modern humans have been sleeping wrong :0
I watched a video the other day that talked about how we've apparently been sleeping wrong.
https://youtu.be/st_Ah6Ykbh4
Basically, we live in an era with electric lights and screens and stuff where we can stay up and be productive long after it gets dark. Thus, our days are artificially extended beyond where they normally would have been for the vast majority of human history.
Instead of working into the night, our ancestors did all of their work (hunting, gathering, building, exploring, etc.) during the day, and then when the sun went down, they'd all sit around the fire. Since the night was dark, it was very dangerous to be a human in the night - our eyes are very poorly adapted to seeing at night compared to many predators (tigers and shit). As such, most primates climb a tree and stay still when the sun goes down - but not us!
Once our ancestors discovered fire, we gave ourselves a radius of 30 feet or so where predators would not enter, and so we were free and safe.
Related: somebody did a study on a modern hunter-gatherer group, and found that the vast majority of conversations during the day (80%) was practical - logistics about getting food and water (who's hunting where? which plants are ready? - complaints, economic negotiations). As such, daytime talk consisted mainly of work. On the flip side, once night came, and everyone gathered around the fire, 81% of conversation was made up of stories (tales of people in distant lands, adventures, myths about the origins of the world, jokes, etc.) Basically, this person argued that firelight conversation conditioned modern human culture, and it is where this culture first emerged, thousands upon thousands of years ago. This was the first time where we sort of became ourselves.
As a historian, and a lover of religious studies and anthropology, stories are the most beautiful thing that humans have ever created. Stories are inherently social - they can be shared among many different types of people, and can be enjoyed thousands of years after they were written. They can be passed down orally or through written word. Many stories change over time, reflecting the lives and cultures through which they pass over lifetimes and vast distances. They can carry knowledge and wisdom, or they can be funny, relatable, or they can be warnings, or they can be all of these. A good story can impart many lifetimes worth of knowledge in a way that is engaging, and can foster a love for one's fellow humans no matter how far away they lived, or how long ago they were first written.
The beauty of stories is that they show us we are never alone - we walk in the footsteps of those who came before us.
Anyway, back on the sleep thing - this video basically told me that before electric lights, humans slept in two phases. They'd first sleep when the sun went down, for around 4 hours. Then they'd wake up for around 4 hours, wherein they would think about their dreams, do work, or simply lay awake in thought about their lives etc. Then they'd go back to sleep for 4 hours again before waking for the day.
The crucial difference lies in that in-between phase where we work up during the night. Apparently, a study recreated these sleep conditions in people (by forcing them to live without electric lights or blue light from screens, you get the deal) and found that during the wakeful period in the night, their brains released way more prolactin, and their brains were in a state unlike any other conscious state. Prolactin is the hormone released during meditation, and after orgasm. These people described feeling peaceful, reflective, almost meditative! basically, those in the study experienced a state that was its own different state of consciousness, that most modern humans simply don't experience anymore.
I kind of want to ditch all my lights and technology now! Probably won't, but I'll keep this in mind... it might explain why our lives feel so wrong these days!