Why do people generally fall asleep very quickly when inside a vehicle like a bus or car?
In: Biology
I don’t think we scientifically really know.
I do know that as a father, when I carried my two young children in a sling and walked around with them like that, they definitely calmed down and tended to fall asleep. My youngest had colic in the evening as a baby and literally the only thing that would soothe her was if I put her in a sling and walked actively with her while bouncing her up and down in it.
Archaeology tells us that the baby sling is an ancient technology, we were using them at least 10,000 years ago. My own personal hypothesis is that it was advantageous for early humans to keep their babies from being upset while working or traveling, and that human babies that were soothed by that motion did better evolutionarily. Non-screaming babies are much less likely to attract predators.
Prior to the invention of (relatively) modern means of travel, it was uncommon for an adult to experience that rocking motion — perhaps with the exception of hammocks. There’s no downside to being soothed by it, so evolution never put an age limit on it.
Anyway, more of an r/Showerthoughts than an answer, I guess. Maybe someone will show up with a study that explains it better than me, but that’s what I have.
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