I seem to hear from a variety of people that they struggle to fall asleep at night; but the difficult to fall asleep sounds like an evolutionary downside. Even as hunter-gatherers, being able to sleep whenever and wherever sounds like it would be an advantage.
Is it a recent product of modern times and people didn’t actually struggle with it a while back? In which case, what of modern life is causing this? If not, what is the evolutionary advantage of not falling asleep easily?
I would imagine our hunter gatherer ancestors had a far easier time falling asleep given their activity level during the day, their diet, and their lack of artificial lighting (particularly blue light).
That blue light thing is pseudo-science. Bodily activity though, yup, that’s a big one.
I basically can. If I lay down I can daydream into hynagogic imagery and then it’s sleep from there. I used to be an Insomanic but the last few years have been pretty easy.
I remember from the book “Why We Sleep” that our sleep cycle takes cues from both light and temperature levels throughout the day, which we isolated ourselves from in modern times. The day doesn’t end after sundown anymore thanks to lightbulbs, and many of us live at a constant temperature due to AC. That’s two clues of “night is near, prep to sleep” that we no longer receive. Maybe our ancestors had an easier time due to more consistent clues?
Some people can. In the bonus material for the LOTR extended edition, Elijah Wood talks about how he can fall asleep virtually on command, and this comes in very handy in film acting, where you often have many periods of waiting in between being able to work. Other cast corroborate this, commenting on seeing him sleeping frequently.
I read a book long ago that talked about lights and how our bodies are programmed to fall asleep when it’s dark… but now we have street lights, indoor lights, etc. this was back when I read books on a Palm Pilot… 😔