Let's Get Paleolithic

Two studies with European subjects suggest that we (or at least the Europeans) are/were getting more sleep during lockdown (fifteen to thirty more minutes per night), but one of the studies looked at sleep quality and that - contrary to most situation when sleep time increases - was significantly poorer.

Apparently, we all suffer from social jetlag. Who knew? Social jetlag is the discrepancy between our natural sleep cycles and our actual sleep schedules. Our social activity (including work) pushes the edges of our natural cycles. Not something we worried about when we were hunting and gathering. The more relaxed from-home work and school schedules, it seems, allow us to return – just a little – to those idyllic prehistoric days.

The decreased quality of sleep, the authors note, may come from, well, worry. “We think that the self-perceived burden, which substantially increased during this unprecedented COVID-19 lockdown, may have outweighed the otherwise beneficial effects of a reduced social jetlag." I, for one, can testify that, even though the virus has not appeared in any of my friends or relatives, and even though the more relaxed life under lockdown seems to agree with me, I worry. A lot. So there's that.

In the new world, if we can maintain a little (or more than a little) of that relaxed scheduling, without the worry of a global pandemic outside our door, that can be a particularly good thing. If you'd like to encourage this outcome, read the list of “major health and safety problems” that social jetlag can lead to, toward the end of the article.

There are those who say that a paleolithic diet will make us healthier; it seems that paleolithic sleep will certainly do the same.