The pre-industrial era is particularly interesting to me regarding sleep. People's sleeping cycles mainly reflected the cycles of the sun, and seasons. They did however have a small break in the middle of the night where they would be awake for an hour or so at a time. People would stir to do all sorts of activities such as house work, visiting neighbors, attending local pubs, and making love. Today we find it strange that they would wake up in the middle of the night just to do these activities. Questions I ask myself about this time are why didn't they just stay up a little later? or wake up a little earlier? I myself would be VERY grumpy if my husband woke me up in the middle of the night just to get it on. The invention of electricity has been one of the major contributors to us staying up later and sleeping through out the night.