Much like the experience of Wehr’s subjects, these references describe a first sleep which began about two hours after dusk, followed by waking period of one or two hours and then a second sleep.

“It’s not just the number of references - it is the way they refer to it, as if it was common knowledge,” Ekirch says.

During this waking period people were quite active. They often got up, went to the toilet or smoked tobacco and some even visited neighbours. Most people stayed in bed, read, wrote and often prayed. Countless prayer manuals from the late 15th Century offered special prayers for the hours in between sleeps.

I always thought this was a South-East Asian practise, as coming from Malaysia (which is quite hot during the day) it would be normal to sometimes go straight to bed right after school and tuition, get up maybe 2 or 3 hours later and go out to the markets and have supper in the twilight.  

It was quite a sight to see families and children wandering around at the night, and was something I missed terribly when I moved to New Zealand.

via BBC News