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CrowdScience: How did our ancestors sleep?

Discussion & Talk

Woman sitting in bed and yawning

27/08/2021 GMT

How did our ancestors sleep?

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, How did our ancestors sleep?

How have our sleep patterns changed over history and pre-history?

What do we know about how our sleeping habits have changed over history and pre-history and is there anything we can learn from our ancestors that might improve our slumber today?

How we sleep is a topic of endless fascination and for some can, ironically be quite exhausting.  Modern life has allowed us to invade the night, and those pesky late night work emails, social media and TV all conspire to limit our sleep or simply prevent us from a truly restful night.  But if we travel back in time, did our ancestors master sleep any better?  No air-con or electric fan for them on hot humid nights, and only smoky fires to keep them warm on cold, snowy nights. What if we go way back into our pre-history, to our ancient human ancestors?  No interruption for them from an unwanted work email, however perhaps a ravenous lion gave them more reason for those night time worries.   

CrowdScience listener Tom asks our sleep deprived presenter Datshiane Navanayagam to investigate how our sleep has changed over history and pre-history.  She talks to Professor Russell Foster, Head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford and Neanderthal expert Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes about slumber habits in days of yore, and in doing so, she uncovers some top tips from our ancestors that may give us all a better nights rest.

Presented by Datshiane Navanayagam and Produced by Alexandra Feachem

(Woman sitting in bed and yawning. Credit: JGI/Jamie Grill/Getty Images)

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