Today I Learned: Night Owls Are Most Likely Descended from Ancestors Who Kept Watch at Night, Study Says
Getting a good night’s sleep has always been at the top of the list of the one million things to do not just for a healthy mind and body, but to achieve success in life. This is usually emphasized by countless doctors, medical professionals, life coaches, how-to-be-a-billionaire gurus, and even social media lifestyle influencers.
However, not all of us are getting our eight hours of sleep at night; some of us are more active and productive during the evening hours than during the day. Why is that so?
Some studies suggest that genetics affect how we spend our days and nights.
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According to science, our “body clock,” also called the circadian rhythm, runs in the background 24/7 and sets our sleeping, eating, and waking up cycle. It explains why we have more energy during the day than at night. Well, for most of us, at least.
For the rest of us who seem to have it reversed—or those who are more active at night—their genes have, in fact, a lot to do with their sleeping patterns and it goes all the way back to our ancestors’ way of living (and working).
A study suggests that work shifts were not invented in our time and that early human groups and modern pre-industrial societies survived from different individuals’ sleeping tendencies, called the sentinel hypothesis. It makes sense that individuals are awake at different times and rotating shifts would allow for a 24-hour lookout for any external threats.
Some researchers theorize that the need for diverse sleep patterns has helped us acquire these adaptive traits and naturally evolved to improve survival.
University of Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science’s genetics research has found that some people are genetically predisposed to be either a lark or a night owl. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it suggests that having a higher genetic propensity to “eveningness” had a strong protective effect against the mental and physical toll of not having enough sleep.
More recent studies show that specific genes affect some people’s sleep cycles, specifically CRY1 and DEC2. According to research, individuals with the CRY1 gene variation are more likely to have Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder (DSPD) or longer circadian rhythm for two hours or more. Meanwhile, those with DEC2 genetic variation experience what they call the short sleep syndrome and only need four to six hours at night to be able to fully function the next day.
These studies may give “sleep is for the weak” a new meaning, but there’s no denying that sleep still plays an important role in physical and mental health. So, if you’re nocturnal, you may take pride in the fact that your ancestors might be the ones who protected the tribes from threats at night.
