Re: [TML] Worldbuilding/Culturebuilding: Calendars shadow@xxxxxx 14 Mar 2018 08:03 UTC
Before *good* artificial illumination (electric lights or gaslamps) the usual sleep pattern was to sleep for a few hours then wake up for an hour or some, the go back to sleep for a few more hours. Heck, I live that sort of schedule much of the time. :-) The Navy's "watch and watch" (4 hours on, 4 hours off, repeat) stretches this pretty much to the limit. But it *is* endurable for long periods. So I'd set an 8 hour sol as the absolute lower limit. With folks more likely doubling or tripling it to get a 16 or 24 hour sol. Anyway the splittin g sleep into two periods is more natrual than the "try to sleep 8 hours straight" bit we do nowadays. -- Leonard Erickson (aka shadow) shadow at shadowgard dot com