SLEEP
by: Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)
The baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe,
The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release,
Th' indifferent judge between the high and low;
With shield of proof shield me from out the prease
Of those fierce darts Despair at me doth throw:
O make in me those civil wars to cease;
I will good tribute pay, if thou do so.
Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed,
A chamber deaf to noise and blind of light,
A rosy garland and a weary head;
And if these things, as being thine by right,
Move not thy heavy grace, thou shalt in me,
Livelier than elsewhere, Stella's image see.
Sidney begins his famous Sonnet 39 with a request for sleep. He addresses sleep, personifying it. Sleep won’t come, so he flatters it, lavishing kind epithets upon it: it is the ‘knot’ (or flowerbed or small garden plot; this sense is etymologically related to the more common meaning of ‘knot’) of peace, It is the ‘baiting place’ of wit: a baiting-place was a wayside inn or stop where one could take refreshment on a long journey.
Sleep is also a great leveller: the highest-born and the lowliest person are equal in sleep (though presumably, the high-born ones’ beds are comfier).
The despair Sidney’s speaker feels is down to his hopeless love for the woman, (“Stella”); he’s prepared to pay protection money, or “tribute.” if sleep can provide a shield from such despairing thoughts.
What's up with sleep in our old age?
I have discussed sleep with many senior citizens who find themselves dealing with changing patterns of sleep and insomnia as they age. Although these discussions never centered on hopeless love as they did in Sidney's poem, they revealed to me that sleeping has become an annoying problem for many older folks … myself included.
Most people find that aging causes them to have a harder time falling asleep. They also wake up more often during the night and earlier in the morning. It's ironic that many retired people now have more time and opportunity for a good night's sleep, yet they experience difficulties in following regular sleep patterns and getting six to seven hours of shuteye.
“Nothing cures insomnia like the realization that it’s time to get up.”
– Anonymous
This blog entry will explore sleep as it relates to old age, patterns, and problems.
Research About Sleep and Aging
Sleep Foundation – a leading source for evidence-based, medically reviewed sleep health information and in-depth product testing – reports that it is common for older adults to experience changes in the quality and duration of their sleep. Many of these changes occur due to changes in the body’s internal clock. A master clock in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus is composed of about 20,000 cells that form the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)3.
The SCN controls 24-hour daily cycles, called circadian rhythms. These circadian rhythms influence daily cycles, like when people get hungry, when the body releases certain hormones, and when a person feels sleepy or alert.
As people get older, their sleep changes due to effects of an aging SCN4. Deterioration in the function of the SCN can disrupt circadian rhythms, directly influencing when people feel tired and alert.
(Junxin Li, Michael V Vitiello, Nalaka S Gooneratne. “Sleep in Normal Aging.” Sleep Med Clin. 13. March 2018.)
The SCN receives information from the eyes, and light is one of the most powerful cues for maintaining circadian rhythms. Unfortunately, research shows that many older people have insufficient exposure5 to daylight, averaging around one hour each day. Daylight exposure may be even more restricted for people who live in nursing homes as well as those with Alzheimer’s disease.
Changes in production of hormones, such as melatonin and cortisol, may also play a role in disrupted sleep in older adults. As people age, the body secretes less melatonin, which is normally produced in response to darkness that helps promote sleep by coordinating circadian rhythms.
(Rob Newsom and John DeBanto. “Why and how aging affects sleep, common sleep issues because of it, and tips for seniors.” Sleep Foundation October 23, 2020.)
Sleep History
Did you know that for centuries we were accustomed to the idea of "first sleep" or "dead sleep" and "second sleep"? It was accepted that between this first bout of sleep and the next there would lie an hour or so of quiet wakefulness, sometimes known as a "watch.”
Laura Barton of The Guardian reports that this period was often used for prayer, or writing, or sex, or even for visiting the neighbors.
(Laura Barton. “Sleep: why they used to do it twice a night.” The Guardian. February 24, 2012.)
Historian A. Roger Ekirch's book At Day's Close: Night in Times Past (2006) describes how households at one time retired a couple of hours after dusk, woke a few hours later for one to two hours, and then had a second sleep until dawn.
According to Ekirch, there are references to the system of sleeping twice peppered throughout the classical era, suggesting that it was already common then. It's casually dropped into works by such illustrious figures as the Greek biographer Plutarch (from the First Century AD), the Greek traveler Pausanias (from the Second Century AD), the Roman historian Livy and the Roman poet Virgil.
Later, the practice was embraced by Christians, who immediately saw the watch's potential as an opportunity for the recital of psalms and confessions. In the Sixth Century AD, Saint Benedict required that monks rise at midnight for these activities, and the idea eventually spread throughout Europe – gradually filtering through to the masses.
(Zaria Gorvett. “The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps.'” BBC. January 09, 2022.)
First sleeps are mentioned in one of the most famous works of medieval literature, Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (written between 1387 and 1400), which is presented as a storytelling contest between a group of pilgrims.
Biphasic sleep was not unique to England, either – it was widely practiced throughout the pre-industrial world. In fact, Eckirch found evidence of the habit in locations as distant as Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Australia, South America and the Middle East.
Ekirch found references to the first and second sleep started to disappear during the late 17th century. This is thought to have started in the upper classes in Northern Europe and filtered down to the rest of Western society over the next 200 years.
Anthropologists have also found evidence that during pre-industrial Europe, bi-modal sleeping was considered the norm. Sleep onset was determined not by a set bedtime, but by whether there were things to do.
Science Alert says of the connection of insomnia and the disappearance of bi-model sleep …
“Interestingly, the appearance of sleep maintenance insomnia in the literature in the late 19th century coincides with the period where accounts of split sleep start to disappear. Thus, modern society may place unnecessary pressure on individuals that they must obtain a night of continuous consolidated sleep every night, adding to the anxiety about sleep and perpetuating the problem.”
(Melinda Jackson and Siobhan Banks. “Humans Used to Sleep in Two Shifts, And Maybe We Should Do It Again.” Science Alert. April 2018.)
By 1920, the practice of two sleeps was practically obsolete.
As with other recent shifts in our behavior, such as a move towards depending on clock-time, the answer was the Industrial Revolution.
"Artificial illumination became more prevalent, and more powerful – first there was gas [lighting], which was introduced for the first time ever in London," says Ekirch, "and then, of course, electric lighting toward the end of the century. And in addition to altering people's circadian rhythms. artificial illumination also naturally allowed people to stay up later."
(Zaria Gorvett. “The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps.'” BBC. January 09, 2022.)
The flexibility to allow this practice has increasing waned over the years. Although adapting to the idea that we need eight hours in bed may not suit our circadian rhythms, we continue to desynchronise with the external 24-hour light/dark cycle. For the last century or so we have been wedded to the idea of eight solid hours abed.
Yet …
Growing evidence suggests naps can have important benefits for memory and learning, increasing our alertness and improving mood states. Research estimates that about 25% of older adults take naps, compared with around 8% of younger adults.
(T H Monk, D J Buysse, J Carrier, B D Billy, L R Rose. “Effects of afternoon 'siesta' naps on sleep, alertness, performance, and circadian rhythms in the elderly.” Sleep. September 15, 2001.)
Still ..
According to the National Institution on Aging, it is considered a myth that older adults require less sleep than younger individuals. Many older adults have a hard time getting the sleep they need, but that doesn’t mean they need less sleep. The amount of sleep that a person needs can decrease from infancy to adulthood, but this trend appears to stop around age 60. The National Sleep Foundation guidelines advise that people over 65 should get seven to eight hours of sleep each night.
(“A Good Night's Sleep.” National Institute on Aging. November 03, 2020.)
The Sleep Foundation concludes: Follow a regular sleep schedule. Go to sleep and get up at the same time each day, even on weekends or when you are traveling.
Despite the advice …
Some believe sleep disorders, like sleep maintenance insomnia, are rooted in the body's natural preference for split sleep. Therefore, split sleep schedules may be a more natural rhythm for some people.
I found the following explanation of a 17th Century night of sleep very entertaining. I want to share the excerpt of Zaria Gorvett's BBC article with you. Please read the entire piece by clicking here: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220107-the-lost-medieval-habit-of-biphasic-sleep.
In the 17th Century, a night of sleep went something like this …
“From as early as 21:00 to 23:00, those fortunate enough to afford them would begin flopping onto mattresses stuffed with straw or rags – alternatively it might have contained feathers, if they were wealthy – ready to sleep for a couple of hours. (At the bottom of the social ladder, people would have to make do with nestling down on a scattering of heather or, worse, a bare earth floor – possibly even without a blanket.)
“At the time, most people slept communally, and often found themselves snuggled up with a cozy assortment of bedbugs, fleas, lice, family members, friends, servants and – if they were traveling – total strangers.
“To minimize any awkwardness, sleep involved a number of strict social conventions, such as avoiding physical contact or too much fidgeting, and there were designated sleeping positions. For example, female children would typically lie at one side of the bed, with the oldest nearest the wall, followed by the mother and father, then male children – again arranged by age – then non-family members.
“A couple of hours later, people would begin rousing from this initial slumber. The night-time wakefulness usually lasted from around 11:00 to about 01:00, depending on what time they went to bed. It was not generally caused by noise or other disturbances in the night – and neither was it initiated by any kind of alarm (these were only invented in 1787, by an American man who – somewhat ironically – needed to wake up on time to sell clocks). Instead, the waking happened entirely naturally, just as it does in the morning.
“The period of wakefulness that followed was known as 'the watch' – and it was a surprisingly useful window in which to get things done. '[The records] describe how people did just about anything and everything after they awakened from their first sleep,' says Ekirch.
“Under the weak glow of the Moon, stars, and oil lamps or 'rush lights' – a kind of candle for ordinary households, made from the waxed stems of rushes – people would tend to ordinary tasks, such as adding wood to the fire, taking remedies, or going to urinate (often into the fire itself).
“For peasants, waking up meant getting back down to more serious work – whether this involved venturing out to check on farm animals or carrying out household chores, such as patching cloth, combing wool or peeling the rushes to be burned. One servant Ekirch came across even brewed a batch of beer for her Westmorland employer one night, between midnight and 02:00. Naturally, criminals took the opportunity to skulk around and make trouble – like the murderer in Yorkshire.
“But the watch was also a time for religion.
“For Christians, there were elaborate prayers to be completed, with specific ones prescribed for this exact parcel of time. One father called it the most 'profitable' hour, when – after digesting your dinner and casting off the labours of the world – 'no one will look for you except for God.'”
“Those of a philosophical disposition, meanwhile, might use the watch as a peaceful moment to ruminate on life and ponder new ideas. In the late 18th Century, a London tradesman even invented a special device for remembering all your most searing nightly insights – a 'nocturnal remembrancer,' which consisted of an enclosed pad of parchment with a horizontal opening that could be used as a writing guide.
"But most of all, the watch was useful for socializing – and for sex.
“As Ekirch explains in his book, At Day's Close: A History of Nighttime, people would often just stay in bed and chat. And during those strange twilight hours, bedfellows could share a level of informality and casual conversation that was hard to achieve during the day.
“For husbands and wives who managed to navigate the logistics of sharing a bed with others, it was also a convenient interval for physical intimacy – if they'd had a long day of manual labour, the first sleep took the edge off their exhaustion and the period afterwards was thought to be an excellent time to conceive copious numbers of children.
“Once people had been awake for a couple of hours, they'd usually head back to bed. This next step was considered a 'morning' sleep and might last until dawn, or later. Just as today, when people finally woke up for good depended on what time they went to bed.
(Zaria Gorvett. “The forgotten medieval habit of 'two sleeps.'” BBC. January 09, 2022.)
Conclusion
There is definitely an anxiety associated with humanity's shift in sleeping habits. One outcome is shaming for those who oversleep. But, Ekirch sees the “most gratifying aspect” of the shift relating to those who suffer from middle-of-the-night insomnia. He explains that our sleeping patterns are now so altered, any wakefulness in the middle of the night can lead us to panic. So, Ekirch says when people learn that this may have been entirely normal for millennia, he finds that it lessens their anxiety somewhat.
Yet, there's no going back because conditions have changed.
Ekirch has previously argued that, in some ways, the 21st Century is a golden age for sleep – a time when most of us no longer have to worry about being murdered in our beds, freezing to death, or flicking off lice, when we can slumber without pain, the threat of fire, or having strangers snuggled up next to us.
How about us, my old geezer friends, and our worries about sleep – lack of it and crazy patterns that may not be the best for our health? If we have problems sleeping, we must seek help. We all know the value of a good doctor, don't we?
We must understand that long-term (chronic) insomnia is a major cause of auto accidents and depression. Because we older people sleep more lightly and wake up more often, we may feel deprived of sleep even when their total sleep time has not changed. Sleep deprivation can eventually cause confusion and other mental changes. It is treatable, though. We can reduce symptoms when we get enough sleep.
Footnote:
You think you have problems sleeping? After Macbeth murders King Duncan, he's so unnerved that he can't move. Staring at his bloody hands, he tells his wife that as he left the King's chamber, he heard two men in another room: "There's one did laugh in's sleep, and one cried 'Murder!'" (2.2.20). To him, it's as though those men, even in their sleep, could see his bloody murderer's hands.
Moments later, still talking about the frightening things that happened to him, Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he thought he heard a voice telling him that he would never sleep again. The speech is one of the most famous in Macbeth :
MACBETH
Methought
I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more!
Macbeth does murder
sleep," the innocent sleep,
Sleep
that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,
The death of each
day's life, sore labour's bath,
Balm
of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in
life's feast—
LADY MACBETH
What do you mean?
MACBETH
Still it cried "Sleep no more!" to all
the house:
"Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more."
(William Shakespeare. Macbeth: Act 2, Scene 2)
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