Ken Boddie

1 year ago · 3 min. reading time · ~100 ·

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To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

I've been sleep deprived lately, so I thought I'd run around the bed several times to catch up on my sleep. 

I asked the doctor if he could send me to a sleep specialist and so he gave me an address at the zoo.  When I got there it turned out he'd made an appointment with the hypno-potamus.

I told him I only had trouble sleeping once every two weeks, so he told me to sleep in a tower, once every fort-night.

Then I told him I was so tired from not sleeping in bed that I was falling asleep while using my phone.  He suggested that I download a nap. 

All jokes aside (well not all, as there are more to come) it appears that, of all the primates, we spend more time awake and considerably less time sleeping, as the following chart suggests (taken from https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220524-why-humans-get-less-sleep-than-other-primates?xtor=ES-213-">https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220524-why-humans-get-less-sleep-than-other-primates?xtor=ES-213-">https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220524-why-humans-get-less-sleep-than-other-primates?xtor=ES-213-[BBC%20Features%20Newsletter]-2022June3-[bbcfeatures_evolutionsleep_future]">https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220524-why-humans-get-less-sleep-than-other-primates?xtor=ES-213-[BBC%20Features%20Newsletter]-2022June3-[bbcfeatures_evolutionsleep_future] ):

How much primates sleep
[ee ——
commas
Comma sca nar
pr.
ame go usa
someone uns
orion cr saan
cane wen um
eat ar ar cat

 ]

Graph comparing primate sleep (Credit: BBC/Knowable Magazine)

So what's the story, morning glory?

Well, perhaps the answer lies with today's few remaining non-industrial societies, who are arguably closer to our ancestral past? As a consequence of this concept, research was conducted by the following:

  • David Samson, anthropologist at the University of Toronto Mississauga, who reportedly "worked with the Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, as well as with various groups in Madagascar, Guatemala and elsewhere; and 
  • Ghandi Yetish, human evolutionary ecologist and anthropologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who also worked with the Hadza, in addition to the Tsimane in Bolivia, and the San in Namibia. 

One conclusion was that the threat of predators, after we descended from the trees to gather and hunt, may have resulted in us spending less time sleeping than tree-living primates.  Furthermore, Samson postulates that our evolutionary reduction in sleep is to do with safety in numbers, and that we learned to sleep in groups on the ground instead of in the trees. This is backed up by other studies by various researchers on mammals, that apparently slept less when at risk of predators.

Yetish also observed that the Tsimane came together around the fire after dark, to share a meal and to tell stories, thus making the hours of darkness productive, from which it follows that: 

Ancient humans may have traded some hours of sleep for sharing information and culture around a dwindling fire.”

“Maybe insomnia, for example, is really hypervigilance - an evolutionary superpower.”

“There's a lot of conscious effort and attention put on sleep in the West that is not the same in these [non-industrial societal] environments. People are not trying to sleep a certain amount. They just sleep.”

Sounds simple, doesn't it, until we look at the various stresses we have thrust upon ourselves as we live in our modern societies?  I can just imagine the result of suggesting to any insomniac these days that they should “just sleep”, not count the hours they lie in bed, and forget about predators creeping into the bedroom.  Nevertheless, perhaps some of us are predisposed to insomnia as a result of our dark and distant past?

And then there's that “dwindling fire” and the story telling. The obvious translation into today's behaviour is catching up, while in bed or in the late evening, with information fed to us on our various screens, eg television, phone, laptop, tablet.

Perhaps we are not alone on this planet when it comes to sleep problems?

  • It appears that mountains are always tired, because they don't Everest;
  • bicycles are constantly double tired;
  • baby bats have problems learning to sleep upside down, although they eventually get the hang of it; and then 
  • burgers can only sleep on a bed of lettuce.

All I can really add then, for those of you who may have difficulty, from time to time, in sleeping, is that sleeping is really not that difficult.  After all, we should be able to do it with our eyes shut.  🤣😂🤣

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Bee cool
QSbeBee

When not researching the weird or the wonderful, the comical or the cultured, the sinful or the serious, I chase my creative side, the results of which can be seen as selected photographs of my travels on my website at:

https://ken-boddie.squarespace.com 

The author of the above, Ken Boddie, besides being a sometime poet and occasional writer, is an enthusiastic photographer, rarely leisure-travelling without his Canon, and loves to interact with other like-minded people with diverse interests.

Ken's three day work week (part time commitment) as a consulting engineer allows him to follow his photography interests, and to plan trips to an ever increasing list of countries and places of scenic beauty and cultural diversity.

Comments

Ken Boddie

1 year ago #21

I must admit, @Robert Cormack , that current affairs chit-chat also makes me nod off. I mean, who gives a dam about the sex life of dried grapes? 😂🤣😂

Robert Cormack

1 year ago #20

Good piece, Ken. I actually find I sleep better beside a dwindling fire while people discuss current events.

Ken Boddie

1 year ago #19

Pascal Derrien

1 year ago #18

Were you sleep walking when you wrote that one ? 

Ken Boddie

1 year ago #17

Ken Boddie

1 year ago #16

Robert Cormack

1 year ago #15

Lada 🏡 Prkic

1 year ago #14

Ken Boddie

1 year ago #13

Lada 🏡 Prkic

1 year ago #12

Ken Boddie

1 year ago #11

Robert Cormack

1 year ago #10

I have some advice for you, Ken, seeing as we seem to be in a similar age group (meaning we should be tired and just plain fed up). So much of what we call “insomnia” is merely our bodies anticipating the fullness of our bladders. They don't want us having an accident, in other words, Ken, so they become hyper-vigilant. To sleep the glorious sleep, and to turn the hyper-vigilance off, simply stop drinking fluids by 9 o'clock. It really works, Ken, allowing you to replenish your brain, so you can bring to the world your wonderful puns (on second thought, keep drinking water, and when your puns decline, at least you'll hear the sparrow's fart, something I haven't heard in years being a sound sleeper and, in fact, could sleep on a bed of lettuce).

Ken Boddie

1 year ago #9

Ken Boddie

1 year ago #8

Lada 🏡 Prkic

1 year ago #7

Ken, seeing from your graph, the three-striped night monkey sleeps about 17 hours per day, related to 7 hours for humans. It seems that the size of the brain also determines the length of sleep. Humans, the largest brain primates, sleep the least. 
I sleep about 6 hours on average. But the quality of sleep is more important to me than the length. Sometimes I wake up more tired after 8 hours of sleep than after only 5.

As always, an interesting topic, written in a fun way. :)

Paul Walters

1 year ago #6

The king of the pun. All made up in the middle of the night per chance 

Ken Boddie

1 year ago #5

Ken Boddie

1 year ago #4

Jerry Fletcher

1 year ago #3

Ken Boddie

1 year ago #2

Jerry Fletcher

1 year ago #1

Ken, You seemed ot have over looked one important factor in the studies cited: “our evolutionary reduction in sleep is to do with safety in numbers, and that we learned to sleep in groups on the ground.” Perhaps all that is needed is to gather all the folks in the neighborhood in one bed!. And so it goes.

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