Eli5: Why do many people struggle to sleep on the first night in a different bed or environment?

Question

Eli5: Why do many people struggle to sleep on the first night in a different bed or environment?

In: 6

Answer 1

Disclaimer: I know nothing about evolutionary psychology.

But here’s my theory: it’s pretty simple, an alertness due to the perception, even subconsciously so, that a new environment may contain unknown threats.

Before agriculture we probably slept in different places quite a lot. It would be advantageous for our survival to spend at least the first night observing our new tree, cave, hummock of grass, what-have-you for potential threats before getting too cozy.

This behaviour may be especially helpful since so many potential predators or venomous animals are nocturnal.

You might know, consciously, that there isn’t a hungry jaguar waiting for you to fall asleep in your room at the Best Western but your lizard brain is just makin’ sure…just to be safe.