I would even argue that historically it’s quite likely we got more sleep. When backpacking I’ll go to sleep at sundown and wake up at sunrise. The first few days I’ll sleep badly, but after that I’ll sleep fine throughout.
Even in the height of summer, where I live there’s still 9 hours of darkness. So I never get as much sleep as when I’m backpacking. And since I’m exercising all day I sleep really soundly.
Keep in mind, though, that diet, exercise, cognitive/work demands, stress, and social patterns may impact your sleep needs. And backpacking isn’t necessarily representative of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in any of these aspects.
That’s true but the point is we just don’t know if our ancestors got more or less sleep than us, whereas we know a fair amount about hunter gatherer diets.
I agree, but I’m arguing that there’s a temptation, which we should resist, to assume that our closest personally-experienced approximation to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle (backpacking) is a close approximation.
I would even argue that historically it’s quite likely we got more sleep. When backpacking I’ll go to sleep at sundown and wake up at sunrise. The first few days I’ll sleep badly, but after that I’ll sleep fine throughout.
Even in the height of summer, where I live there’s still 9 hours of darkness. So I never get as much sleep as when I’m backpacking. And since I’m exercising all day I sleep really soundly.
Keep in mind, though, that diet, exercise, cognitive/work demands, stress, and social patterns may impact your sleep needs. And backpacking isn’t necessarily representative of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle in any of these aspects.
That’s true but the point is we just don’t know if our ancestors got more or less sleep than us, whereas we know a fair amount about hunter gatherer diets.
I agree, but I’m arguing that there’s a temptation, which we should resist, to assume that our closest personally-experienced approximation to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle (backpacking) is a close approximation.