Biphasic sleep: Why we can’t sleep like our ancestors.
The paleo diet focuses on foods that humans ate during the Stone Age. The idea is that this will align better with our health and genetics and give us more energy with fewer health concerns.
So, if getting back to basics with food seems like a winning idea… why not sleep?
The problem is that paleo sleep just isn’t feasible in a world that has artificial light, nighttime productivity, and average life spans that are over twice as long as our ancestors.
Artificial light allowed us to expand our days well beyond sunset, and modern society restructured aroud this new opportunity. We then made that light much more efficient with LEDs, increasing its abundance, and making it highly portable. Now, for both work and personal reasons, the strong default is to look at an LED-lit screen in the hours leading up to bed.
Unfortunately for our ability to sleep well, LED lighting is highly blue-wavelength dominant, in an annatural way. In contrast to the sun, which bathes us in the full spectrum, or incandescent light which tilts towards the red wavelengths, or the fire light of the old days which is predominately red/infrared, LEDs are heavily skewed blue and produce almost no red light. For all of human history but for the last handful of years, any light post-sunset was red-dominant and blue light was exclusively experienced during the day, making it a reliable indicator to our bodies that we were in daytime and something our circadian rhythm could tune to.
Well, that's bad news for those of us that want good sleep this day and age. But it's the price we pay to live in an age of wonders.
Good news: We live with access to material goods kings of the past could only dream of, let alone our paleolithic ancestors.
Bad news: It takes intent to sleep like they did.
For those of us who have routine demands on our time, good sleep hygiene, being cognizant of blue light exposure near bedtime and, when needed, Sonnet’s all-natural and non-addictive sleep aids can get us the rest we need, on the schedule that our busy lives demand. And if you are not 100% satisfied, you can get a full refund within 30 days, no questions asked and no return shipments.
Sleep well, live better!