The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #162906 Message #3880905
Posted By: GUEST,henryp
07-Oct-17 - 11:45 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: We shepherds are the best of men
Subject: RE: song title?-We shepherds are the best of men
the fore-part of the night - and the latter-part
There is a current exhibition about sleep at the Elizabethan house Little Moreton Hall.
"For centuries we were accustomed to the idea of "first sleep" or "dead sleep" and "second sleep". It was accepted that between this first bout of slumber and the next there would lie an hour or so of quiet wakefulness, sometimes known as a "watch". This period was often used for prayer, or writing, or sex, or even for visiting the neighbours.
"But the idea of two sleeps dwindled in the late 17th century, so that by 1920 it was practically obsolete. For the last century or so we have been wedded to the idea of eight solid hours abed. And since the key to our sense of restedness often lies in our perception of how much sleep we have had, the figure of eight hours looms large."