I woke up at 2:30 AM last night and looking out the window I estimated it to be morning based on the light. But then I realized it was a beautiful full moon. If I had wanted to go for a walk in the woods I'd have easily managed without a flash light. The leaves on the trees were all shades of yellow and grey and illuminated and magical. Now I wish I had gone for that walk. Tonight, perhaps.
It reminded me of one of the most fascinating articles of ever read called "The History of the Night" in the Smithsonian Magazine, I think. Here is a talk by the author I found just now. I haven't listened to it myself but will later today. Tell me what you think.
The gist of the article and recalled details: nighttime was different before the advent of electrical lighting, the moonlight was, as you can imagine, much more important then, people often woke up during the night and worked or talked or ate as opposed to our 8 hours continuous sleep.
2 comments:
Last night was the Harvest Moon! It really was lovely.
My husband read the article you are talking about somewhere and mentions it from time to time. Really fascinating. Especially since there are so many products (beds, teas, pills) on the market to ensure that we get a full night's sleep. But perhaps if we were going to sleep when the sun went down we would be getting more sleep overall even if we got up at 2 am for a snack?
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