Segmented Sleep is Natural & Beneficial

Here is a fascinating article http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783 which argues that having a segmented sleep pattern is natural. Historically it was called first and second sleep.

...Today, most people seem to have adapted quite well to the eight-hour sleep, but Ekirch believes many sleeping problems may have roots in the human body's natural preference for segmented sleep as well as the ubiquity of artificial light.... The idea that we must sleep in a consolidated block could be damaging, he says, if it makes people who wake up at night anxious, as this anxiety can itself prohibit sleeps and is likely to seep into waking life too.
Russell Foster, a professor of circadian [body clock] neuroscience at Oxford, shares this point of view.

Yea, that's according men. Ask any new mother that has to get up every 2-3 hours to take care of a newborn whether it is natural or beneficial. Absolutely Not. Segmented Sleep, especially with many segments, does not allow a person to get into the deeper, restorative stages of sleep.

Benefits to Segmented Sleep? That's a bunch of nonsense that modern day man should naturally benefit from sleeping the way cavemen did.

Already being discussed here: viewtopic/t74852/BBC-NEWS-The-myth-of-t ... sleep.html

Sorry for the double posting

I agree it is a fascinating article and concept. I understand that it would be difficult in our current culture due to the demands of a 24/7 business culture, parenthood, etc. After 40 years of 24 hour shifts, alternating day and night shifts, etc.-I understand the effects of fragmented sleep. After one 36 hour shift I drove through 4 red lights in busy traffic and didn't realize it until the next day.

But the sleep textbooks talk about sleep cycles, how it is better to get up when a cycle is finished even if it is early, etc. I wonder if in those times they slept one sleep cycle, got up, then slept another cycle or two. Interesting. Thanks for the historical information.

Sandman19