The Sleep Lost to History

Modern life and technology have changed the way we eat, live, travel, and work.  One radical fundamental shift that doesn't get a lot of attention is how we sleep.  Not only are most people in the U.S. sleeping on a clean, bug free synthetic matress and pillow in a dedicated room (with only one other person on average no less!), but historians suggest that the standard eight hours of sleep a night is a historical fiction.  References in diaries and other documents reference segmented sleep, or the first and second sleep.  People often slept for an initial four hours, then got up for an hour or two to ready, interpert their dreams, pray, or have sex, only to fall back into sleep for an additional four hours of rest.  Many modern insomnia cases may actually be people reverting to this natural cycle, which has also emerged in sleep stuidies as a natural pattern when people are deprived of artificial light for 14 hours a day. There is even research that our biological clocks work on a cycle slightly longer than 24 hours, perhaps as an evolutionary advantage.

There are some fascinating articles about how the introduction of artificial light changed the pattern of daily life both physically, but also socially. Street lighting came to Paris in 1667, and followed in Lille and Amsterdam within several years.  Coffee houses stayed open later.  Secret underground nighttime religious services by those being prosecuted for their beliefs also normalized the use of the night.  Suddenly, the night became a place with things for reputable people to do, and not just the bastion of burglers.

So next time you wake up in the middle of the night, realize you may just be reverting back to a historical, natural pattern. 200 years isn't long in evolutionary terms for our new sleeping habits.

*You can download a computer program Flux to minimize your exposure to blue light before bed.  It has the added benefit of letting you see the web through rose colored glasses.  Or you can just minimize your screen time for the several hours before bed.  

Radio in a Post Radio World

Radio seems to be a dying art, unless of course you're listening to public radio. Even competing with the TV, Netflix streaming, and the Internets sometimes nothing beats a good radio show.

Try listening to this show about the history of night by historian Robert Ekirch in the dark with some candles. He talks about first and second sleep, and all the things people would do at night during their somabulatory hours.

Or this awesome discussion of patent trolls (hint* includes bonus mequito laser beams).

Of course, if you don't want to listen to radio you can always read about it in Sarah Vowell's Radio On: A Listerner's Diary.   

Where Do Good Ideas Come From?

Interesting show on NPR talking about what innovation looks like.  The metaphor of the light bulb going off, or the Eureka! moment paint a picture of ides as singular and original, but in reality innovation may be a more dynamic process of layering findings and ideas.  This notion doesn't fit with the American patent system at all.

The show is quite interesting, particularly the third segemnt which can be found here.

Essentially ideas and innnovation involve three key concepts:

• Ideas are borrowed, shared, and built on others' ideas
• Interaction is key
• Sobriety. It helped when people started drinking coffee or tea instead of getting sauced all day when alcohol was a means of dealing with unsanitarty drinking water.  

Coffee houses served as hubs for the exchange of ideas about politics, philosophy, technology and science. Steve Johnson argues that it wasn't just the lack of alcohol, but the proxemics of the space which supported the interaction of people from different backgrounds and expertise. 

So where do these conversations take place today?  On list serves?  Bulletin boards?  On the Google Bus or on Facebook (haha I joke!)?  If it is Davos and Ted Talks we're in trouble, because these types of settings are self-selecting and filter out the kinds of people who can offer new, outside perspectives.  Even confining interactions to within a private company could prove problematic.  These disruptive insights are valuable, yet they might not make it through the filter. 

Locations don't need to be physical, though there is value in face-to-face exchange.  How do we design spaces for these types of interactions to happen? What about in a society with increasing inequality?  We need to address and think through where good ideas come from if we want to ensure that good ideas can generate even better ones.