Segmented Sleep

In Ekrich's article, Ekrich links both religion and medical accounts to early sleeping patterns. Ekrich introduces segmented sleep as one of the early sleeping patterns that humans used to prioritize. Ekrich quotes medical books from the 15th century as some of the first accounts of segmented sleep, "for better digestion and more tranquil repose, to lie on their right side during 'the fyrste slepe' and 'after the fyrste slepe turne on the lefte syde'" (366). I found this interesting, because as for myself, I  never wake up on the same side I went to sleep on. This is very far fetched, but what if our body does this subconsciously. Furthermore, Ekrich links early religious practices by monks "[rising] after midnight for the recital of verses and psalms, this like other regulations of the Benedictine order had spread to growing numbers of Frankish and German monasteries." (366). This early religious practice can definitely be compared to today's religious practices of reading our bible or praying before going sleep. Comparing early practices to now, we see some similarities, we have just evolved since these practices first came.

Upcoming Research Paper

The end of the semester is coming up and that means its research paper time. Initially I thought about expanding our discussion on students and sleep, but I think I would like to focus more on athletes and sleep. As an athlete I am constantly worried about sleep. Every night I constantly remind myself of the amount of hours left before I have to wake up before practice. I think it would be interesting to look at research done on the impact sleep, or lack of sleep may have on an athletes performance. I would also like to expand on possible reasons why athletes may need more or less sleep to someone who is more sedentary.

War and Sleep

Before this class I never took into perspective the amount of sleep our military loses due to war. The article I found the most intriguing was Los Angeles Times', Winning, but Really Feeling Beat. This article took statements from two military scientist who have studied sleep in the military. The scientists go over the problems they are constantly seeing in the field. One statement that really put things into perspective was "Fatigue may be a factor in 'friendly fire' deaths, accidents and battlefield errors." To think that some of our very own soldiers have lost their lives due to fatigue is unfathomable.


Melissa Healy, “Winning, but Feeling Really Beat,” Los Angeles Times, April 7, 2003 (http://articles.latimes.com/print/2003/apr/07/news/war-sleep7)