Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

World Service,2 mins

The surprising way we used to sleep

The Inquiry

Available for over a year

Historian, Roger Ekirch describes how before the Industrial Revolution, humans used to sleep in two distinct chunks with a period of wakefulness in the middle of the night. (Tartini dream illustration. Created by J.Boilly published on Magasin Pittoresque, Paris 1840 / Shutterstock).

Programme Website
More episodes