Historians and leading psychologists said the concept of pursuing an eight-hour undisturbed sleep cycle for staying healthy is a myth, this week, and suggested that historically humans typically slept for two four-hour shifts, with an hour or two in between.

Sleep psychologist Gregg Jacobs said people would typically meditate, copulate, chat and relax in-between sleep sessions, a pattern he said was both prevalent and positive before technological developments brought lighting and industrialisation from the 18th century.

"For most of evolution we slept a certain way," he told the BBC. "Waking up during the night is part of normal human physiology."
 
“It's not a coincidence that, in modern life, the number of people who report anxiety, stress, depression, alcoholism and drug abuse has gone up,” he added. (BBC: http://m1e.net/c?79654374-Y6bRd1EQ/2yFw%407262324-WVoz2UI9S3Kyc )

International DJs Kris Menace, Paolo Mojo and Way Out West’s Jody Wisternoff chatted to Skrufff about their own erratic sleep patterns, with all three admitting they rarely sleep straight through, whether DJing or not.

“The 4am wake-up is a classic,” said Paulo Mojo.

“I’ve done that so many times, usually with some half baked idea in your head that you can’t act on at that time anyway. So I usually end up turning the laptop on, waking up properly, not achieving what I tried to do then finding myself much too awake to fall back asleep again,” he shuddered.

“That’s actually my biggest sleep loser- composing things in my head,” he said.

Jody Wisternoff similarly said he wakes up in the early hours ‘every night without fail.’

“Partially because we have an 7 month old who feeds at 3am, and also I think because of my gradually diminishing bladder,” he laughed.

“I also get hungry during the night and usually find myself raiding the fridge in a semi conscious state. But honestly, I cannot remember the last time I got 8 hours uninterrupted sleep.”

“8 hours a night is rare.” Kris Menace concurred, “I’m mostly working during the night and when I go to bed everybody else is awake.”

US historian Roger Ekirch and British researcher Craig Koslofsky (author of Evening's Empire) told the BBC that up until the 18th century respectable people had stayed indoors from dusk ‘til dawn enjoying two sleeps, which shrunk to one as people started meeting after dark. Before that, he told the BBC, ‘the night had belonged to reprobates’.

“The night was a place populated by people of disrepute - criminals, prostitutes and drunks,” he added, "Even the wealthy, who could afford candlelight, had better things to spend their money on. There was no prestige or social value associated with staying up all night . . . (CLICK HERE FOR MORE: http://m1e.net/c?79654374-GMADXOe.meZNU%407262325-KcdsY9GVqE6bQ

Indian Ravers ‘High on Snake Bites’

Dehli police seized a half litre of cobra venom and four live snakes last week, after animal rights activists alerted them that revellers were planning to experiment with the poison at parties in the city.

"We had information that some cobra snakes and their venom were to be smuggled to Delhi from Rajasthan so we laid a trap to catch the smuggled snakes,” animal activist Gaurav Gupta told India today.

"Cobras are killed in large numbers and their venom is smuggled to Delhi and NCR to be used in rave parties for doping purposes,” he added.  http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/valentines-day-delhi-police-recovers-cobras-venom/1/173400.html#comment

The discovery prompted local newspaper the Daily Pioneer to talk of a ‘neo-rich middle class flirting with death for fun’ in India, suggesting up to 5,000 revellers who would have sampled the venom.    The Pioneer was unimpressed, suggesting the sensation seekers were  ‘discarding morals in search of the great high’.

“While still esoteric, the use of snake venom as a drug has been documented,” the Pioneer pointed out, “And it reportedly causes feelings of ‘happiness and grandiosity’ for which the drug users remain firmly fixated on the present and do not bother about the future.”
http://www.dailypioneer.com/home/online-channel/394-letters-to-editor/44344-discarding-morals-in-search-of-the-great-high.html
The moral ambiguities of electronic dance music fans were further challenged in India this week, by Congress leader Pramod Madhwaraj following an outdoor party which attracted 500 to the idyllic location of St Mary’s Island in Udupi district.

Carrying out a ‘cleansing’ ritual on the island, Madhwaraj appeared less than impressed with the behaviour of the mainly Western revellers who partied to music provided by DJs and iconic psy-trance legends Juno Reactor.

“The obscene dances held here have desecrated the soil,” Madhwaraj told reporters who witnessed his impromptu quasi religious ceremony. (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/rant-after-the-rave/913812/0 )
tp://m1e.net/c?79654374-O5s4yzyGn8C7g%407262339-Dv9CVWbCejEjI (Spitting cobras)