Q&A

When in history did people get the most sleep?

or Elizabethan physician and schoolmaster Thomas Cogan, the amount of sleep that a person enjoyed each night was vital to their physical and mental health. Writing in the 1580s, but drawing on the wisdom of the ancient Greeks, Cogan judged that “seven, eight or nine houres at the most for the continuance of sleep” was sufficient for most healthy adults – anything more