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The Compass: Changing World, Changing Bodies: How modern life affects our sleep

Factual

Sleepy woman with mobile phone

26/02/2020 GMT

How modern life affects our sleep

Changing World, Changing Bodies

BBC World Service - The Compass, Changing World, Changing Bodies, How modern life affects our sleep

How do we get a good nights sleep in an increasingly noisy world?

For two million years we evolved in synch with our environment and our bodies were perfectly adapted for a physically rigorous outdoor life. That all changed when the Industrial Revolution brought about a transformation in how we lived and worked for which our bodies were unprepared.

Professor Vybarr Cregan-Reid, describes how the great move indoors to a more comfortable but sedentary experience was changing our feet, our faces and our backs. In this second series he considers how modern life has impacted on the whole body experience, specifically on our sleep, our height and our longevity.

In the first episode about sleep, he learns that sleep is not just good for us but the bedrock of our health. The modern world has helped us sleep better in some ways; our homes are more secure, our beds more comfortable and we can control our sleeping environment more effectively than in the past.

But, we live in a noisy world. The electric light has banished true night, our jobs mean many of us are at work when we should be asleep and we have become dependent on  personal devices that make it harder for us to drop off and to get a good night's sleep.
Professor Vybarr Cregan-Reid speaks to some of the world's leading researchers about how sleep has changed and learns what we can do to achieve a good night's sleep and thus a longer life.

(Photo: Young sleepy female using mobile phone, yawning late at night, lying in bed. Credit: Getty Images)

The Compass: Changing World, Changing Bodies

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Dr Vybarr Cregan-Reid looks at what the modern world is doing to our bodies.

Academic and author Dr Vybarr Cregan-Reid looks at what the modern world is doing to our bodies and how they are changing in different ways, in different parts of the world. 

For nearly two million years we evolved in close synch with our environment but 250 years ago the industrial revolution happened and changed everything. The innovation and technology it brought had many benefits but there was a physical cost as progress also designed out movement from our lives.

From spending hours on our feet outdoors, our jobs have moved indoors and largely involve sitting down for most of the day in offices, factories or driver cabs. It has resulted in feet that are getting flatter, backs that are weaker and eyes that can't see very much without help.

Dr Cregan-Reid hears from evolutionary biologists, academics, anatomists and public health professionals in Singapore, Kenya, Australia, the UK and the United States; about the impact of modern life on our physical self and what we can do to return our bodies to the state that nature intended.

The good news is there is no need to spend hours on treadmills or pumping iron, in fact we would injure ourselves a lot less if we were a bit more cautious when exercising.  Our bodies are marvellously adaptable and re-introducing small movements into our daily lives in most cases will do the trick!

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