Transoceanic travel inevitably
plays havoc with one’s internal clock. George Orwell noted that severe fatigue
has a terrible effect on our manners, which probably helps to explain, at least
in part, the behavior of many travelers. These long flights, which disorients
the senses, causes abrupt changes in our natural rhythms can take days to work
themselves out. Our sleep patterns, no matter how odd, are disrupted.
The standard advice for those
traveling from North America to Europe is, upon arrival, to stay awake as long
as possible, go to bed as near as your normal bedtime, and awake as close to
possible to your regular time the next morning. It is good advice. Nevertheless,
inevitably, I wake up early in the morning. I do not understand, after thirty
hours without any substantial sleep and a day of vigorous walking, what prompts
me to wake at 4am (10pm in the United States)?
As I laid in bed, desperately
trying to relax and get some more rest, I started thinking about an article I
had read a couple of years ago about peoples’ sleep habits in preindustrial
times. [1] It
is difficult to imagine a preindustrial lifestyle, one that is not governed by
a clock and without the social demands of punctuality and promptness. It
appears that people, prior to the demands of a clock, would regularly have a
“first sleep,” then wake-up and do some activities, then have a “second sleep.” The goal and expectation of eight hours of
sleep, at a single stretch, is one that haunts many people in the modern world.
While walking through the Gracía
neighborhood in Barcelona, I overheard a British couple discussing the number
of shops that were closed. The man explained that most shops and restaurants
close after lunch, during what is traditional known as the siesta.
The practice continues today, with businesses closing in the late afternoon when
it was hot and business slow to, theoretically, take a nap and reopening later.
This, in part, the tradition of eating later and remaining out late into the
night. Alas, the woman wanted to shop in the late afternoon and her husband thought
the tradition antiquated. It is a remnant of preindustrial habits. What they
little realized was that they were imposing their cultural values onto the shopkeepers
and people of Barcelona.
[1] A.
Roger Ekirch, “Sleep We Have Lost: Pre-industrial Slumber in the British
Isles,” American Historical Review
106(2): 343-386 (April 2001).
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