Your description of sleep 10,000+ years ago is a bit misleading. My backpacking experience tells me that it doesn’t take too long to learn to sleep comfortably on unpadded ground. It doesn’t take modern technology to deal with cold well enough to sleep comfortably—I suspect modern people have more trouble, because they keep their bedrooms at daytime temperatures (i.e. too warm).
If it was harder to sleep in the past, it’s primarily because of dangers. I presume this was quite variable. This article on ancestral sleeping postures mentions constraints on sleep posture due to insects, lions, and human enemies. The larger threats seem to be handled by having someone awake at any given time. Crawling insects were handled via grass beds. I’m puzzled as to how flying insects impacted sleep. I’ve had problems with them while sleeping outdoors, but I think they mostly go away in the middle of the night?
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.
On the issue of flying insects, the people who do “cowboy camping” (sleeping without a tent) have relevant experience. They recommend finding high ground far away from any lake, because still bodies of water attract bugs.
I’m unsure what to make of your main points.
Your description of sleep 10,000+ years ago is a bit misleading. My backpacking experience tells me that it doesn’t take too long to learn to sleep comfortably on unpadded ground. It doesn’t take modern technology to deal with cold well enough to sleep comfortably—I suspect modern people have more trouble, because they keep their bedrooms at daytime temperatures (i.e. too warm).
If it was harder to sleep in the past, it’s primarily because of dangers. I presume this was quite variable. This article on ancestral sleeping postures mentions constraints on sleep posture due to insects, lions, and human enemies. The larger threats seem to be handled by having someone awake at any given time. Crawling insects were handled via grass beds. I’m puzzled as to how flying insects impacted sleep. I’ve had problems with them while sleeping outdoors, but I think they mostly go away in the middle of the night?
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.
On the issue of flying insects, the people who do “cowboy camping” (sleeping without a tent) have relevant experience. They recommend finding high ground far away from any lake, because still bodies of water attract bugs.
In equatorial Africa, I assume it is quite dark for 10-11 hours every single night where there is no moon.