Why sleeping less than apes helped humans become Earth’s dominant species
Evolutionary anthropologist David R. Samson argues that humans evolved to require less sleep than other primates, which facilitated the development of our large brains and complex social structures. He suggests that modern concerns about a 'sleep epidemic' may be overstated when compared to the sleep patterns of our ancestors.
Why it matters
Understanding the evolutionary history of human sleep provides new perspectives on modern health and the biological foundations of human dominance.
For most people, bedtime is a routine matter of turning off the lights and hoping for eight hours of rest. For David R Samson, an associate professor of evolutionary anthropology, it often means venturing deep into the wild or far back in evolutionary time.
Whether sleeping high in the forest canopy to study chimpanzees or joining the Hadza tribe in remote Tanzania, Samson’s Indiana Jones-style fieldwork exposes the ancient roots of human slumber.
As director of the Sleep and Human Evolution Lab at the University of Toronto Mississauga in Canada, Samson studies how human sleep evolved – from our primate ancestors to modern life. His book, The Sleepless Ape: The Story of Sleep in Human Evolution, highlights this work.
His chief argument is that humans evolved to need less sleep than other primates, and that was the foundation for humanity’s position as the dominant species on our planet.
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