I encountered the idea of the 'night watch' and in fact the three traditional military watches of the night and their relationship with historical sleep patterns around the world thanks to The Paleolithic Prescription (1988) by Boyd Eaton, et al.[1]. Beyond introducing the idea of a paleolithic diet, Dr. Eaton along with his colleagues and students researched sleep and activity patterns in historical texts (records of Victorian doctors), the anthropological record, and practices of contemporary indigenous groups. As I recall, they found three sleep patterns commonly coexisting through recorded history and around the globe.
1) The night owl's late to bed and late to rise (first military watch)
2) The Dagwood Bumstead early to bed, up in the middle of the night, late to rise (second military watch)
3) Poor Richard's "Early to bed and early to rise" (third watch)
It was theorized that the three military watches possibly arose from prehistoric humans in small bands gaining survival advantages from having subsets of group members awake throughout the night.
I should also mention that long standing human practices involving nights when groups went without sleep showed up around the globe were studied as well. These existed independent of and seemingly well before showing up in academic settings and post industrial workplaces.
Yes, all-nighter neighbourhood parties centred around prayer and group singing of religious music have been an integral part of Hindu religious practice for a long time. They are literally called “jaagran” (‘keeping awake’) or “jagraataa” (‘night-wake’).
Although tracing this forward I see the obvious derivatives (vajra, vaaja) and it would be peculiar, but not unheard of, for the word to take two mutations.
1) The night owl's late to bed and late to rise (first military watch)
2) The Dagwood Bumstead early to bed, up in the middle of the night, late to rise (second military watch)
3) Poor Richard's "Early to bed and early to rise" (third watch)
It was theorized that the three military watches possibly arose from prehistoric humans in small bands gaining survival advantages from having subsets of group members awake throughout the night.
I should also mention that long standing human practices involving nights when groups went without sleep showed up around the globe were studied as well. These existed independent of and seemingly well before showing up in academic settings and post industrial workplaces.
[1] https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/brothers-grimm-...