Sapiens meets Why We Sleep in an evolutionary romp through the science of sleep—and how we can
get better rest—by one of the world’s leading sleep scientists. We spend roughly a third of our
lives in bed but for millions of us not all of that time is spent sleeping. We strive for
eight hours per night only to lie awake thanks to stress our ever-present devices a new baby
or that 4pm coffee you thought you needed. As sleep scientist and recovering insomniac Merijn
van de Laar shows we’re hardly the first to experience this. When homo sapiens evolved
hundreds of thousands of years ago when saber-toothed tigers were their biggest nighttime
worry wakefulness served to protect one’s tribe at night. Research shows these episodic sleep
patterns even gave our ancestors an evolutionary advantage. We can look to their example for
guidance in improving our sleep health too: how our sleep patterns change as we age the
benefits of communal sleep the importance of environmental factors such as temperature and
light. While our myriad gadgets may distinguish us from early humans understanding the ways
our brains evolved to rest can chart the course toward a better night’s sleep. Drawing from
emerging science archeological research into our ancestors’ habits and close observation of
contemporary hunter-gatherer cultures How to Sleep Like a Caveman explains everything from
why we sometimes jerk awake at night—likely a remnant of having slept in trees—to why our
efforts to “optimize” our sleep schedules might just be a fool’s errand. The result is a
surprising accessible new framework for thinking about sleep—the way we were designed to.
