How did early hominids get sleep when its so hard for people in modern times to sleep.

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By ancestors I mean like “cavemen” in a sense. If they had to sleep in caves surrounded by a million different noises, predators, insects, and sleeping on primitive beds – I just cant see them getting any good night rests.

In today’s world sometimes we cant sleep even with great pillows, mattresses, soothing sounds, sleep aid medicine, etc. For some even the tiniest noise or light wakes them up. Thanks for and whatever the reason early hominids must have been pretty hardcore.

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23 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Well, they’d have shelter, and if one alerted the others of danger they’d react as a pact.

There’s a stark difference from people today and people back then. Back then peoples jobs were based around survival. Today it’s alot more broad , you’re comparing a Hunter society to a grocery store society

Anonymous 0 Comments

They probably weren’t bothered by most noises, as it was just part of their life.

That said, there are a lot of reasons their life expectancy was like 27 years. Sleep deprivation probably didn’t help.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I guess a lot of it has to do with a willingness to embrace the difficulties of life and a mindset of whatever comes my way I’ll deal with, but for now I do this.

Best of luck in falling asleep lol

Anonymous 0 Comments

The two main reasons are brain development and environment.

Environment is probably the biggest. We lead lives filled with lights which, day or night, fool our brain into thinking it’s daytime and definitely not time to sleep yet. We live less active lives, which makes us less tired once comes the time to sleep. We live more complex, chaotic lives, which goes against our circadian rhythm’s need for a constant routine.

We also, ironically, have more stress in our lives due to the fast pace life in the productive, industrialized world. Stress-wise, predators and food scarcity couldn’t even begin to compete with our current lifestyle as far as inducing stress. Deadlines, schedules, custody or legal battles, information about the hundred ways in which we’re all doomed. It’s even worse for parents with all the extra scheduling comes from conciliating kids, their school/afterschool activities, and work.

I’m not so sure on the brain front, but if I recall correctly having more higher brain functions also interferes with sleep, especially with things like ADHD and chronic anxiety attacks becoming more widespread. Thinking too much and being unable to stop these runaway thoughts definitely doesn’t help with sleeping.

The primitive brain ignored insect bites easily, and we setup guard rotations for predators so we felt safe enough to sleep soundly.

Anonymous 0 Comments

They were probably exhausted from hunting animals, following the mentioned food source, and collecting berries, finding a water source, on top of who knows what other nonsense they had to put up with on a daily basis.

Anonymous 0 Comments

You’re assuming they did get a good night’s rest. It’s entirely possible they didn’t, really. Without any real basis for comparison, how would they know what a ‘good night’s rest’ even was?

But they also got a lot more activity than we do, on average. And they lived in an environment with way less artificial light. And they consumed fewer calories than we do.

Anonymous 0 Comments

They didn’t have sleep patterns like we’re “required” to have nowadays. They didn’t sleep from 10 pm to 6:30 am. They didn’t have electricity and they didn’t work 8-5 shifts. They slept when it got dark and got up in the middle of the night to do chores or get some action with their partner or eat or whatever for a couple/few hours. Then they went back to sleep for awhile until it got light again. Modern sleep patterns didn’t start to take hold and become the norm until most people had electric light in their homes.

Anonymous 0 Comments

They didn’t sleep eight hours, nor were they expected to in order to keep a job. No one did prior to indoor electricity. It’s called a biphasic sleep schedule and the hour or two you were awake in the middle of the night was typically reserved for visiting people, petty theft and of course, a good round of whoopee.

Anonymous 0 Comments

They lived very physical lives. Today we don’t.

You ever see a man who works construction have problems falling asleep? No. You don’t see that. Because he’s using his body all day long. It was the same for early humans.

But now we “work” while our bodies rest. We just don’t get enough exercise to sleep properly.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Ever done a hard days work in your life? You fucking fall asleep standing up. None of the shit we have to sleep in necessary, it’s just nice