> Yetish describes a typical evening with the Tsimane: After spending the day working on various tasks, a group comes together around a fire while food is cooke

> Yetish describes a typical evening with the Tsimane: After spending the day working on various tasks, a group comes together around a fire while food is cooked. They share a meal, then linger by the fire in the dark. Children and mothers gradually move away to sleep, while others stay awake, talking and telling stories. > And so Yetish suggests that ancient humans may have traded some hours of sleep for sharing information and culture around a dwindling fire. “You’ve suddenly made these darkness hours quite productive,” he says. Our ancestors may have compressed their sleep into a shorter period because they had more important things to do in the evenings than rest. My vote is definitely for the boredom theory. I know when I stay up reading or coding or doodling every night it's not because I'm freaked out about bears or lions getting into my house (although I obviously should be) it's because my brain still needs to dive into something interesting after a long day of mundane tasks. I also think there could be a connection to The Beginning was the End if anyone gets that creepy reference. Psychotic sleep deprived primates creating an insane society and destroying the earth. I could get behind that too. Anyway this was a fun informative read to wake up to. Even though I probably should have just slept in an extra 20 minutes.