ref 1 seems to be a series of excerpts of articles
ref 2 is a literature review of historical acounts
neither ref 1 nor 2 is a scientific study, and according to the dates come from around 2000
ref 3 wiki article referencing articles from 2005, ref 4 is science journalism and refers to a 1993 study
remaining refs are all studies from 2006+
So, yes, I didn't know it existed. I've never heard sleep professionals talk about it in my career to 2006ish. Good sleep was pretty universally considered a contiguous segment of uninterrupted sleep with particular cycles by sleep practitioners. My problem is not with the content - I'm open to learning about new things about stuff I 'know' - but with your description of it being something well-known and universally accepted for a long time.
I think it's fascinating, and thank you for providing references. But it's really a very new avenue of formally studied biology.
I didn't mean among practitioners, I meant among research, i.e. that there isn't significant criticism, which to me makes it accepted. It's normal for there to be huge lag between research and practice, especially since research is frequently wrong.
I remember reading about this many many years ago, and it was written as if it had been known for even longer before that. But I guess the recent references seem to start with 1993 which is long, but not as long as I thought it was.
I'll have to eat humble pie here. The kind of comment you made initially has always been suited to the criticisms I've raised, in my previous experience. It's unusual for there to be substance behind that style of claim - so I apologise for my abrasiveness.
Thank you for the links. It's a fascinating topic. Sleep medicine and the theory behind it is really, really interesting. Actually conducting sleep studies - attaching things, watching people sleep all night, then finishing off your shift smelling people's morning breath... is one of the most boring jobs in the world :)
Although in your defense, it's not widely known. (Most people never even think to ask, although once they do the evidence is compelling.)