(June 20, 2015) Blame
smartphone alerts, constant connectivity and a deluge of media for our
society’s sleep deprivation. But the root cause of why we get less sleep now
than our ancestors did could come down to a much simpler reason: artificial
light.
New research comparing traditional hunter-gatherer living
conditions to a more modern setting shows that access to artificial light and
electricity has shortened the amount of sleep humans get each night. The
research, published online this week in the Journal of Biological Rhythms, is
the first study to document this relationship in the field.
“Everything we found feeds what we had predicted from
laboratory or intervention studies, where researchers manipulate certain
aspects of light exposure. But this is the first time we’ve seen this hold true
in a natural setting,” said lead author Horacio de la Iglesia, a University of
Washington biology professor.