How the ancients slept

No, this is not a blog post about H. P. Lovecraft or his work. It is about how people used to sleep, a story I picked up from the BBC. It is a story that showed me how much I take for granted certain things, like our way of sleeping.
Historian Roger Ekirch from Virginia Tech has shown with sources as far back as Homer that people used to sleep in two periods each night, with a period of activity or contemplation in between. Many sources refer to this as the first and second sleep, and it appear to have been perfectly ordinary to people before the enlightenment.
In a way it makes sense, at a time when artificial light was expensive you went to bed at dusk slept for a while, got up to do some chores, talk to your family, or pray in the middle of the night, after a while you went back to sleep and slept until morning.
There is also empirical research regarding sleeping patterns that cooperate that this divided sleep is natural to people. There are experiments that have been performed by Thomas Wehr and also anthropological studies of populations living without artificial light. It is also stated that this way of sleeping can be found in other mammals.
The artificial light we now take for granted has a rather short history, Paris became the first city with street lights in 1667. (I wonder if that might have anything to do with Paris being know as La Ville-Lumière) It became easier and easier for people to occupy themselves after dusk and the industrial revolution made sure that even sleeping had to be done efficiently without brakes.
This research give ample fodder for speculation. Are people who experiences problems sleeping just trying to sleep the way nature intended for them? Some people have been reported to sleep only a few hours each night, usually you here this about very productive people, might they have slept at other times in addition to their reported nightly sleep? And how screwed up is my sleep pattern if this is the way we are supposed to sleep?
For people who wants to learn more there is a book by Ekirch: At Day's Close: Night in Times Past I am considering getting it, but I already have a few books.
Other sources are:

THOMAS A. WEHR In short photoperiods, human sleep is biphasic, Journal of Sleep Research, 1992 (1) 103-107
Roger A. Ekirch Sleep We Have Lost: Pre-industrial Slumber in the British Isles, American Historical Review, CV, no.2 (April 2001), 343-387

Assumptions

Right now I'm on my way to Gotland, though I am not sure when this will be posted. For some reason I assume that I will have some sort of Internet connection during my stay on the island but I have no idea about how and when; we do tend to assume a lot in life.
I am sure I will have plenty of time to post about my activities, planned and accomplished on Gotland later, that is if that Internet access materialize. So now a few lines about my recent performances at Uppsala castle for some of the brightest minds in the world.
I might have exaggerated some but theoretical physicists tend to be sharp and this was an international conference with some of the really well known names. Strings 2011 was actually to be visited by Stephen Hawking but unfortunately he had to cancel for health reasons. If people think that theoretical physicists much be serious and solemn people but that is not at all the case. In deed they were a very good crowed to perform for, but also extremely inquisitive.
As always I never confirm or deny any of the suggested explanations that I get to hear but in a room with scientist you know that some will be try to analyse everything and you can learn a lot from listening to what really intelligent people have to say about your show.
One group in the audience worked through the routines in a very scientific manner. They made some interesting assumptions. They assumed that I was working alone, and since I have no visible assistant that is understandable. In big productions invisible assistants can be very useful. They also assumed that I had not had any time to prepare something with any of the people attending the dinner a head of time. For conferences held in Uppsala this might prove a useful assumption, I will say no more on the matter. The third thing they assumed was that all the effect had to be bullet proof. That what I did would always produce the desired result.
I can not confirm or deny that these assumptions are correct, but I am happy that I got them so that I can take advantage of that in the future; we do tend to assume a lot in life.

P.S.
The blog post above did not start out as a text about assumptions, it was first when I was writing the last sentence that I realised the very obvious theme in the text. Sleep deprivation can apparently lead to interesting effects.