Sleep duration, quality, and timing and their associations with age in a community without electricity in haiti

Knutson, Kristen L.

doi:10.1002/ajhb.22481

Cited by 45 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(40 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Importantly, adolescents in our study attended school in the morning, and school times were always during daylight hours; thus, students in neither community were exposed to electric light at school outside of natural daylight times. A recent study using actimetry in adults in a Haitian community without access to electricity suggested that, whereas the time in bed was longer than in more industrialized U.S. communities, sleep duration was not (Knutson, 2014). Wright and colleagues (2013) studied the sleep-wake cycle using actimetry and the phase of the circadian clock—assessed through melatonin release—in participants under typical conditions with access to artificial light and again in the same participants during a week-long camping trip under natural light conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Access to Electric Light Is Associated with Shorter Sleep Duration in a Traditionally Hunter-Gatherer Community

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Access to electric light might have shifted the ancestral timing and duration of human sleep. To test this hypothesis, we studied two communities of the historically hunter-gatherer indigenous Toba/Qom in the Argentinean Chaco. These communities share the same ethnic and sociocultural background, but one has free access to electricity while the other relies exclusively on natural light. We fitted participants in each community with wrist activity data loggers to assess their sleep-wake cycles during one week in the summer and one week in the winter. During the summer, participants with access to electricity had a tendency to a shorter daily sleep bout (43 ± 21 min) than those living under natural light conditions. This difference was due to a later daily bedtime and sleep onset in the community with electricity, but a similar sleep offset and rise time in both communities. In the winter, participants without access to electricity slept longer (56 ± 17 min) than those with access to electricity, and this was also related to earlier bedtimes and sleep onsets than participants in the community with electricity. In both communities, daily sleep duration was longer during the winter than during the summer. Our field study supports the notion that access to inexpensive sources of artificial light and the ability to create artificially lit environments must have been key factors in reducing sleep in industrialized human societies.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Access to Electric Light Is Associated with Shorter Sleep Duration in a Traditionally Hunter-Gatherer Community

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, recent anthropologic studies of people in societies with little or no electricity have failed to indicate that these people sleep more than people in industrialized societies [50, 51]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Has adult sleep duration declined over the last 50+ years?

Youngstedt

Goff

Reynolds

et al. 2016

Sleep Medicine Reviews

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary The common assumption that population sleep duration has declined in the past few decades has not been supported by recent reviews, which have been limited to self-reported data. The aim of this review was to assess whether there has been a reduction in objectively recorded sleep duration over the last 50+ years. The literature was searched for studies published from 1960–2013, which assessed objective sleep duration (TST) in healthy normal-sleeping adults. The search found 168 studies that met inclusion criteria, with 257 data points representing 6,052 individuals ages 18–88 years. Data were assessed by comparing the regression lines of age vs. TST in studies conducted between 1960–1989 vs. 1990–2013. Weighted regression analyses assessed the association of year of study with age-adjusted TST across all data points. Regression analyses also assessed the association of year of study with TST separately for 10-year age categories (e.g., ages 18–27 years), and separately for polysomnographic and actigraphic data, and for studies involving a fixed sleep schedule and participants’ customary sleep schedules. Analyses revealed no significant association of sleep duration with study year. The results are consistent with recent reviews of subjective data, which have challenged the notion of a modern epidemic of insufficient sleep.

show abstract

“…Information on human sleep in settings without artificial (that is, electrically produced) light is accessible from historical and ethnographic records, along with a handful of more recent studies that more directly quantify sleep patterns . Worthman and Melby argued that, compared to their postmodern industrial counterparts, traditional societies are characterized by strikingly different sleep ecology and behavior.…”

Section: Investigating Unique Aspects Of Human Sleepmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sleep intensity and the evolution of human cognition

Samson

Nunn

2015

Evolutionary Anthropology

103

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the past four decades, scientists have made substantial progress in understanding the evolution of sleep patterns across the Tree of Life. Remarkably, the specifics of sleep along the human lineage have been slow to emerge. This is surprising, given our unique mental and behavioral capacity and the importance of sleep for individual cognitive performance. One view is that our species' sleep architecture is in accord with patterns documented in other mammals. We promote an alternative view, that human sleep is highly derived relative to that of other primates. Based on new and existing evidence, we specifically propose that humans are more efficient in their sleep patterns than are other primates, and that human sleep is shorter, deeper, and exhibits a higher proportion of REM than expected. Thus, we propose the sleep intensity hypothesis: Early humans experienced selective pressure to fulfill sleep needs in the shortest time possible. Several factors likely served as selective pressures for more efficient sleep, including increased predation risk in terrestrial environments, threats from intergroup conflict, and benefits arising from increased social interaction. Less sleep would enable longer active periods in which to acquire and transmit new skills and knowledge, while deeper sleep may be critical for the consolidation of those skills, leading to enhanced cognitive abilities in early humans.

show abstract

Sleep duration, quality, and timing and their associations with age in a community without electricity in haiti

Abstract: Average time in bed in this Haitian sample was greater than previously reported for industrialized countries like the United States (9.3 versus. 7-8 h);, however, actual sleep duration averaged only 7 h. No age-related decline in sleep duration or quality was observed in Haiti.

Cited by 45 publications

References 31 publications

Access to Electric Light Is Associated with Shorter Sleep Duration in a Traditionally Hunter-Gatherer Community

Access to Electric Light Is Associated with Shorter Sleep Duration in a Traditionally Hunter-Gatherer Community

Has adult sleep duration declined over the last 50+ years?

Sleep intensity and the evolution of human cognition

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About