Roger Schmidt's Caffeine and the Coming of the Enlightenment is very thought provoking. Hid argument on the evolution of sleep and where it all beginning is very convincing Schmidt believed that the evolution of caffeine and the age of enlightenment were the causes to humans depriving themselves of sleep. He stated that the caffeine, books, and mechanical clocks are the main causes to our quality f sleep being disrupted. He believed that these three things caused us to lose sleep by keeping us up later than we ever had. Schmidt even presents a counter argument to Ekrich's beliefs in segmented sleep and how the evolution of sleep slowly evolved. Schmidt dismisses this argument and argues that sleep was evolved abruptly after the age of enlightenment. If I had decide who argued best I would have to agree with Schmidt. He presents very logical thoughts on how the age of enlightenment caused the evolution of sleep.
Ekirch, A. Roger. “Sleep We Have Lost: Pre-industrial Slumber in the British Isles.” The American Historical Review 106, no. 2 (2001): 343-386. JSTOR. (first half for today, pgs. 343-363) <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2651611>
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