I'm less certain that 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep is as important as taking a few periods of a 24 hour cycle to rest/sleep. But our world is not structured for this type of sleep pattern.
For the professional world, that's generally true, but many countries take siestas or at least a longer lunch. Given the number of stress and fatigue related complaints and illnesses (not to mention accidents) and the attention that sleep studies are generating, I hope that attitudes about sleep start to change. It would feel kind of silly to demand more sleep though, but I bet it would be seen as a lot less frivolous if concrete proof of the link between quality sleep and degenerative neurological disease, materialized.our world is not structured for this type of sleep pattern.