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> Do you think our ancestors slept exactly 8 hours a night from 10pm to 6am? Yeah I pretty much do expect that (but more like 6 or 7). They were awake a few ho
by quietbritishjim 3mo ago
> Do you think our ancestors slept exactly 8 hours a night from 10pm to 6am?
Yeah I pretty much do expect that (but more like 6 or 7). They were awake a few hours after sunset by fire light, then get up fairly early. I certainly don't imagine them napping during the day, when they could be working together to get food, unless it's a climate where it's too hot to do anything in the middle of the day.
Studies of modern hunter gatherers seem to back this up e.g. [1]
It's widely known that Victorians would have two sleeps over night, with a productive period in the middle, but this seems to be a misconception based on a passing remark in one court case. Even if true, this is a post-industrial society with unhealthily long working hours and I don't think we should be copying their sleep patterns.
[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215012403 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098221...
- thesuitonym 3mo agoNearly all predators spend large portions of their day sleeping, why would humans have been different?
- zeroonetwothree 3mo agoBears sleep about 7-8 hours/day, similar to humans.
- quietbritishjim 3mo agoWell that's a purely intellectual question, given that empirical data on human hunter gatherers. But I'd guess it's because (1) humans aren't purely predators, we're have a mixed diet with plants too, and (2) humans hint in a fundamentally different way to most predators, by chasing their prey to exhaustion over several hours rather than outrunning them over a few minutes.
- small_model 3mo agoWatch male lions they sleep when they want, laze about all day until they need to eat. Or you can be a deer caught in the corporate wage slave, alarm clock prisoner headlights.
- raddan 3mo agoArtificial light has a huge effect on drowsiness for me. This is quite noticable when I am out in the woods, camping in a tent. After sundown, I have about an hour left before I get so drowsy that I cannot keep my eyes open. Back home, indoors, I can stay awake almost indefinitely.
- trallnag 3mo agoWatch birds they fly when they want. Or you can be a slave worm bound to the earth. The choice is yours
- small_model 3mo agoIf you watch birds you will see they don't use alarm clocks nor go to work, but still find food each day.
- quietbritishjim 3mo agoBirds don't need to cooperate in groups to find food. In animals that do, you can bet that they have a way to wake together. If you're camping in the same tent as other humans you'll soon find that out. Alarm clocks are a workaround for not living communally with the rest of your tribe.
- zeroonetwothree 3mo agoWhat about female lions?
- quietbritishjim 3mo agoMale lions don't hunt, females do. In human hunter gatherer society, it's the males that hunt while females gather plants. Also, as I mentioned in a sibling comment, humans hunt in a fundamentally different way to most predators, including lions: humans chase to exhaustion over hours while lions try to outrun their prey over minutes or less. (That's why humans have three gaits: walking, jogging, running, while most animals only have walking and running.)