P365.5r, Day 9

Untitled, a photo by grundy12 on Flickr.

3 of 100 - At Day's Close

I came to this book via a tangent. I read an article someplace that mentioned that sleep patterns had changed with the advent of modern lighting. That article mentioned Evening's Empire, and in the bibliography of that book was At Day's Close. Obviously I thought it was worth checking out, and I'm glad I did. I feel like At Day's Close was more concrete in its treatment of night- Evening's Empire spent more time on the religious/symbolic aspects of it, and less on how it affected daily life. Also, I suspect Evening's Empire is written with a more academic audience in mind- if you're not in the field, it can become tedious. Day's Close feels more accessible.

Basically, we who are used to modern life and all its conveniences don't often consider how different life was as recently as a few hundred years ago, before paved roads and electric lighting were ubiquitous. These things have changed our approach to night fairly radically. (The state getting organized firefighting and police forces also made a big difference.) A few hundred years ago, night was a much more frightening time. Going out and about at night was literally taking your life in your hands. Besides the danger of thieves and drunks, which is still with us if apparently to a lesser degree than it seems like it was back in the day, misunderstandings could get you killed as everyone was on edge in the dark.

In addition, with no electric lighting (or electricity) even home life was much different at night- lighting that was bright and clean was beyond the means of most people, and they had to make do with inferior light. Our saying 'wasting daylight' is an acknowledgement of the fact that before electric lighting, most major work had to be done before dark- and thus to waste time was a more serious offense when you couldn't just work late to make up for it. Also, the 'entertainment' available once night fell was much more limited than we spoiled modern children are used to!

The part that I find most interesting, what drew me to the book in the first place, is the discussion of sleep, which is much more substantial in Days Close, where in Evening's Empire it felt like almost an afterthought. With the advent of modern lighting, sleep patterns have changed. It used to be commonly accepted that people had two periods of sleep overnight, with a period of an hour or two in between in which they naturally woke and might read, pray, or do other things one does in bed. (Studies on populations who are not living with electricity for whatever reason have shown the endocrine system in a distinct state during that wakeful phase.)

This book may not be for everyone, but if you're interested to know just how much things have changed, give it a try. (I would definitely recommend At Days' Close ahead of Evening's Empire.)

For those who were not already aware, I read a lot of non-fiction. Sometimes thematically, sometimes not. I also have a list of books to request on interlibrary loan at the public library that is hundreds of books long. There's an Excel file that gets updated every couple weeks.