Wakefulness and Sleep are under the control of the Circadian Rhythm and not the other way around.
Humans are not sleeping the way nature intended. The number of Sleep bouts, the duration of Sleep, and when Sleep occurs have all been comprehensively distorted by modernity.
The practice of Biphasic Sleep is not cultural in origin. It is deeply biological. All humans, irrespective of culture or geographical location, have a genetically hardwired dip in alertness that occurs in the midafternoon hours. However, it is something that our modern world pushed out, instead promoting Mono-phasic Sleep Sleep.
Five key factors have powerfully changed how much and how well we Sleep:
- constant electric light as well as LED light
- regularised temperature
- Caffeine
- alcohol
- a legacy of punching time cards
Temporal Distortion in Sleep
While the conscious mapping of Time is lost during Sleep, at a non-conscious level, Time continues to be catalogued by the brain. Time dilation in dreams is common and it is often experienced as elongated, this dramatic deceleration of neural time makes dreams feel longer than they actually are.