Ancient Humans Didn’t Sleep Like You Think

For 300,000 years, being awake at 3 a.m. meant something completely different. Here's what your ancestors were actually doing in the dark, and why your brain still does it. In this story: Ug's 77,000-year-old bug-repellent mattress, what people talked about around the fire, the myth that ancient humans slept 10 hours, the "first sleep" and "second sleep" in old diaries, and a study where a whole camp was asleep at the same time for only 18 minutes in twenty nights. Chapters 0:00 It's 3 a.m. 0:24 Meet Ug 1:24 Where Ug actually slept 2:34 Stories by firelight 3:23 The sleep myth 4:24 The two sleeps 5:35 The 18-minute discovery 7:01 What we lost 8:50 One thing to try tonight Sources Yetish et al. (2015), Natural sleep and its seasonal variations in three pre-industrial societies, Current Biology Samson et al. (2017), Chronotype variation drives night-time sentinel-like behaviour in hunter-gatherers, Proceedings of the Royal Society B Wehr (1992), In short photoperiods, human sleep is biphasic, Journal of Sleep Research Ekirch (2001), Sleep we have lost, American Historical Review; At Day's Close (2005) Wiessner (2014), Embers of society: Firelight talk among the Ju/'hoansi Bushmen, PNAS Wadley et al. (2011), Middle Stone Age bedding construction at Sibudu, Science Wadley et al. (2020), Fire and grass-bedding construction 200 thousand years ago at Border Cave, Science Wright et al. (2013), Entrainment of the human circadian clock to the natural light-dark cycle, Current Biology This video is for curiosity and education, not medical advice. If sleep problems are affecting your life, talk to a doctor. #ancienthumans #sleep #humanhistory