for me. I remember feeling like I was losing touch with reality after one week of this. So maybe we're already evolving :) - Victor Ganata

What Nicholas said. I'd love 8 hours (I think I do best at 8-10 hours/night) but 8 hours would require me to go to sleep at 9PM and that's not happening. - Rochelle