Sleep Study on Modern-Day Hunter-Gatherer Dispels Popular Notions

were able to fully recharge by sleeping and waking to the rhythms of the sun. It turns out that may not be quite right. In fact, it now appears that our ancestors may not have been getting the doctor-recommended eight hours of sleep either. In an intriguing study published in Current Biology this week, researchers traveled to remote corners of the planet to scrutinize the sleep patterns of some of the world’s last remaining hunter-gatherers — the Hadza of Tanzania, the San of Namibia, and the Tsimane of Bolivia. Cut off from electricity, media and other distractions, these pre-industrial societies are thought to experience the same sort of natural sleep ancient humans enjoyed more than 10,000 years ago. Located in a woodland-savannah habitat 2 degrees south of the equator, the Hadza gather their wild foods each day. The San are migratory but interact very little with surrounding villages and live as hunter-gatherers. The Tsimane, who live close to the Maniqui River and thereby have to live with humid climate, are hunter-horticulturalist. Using Actiwatch-2 devices, a medical-grade Fitbit hand-watch for sleep, researchers recorded the sleeping habits of 94 of these tribespeople and ended up collecting data representing…