Dhaka: When it comes about our ways of sleeping — long stints for seven to nine hours — it was not always the natural order for human beings, a study says.

Researchers have found that segmented sleep was the commonly followed practice until the invention of electricity, reported ideapod.com.

‘People would go to sleep for a couple of hours before dusk, get up in the middle of the night for a couple of hours and then go back to sleep again’.

During these couple of hours the brain was rested and primed for activity.

‘Between sleeps, there is the stillness, the lack of distraction and perhaps a stronger connection to our dreams’.

‘Night also triggers hormonal changes in our brains that suit creativity — the pituitary gland excretes high levels of prolactin. This is the hormone associated with sensations of peace and with the dreamlike hallucinations’.

The practice changed as soon as electricity was invented which made it possible for people to go to bed later, continue working or socialising after dark and sleep straight through till sunrise.