Sleeping in Ancient Civilizations.
In today's world sleep is an afterthought for how our night went instead of a plan to keep our bodies and our health in rhythm with nature.
There are many factors and stressors in today's world environment that affect our ability to get a good night's sleep. From health issues to work issues many things impact our sleep pattern.
Maybe it's insomnia? Maybe arthritis pain.?Worrying about a family member? Have to pick up a 2nd job to survive in this world? Addicted to TV, sports or your phone? Our society has programmed us to put an emphasis on things that are not important while diverting us away from our culture and the things that should be important to us.
Has it always been this way? Maybe. But we won't know the answer to that unless we know how our ancestors slept. So how did ancient civilizations sleep?
Researchers believe that early man typically slept in ground based nests of grass or other materials next to caves. It is believed that they slept in these nests curled up in a fetal position. They would have to take several naps during the day in order to stay up for short periods at night to watch out for predators and other human groups.
Another factor that impacted the sleep of ancient civilizations was temperature. They would be more likely to sleep when the temperature falls, and would sleep through the coldest parts of the night.
Ancient Egyptians feared and respected sleep. They believed it to be similar to death because the soul could travel beyond the physical body and communicate with the dead. Egyptians had some of the earliest medicines to help treat lack of sleep.
Ancient Rome had a biphasic sleep pattern. They would have a midday rest and then would sleep at night. Medieval Europe would be similar, but would add a second sleep session at night.
The Victorian Era remained biphasic as well. People would sleep for about 5 hours, wake up, and then spend an hour or two dedicated to chores, reading, relaxing and some other things. After an hour or two they would settle back down and sleep again.
It seems that sleep has been an issue throughout our history. The Egyptians had to develop medicine to help sleep. The ancestors were not working multiple jobs or addicted to activities brought on by the culture, they were just trying to survive.
In recent times I have promoted for the return of living like our ancestors. However, this is one of those times that I want to look at it from a different perspective.
Even though I don't agree with the programming our society has put upon us, there are some things in today's society that are helpful. Since we are discussing sleep, let's look at it from that standpoint.
Our ancestors had interrupted and poor sleep due to wanting to keep themselves safe from predators and other groups. Today, most people have the protection of a home. How much better would our sleep be if we could remove the pressure and vices of today's programming, but also sleep in the safety and protection of a home and community?
One last thing before I wrap up. Let's go back to the Egyptians. Another aspect of sleep that our society avoids is what happens when we are asleep? Most of our society does not want to explore the possibility of our souls traveling during our sleep experience. Why is that? Fear of what society will do if another dimension or world or plane is discovered or revealed?
We have a large opportunity to change our sleep patterns. We have a large opportunity to explore what happens when we sleep. We are capable of doing this. But do enough people want to?
Do enough people want to get a good night's sleep?
How did our ancestors sleep? Much like us, but for different reasons.
Blessings.
By Michael Walters
The Ancestor's Fire
Writing the voices of the unheard
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