Sleep wild

‘Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach of us more than we can ever learn from books.’

~ John Lubbock

Most of us have experienced period of sleep deprivation as it’s a prevalent problem in the modern world. Leading expert on sleep Professor Matthew Walker, director of the Centre for Human Sleep Science at the University of California, Berkeley, has stated that sleep deprivation impacts ‘every aspect of our biology’ and is a widespread issue in modern society.

Therefore, I have found it interesting read some research into optimal sleep practices and have looked to sleeping practices of our tribal ancestors. Hunter - gatherer populations such as The Hadza, who live in northern Tanzania; the Tsimane, who live in Bolivia; and the San, who live in Namibia don’t sleep more or less than us, but they sleep better. They don’t have a specific time for lights out and they sleep all the way through the night and nearly never nap. Researchers investigated sleep in these three preindustrial societies and reported that they went to sleep three hours and 20 minutes after sunset and woke before sunrise. Most sleep outside or in very moderate huts.  

What is noteworthy is that no one suffers from insomnia. There is not even a word for insomnia in their tribal language.

Sleeping in the cold

What was interesting about this study is that it wasn't light that regulated sleep patterns as we would expect, it was the daily cycle of temperature change. In nature the daily rhythm of temperature change is in line with sunset and sunrise. But we live in modern insulated buildings with heating and cooling so our sleep quality suffers. It has been suggested that we save energy by sleeping when cold as we reduce the temperature differential between environment and body. Being active during the late-night period of lowest temperatures would be metabolically costly. The research suggests that these hunter- gatherer populations are less vulnerable to insomnia because they are exposed to a falling ambient temperature at the time of sleep onset and do not have to actively shed heat to achieve the body temperature reduction that accompanies sleep onset.

Hunter- gatherer populations would have had times where food was scarce so dropping metabolism to conserve energy would have been helpful.

Also, we spent much of our time as humans sleeping outdoors. Have you had any experience camping? It is amazing to fall asleep with fresh air circulating under a star-studded sky. Research indicates that the best temperature for sleeping well is around 18.3C (65F), so a cool room may be more beneficial than counting sheep in the quest to fight the sleep demons.

Sleep outdoors every now and then

We know that spending time outdoors and disconnecting from Netflix works wonders for your inner peace. Sleeping outdoors is an amazing tool to help reset circadian rhythm and promote a feeling of being well. According to a study published in Current Biology, we have an altered circadian rhythm thanks to artificial lighting and minimal outdoor exposure. In this study, internal circadian clocks of adults during a typical workweek were compared to a week spent camping in the Colorado wilderness. The results showed that while camping, the participants’ circadian rhythm shifted back about two hours meaning subjects went to bed two hours earlier than they did in urban environments.

So, go camping when you can.  Depending on your personality or circumstances, you may want to go alone or take a friend camping.

A night camping and resting outdoors can leave you feeling calm and at peace, and invigorated. A night out camping in the woods, or even your balcony or front yard, will give you everything you need to reset yourself. Allowing the sun to wake you, breathing fresh air through the day and some quiet time by a fire at night will reconnect you with your ‘wild’ self and help you feel grounded and ready for any challenges.

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VK Chattu, MD Manzar, S Kumary et al (2018). ‘The Global Problem of Insufficient Sleep and Its Serious Public Health Implications.’ Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland). Vol  7(1) p 1.

 M Walker (2017). ‘Why we sleep: unlocking the power of sleep and dreams.’Scibner, New York.

JM Siegel (2005). ‘Clues to the functions of mammalian sleep.’ Nature. Vol 437 pp 1264-1271.

 K Okamoto-Mizuno, K Mizuno (2012). ‘Effects of thermal environment on sleep and circadian rhythm.’ Journal of physiological anthropology. Vol 31(1) p 14.