Mango Asian Pear Salad – Two Sleeps!

I can’t stop thinking about two sleeps. It’s something our ancient ancestors did.  So did Thomas Jefferson, Frank Lloyd Wright and B.F. Skinner. They’d go to sleep, then wake up in the middle of the night, get creative and/or pensive, then go back to bed.

The next time you find yourself tossing and turning at 3 a.m., maybe you’ll hop up and get busy creating this between-sleep wonder, Mango Asian Pear Salad, a version of Avocado Mango Asian Pear Salad gleaned from my good friend Mimi’s recipe collection.

Mango Asian Pear Salad

• 1 Asian pear, julienned
• 1 mango, diced small
• 4 oz arugula, or mixed baby greens
• 1 can hearts of palm, drained, sliced

Mango Asian Pear Salad Dressing

• 2 T orange juice
• 1 large clove garlic, crushed
• 1 1/2 T honey
• 1/4 c rice vinegar
• 1/2 t kosher salt
• 1 – 2 t sesame oil
• 1/4 c avocado oil

In a small covered jar, combine dressing ingredients. Shake vigorously to mix.

In a large bowl, combine all salad ingredients. Drizzle on a little dressing. Toss and add dressing slowly to your taste. Serves 6 – 8, with dressing left over for another day.

Mango Asian Pear Salad Print Ready Recipe

Final notes:

• Wikipedia tells the story behind two sleeps. Historian A. Roger Ekirch discovered that before the Industrial Revolution, adults typically slept in two distinct phases, with a period of wakefulness of about an hour. This time was used to pray, reflect, and to interpret dreams, which were more vivid at that hour than upon waking in the morning. It was a favorite time for scholars and poets to write uninterrupted. Others visited neighbors, engaged in sexual activity or committed petty crime. Electric lighting ended the practice of interrupted sleep. Today we assume that one sleep is normal and we complain of insomnia if we wake after a few hours. If Ekirch’s hypothesis is correct, we may just be experiencing historically natural sleep patterns.
• Reading this list of 100 things to do if you can’t sleep may put you back to sleep, if that’s your goal.
• Not convinced you want to awake mid-sleep? Try these sleep inducing foods.
• Check out Michal Marczak’s documentary-fiction, Sundance award-winning movie All These Sleepless Nights.