3 ms·
> Modern sleep, in its infinite comfort, is an unnatural superstimulus that overwhelms our brains with pleasure and comfort Would you expect this to generalize
by waterhouse 5y ago
> Modern sleep, in its infinite comfort, is an unnatural superstimulus that overwhelms our brains with pleasure and comfort
Would you expect this to generalize to other animals? For example, if you gave ultra-comfortable beds to dogs, mice, etc., would you expect them to spend longer times asleep? And I think we should specify "asleep, not merely resting" here.
- James_Henry 5y agoThis is an interesting question. Though it's not really an answer to that specific question, Jerome Siegel in one paper says: "although animals in the wild are usually healthier that those confined to laboratories and zoos, animals in the wild often have less sleep that those in zoos. Sloths in the lab average 15 h/day of sleep, but they sleep 9 h/day in the wild. Frigate birds in cages sleep 9.3 h, but when flying over the ocean for 10 day periods they sleep 0.7 h/day, without rebound. Fur seals have 80 min of REM sleep/day on land, but in water, where they spend >70% of their life, they average 3 min of REM a day. They have no REM “rebound” when they return to land." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8180237/pdf/nihms-1708758.pdf https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8180237/pdf/nih... We need to put soft mattresses out in nature and document what happens.