iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Conventional wisdom suggests that we have poorer sleeping habits than our ancestors. The increased presence of electronic devices and technology, along with large doses of caffeine, generally get the blame.
However, a new study suggests that even a millennia ago, humans didn’t get a great deal of sleep at night.
Researchers studied three preindustrial human societies in Africa and South America and compared their sleeping habits to ours. Their findings were published in the journal Current Biology earlier this week.
Sleep duration probably has not changed over time — just the time we went to bed and woke up, possibly because of an overall shift from the hunter-gatherer lifestyle (and yes, possibly because of the rise of technology and insomnia).
By and large, they say, humans have probably always been a little sleep deprived.
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