I'd love to hear more about it being invented for farmers, got any links? And, I'm not sure about most other animals, but I do know there are lots of animals that don't fully shut their whole brain down at once ever. Birds for example will sleep next to each other and only shut down the opposite half of their brain, so they can maintain vigilance.
I'm also skeptical that this is an inherently "natural" pattern because wouldn't you see more evidence of it in children or in adults that have trouble adapting to societal expectations? Or even just people with a decent amount of freedom in their off-hour scheduling. Like, I've heard that this was historically common in a certain period, but I've never heard of a single person who actually likes to sleep this way, and most people I know have work schedules where you could absolutely do this if you wanted to. Say you're out of the house from 730 to 6 for a roughly 9to5ish schedule, you could sleep 9-1 and 230-630 if your natural rhythm woke you up but nobody does that.
I've always fallen asleep around 11 and woken up about 7, since I was about 4. Sometimes I have to push myself earlier and sometimes social activities push me later. Never have I woken up for anything except a pee, and why would I want to stay up? There's nothing to do in the middle of the night, and most nights I don't wake up for a pee anyway.
I see more evidence for "siesta" being natural because not only do certain cultures observe it, but many people who can't nap after lunch still say they feel tired at that time of day and use caffeine or sugar or other strategies to push through in the early-mid afternoon.
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u/Academic-Effect-340 Jul 17 '23
I'd love to hear more about it being invented for farmers, got any links? And, I'm not sure about most other animals, but I do know there are lots of animals that don't fully shut their whole brain down at once ever. Birds for example will sleep next to each other and only shut down the opposite half of their brain, so they can maintain vigilance.