Guess How Fast I Clicked On “Ring the Bell for Matins: Circadian Adaptation to Split Sleep by Cloistered Monks and Nuns” -The Toast

AS FAST AS CLICKING CAN HAPPEN.

“Catholic religious life has organized a circadian rhythm since medieval times that is still maintained today within monasteries of cloistered persons (referred to here as “monks”)…Five monks and five nuns following the split-sleep night schedule for 5 to 46 years without interruption and 10 controls underwent interviews, sleep scales, and physical examination and produced a week-long sleep diary and actigraphy, plus 48-h recordings of core body temperature. The circadian rhythm of temperature was described by partial Fourier time-series analysis (with 12- and 24-hour harmonics).”

YOU ALL HAVE TO READ THIS ENTIRE BRIEF. FIVE TO FORTY-SIX YEEEARS.

“A first bell rang a single beat at 23:45 h (for waking-up, getting dressed, and briefly praying in the cell), followed by a single beat at midnight (for coming to the church), and several beats at 00:15 h (the beginning of the Matins), with a monk designated to ring the bell by pulling on a long cord. The members came together in silence and joined the others in the dark. The monks prayed in silence for 3 min and then the Prior knocked on the wooden stall, which indicated the beginning of Matins.”

SOMEONE STOP ME FROM JOINING A MONASTERY IN THE NEXT TEN MINUTES PLEASE?? or just let me??

“Appointments were set up via papers placed in the hatch or via the monk in charge of the link with the outside world.” SIGH OF HAPPINESS

Mallory is an Editor of The Toast.

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+13 Vote up Vote down

ILOVETOAST · 471 weeks ago

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT

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askelade 126p · 471 weeks ago

I grew up just down the road from Gethsemani. I went through long phases as an annoying teen of trying to Live As If Cloistered (basically making myself wake up at weird hours, and refusing to talk to people, also refusing to explain to people why I was giving them the silent treatment).

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1 reply · active 471 weeks ago

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sabinabemani 115p · 471 weeks ago

M@LL0RY
I WILL JOIN YOU IN THIS MONASTERY

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+79 Vote up Vote down

bighairnoheart 123p · 471 weeks ago

The longer this jobhunt lasts, the more tempting being a nun looks.

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+81 Vote up Vote down

brasspaperclip 95p · 471 weeks ago

I used to fantasize about joining a monastery/convent until I went on a couple of retreats at one. Everyone was very nice and it was peaceful and all, but I had a visceral realization by the second day of lining up in the refectory for meals - this whole thing is an INSTITUTION, like a school or a jail or a hospital. Not for me. I can't push a meal tray down a buffet line every meal for the rest of time. Thank god we live in time where women have other options besides marriage or the convent.

(sorry, meant to reply to askelade!)

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5 replies · active 471 weeks ago

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queenofbithynia 137p · 471 weeks ago

I would be a nun right now for sure if I could have been completely sure it would have been card playing and licentious gossip like in Diderot and not earnest psychodrama so dull it barely deserves the name like in Rumer Godden

plus one time in a Paris supermarket I saw a nun all head to foot in gray-black nun-style garments, old-fashioned-looking to me but not costumey, with a shaved head visible under whatever she had on her head and dark blood-red lipstick on. classiest look I ever saw in my life. someone will ask how I know this was a factual nun and not like an Ann DeMeulemeester mannequin on a day out and the answer is I just knew. the odour of sanctity I guess.

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4 replies · active 470 weeks ago

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tabbylavalamp 149p · 471 weeks ago

I had a brief period where the idea of being a nun was quite appealing to me. I was still an atheist, so that would have been a bit of an impediment, but the concept outside of the religious requirements sounded nice.

Maybe if there were a secular convent...

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8 replies · active 470 weeks ago

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cleoreads 105p · 471 weeks ago

Any other Toasties see Into Great Silence? Documentary on a monastery in (I think) the Alps, where they talk like once a year.

Mr Cleo and I saw it in the local art theater - one of the previews was for some WWII drama - both of us kept waiting for explosions or SOMETHING to happen once the actual movie started. I had no idea how conditioned I am to expect *action* once the lights go down in the theater. It took me like 30 - 40 minutes to relax into the film and accept that it really was just going to be peaceful, silent monks being silent and peaceful. (Pretty similar to my internal experience on the couple silent retreats I've been on, except on retreat I keep creating my own internal emotional drama).

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3 replies · active 471 weeks ago

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shombalor 103p · 471 weeks ago

I absolutely love the idea of first and second sleep, and had a short phase of doing it myself while I was on a more flexible grad school schedule. (At one time I successfully made a friend staying with me for a week wake up around 2 a.m. for us to chat for an hour or two.) It's such a magic time, in between the two sleeps! In the Middle Ages they considered it the best time to procreate, as well...

So, I was actually a little disappointed to find out that the monks in this article on a segmented sleep schedule apparently have a relatively poor quality of rest. I really thought this was going to vindicate first and second sleep :(

Any other fans out there? Uninterrupted sleep is an unnatural creation of the industrial era!

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9 replies · active 471 weeks ago

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cleoreads 105p · 471 weeks ago

On a slightly related note, I just love it when scientists study monks of any flavor - like when they measure the brain activity of Buddhist monks.

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ThatBassett 113p · 471 weeks ago

My husband dreads my yearly reading of In This House of Brede. It just makes leaving it all to become cloistered sound so peaceful and fulfilling.

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jenavira 117p · 471 weeks ago

So what I'm hearing is we need to establish a secular Toast Monastery/resurrect the Beguines, y/y?

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4 replies · active 471 weeks ago

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maidopersephone 114p · 471 weeks ago

I've always wanted to be a medieval monk. Does that sound odd? In my Early Middle Ages class in college (I was an astrophysics major who liked to dabble in other disciplines) my professor became so concerned for my evident love of monks he said, with perplexed worry, "You know the point of this class isn't to convert you to become a cloistered monk." I just smiled. We both knew that is what the class was all about.

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1 reply · active 471 weeks ago

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Blueberette · 470 weeks ago

Butbutbutbut... they get to sleep late after that, right?
Right?

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Givemebackmehat 104p · 470 weeks ago

Has anyone else read Anathem? Because who wants to start a secular Math with me? We can live a cloistered life and spend all of our time on personal art or science projects and grow our own food and sing complex polyphonic equations at each other...

Guess How Fast I Clicked On “Ring the Bell for Matins: Circadian Adaptation to Split Sleep by Cloistered Monks and Nuns”

ByDaniel Mallory Ortberg

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