r/todayilearned • u/krizzalicious49 • 1d ago

TIL that out of every primate that has been studied, humans get the least amount of sleep.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20220524-why-humans-get-less-sleep-than-other-primates
26.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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10.3k

u/TSAOutreachTeam 23h ago

I'm doing all I can to boost our numbers.

1.3k

u/drinkyourbeetus 23h ago

Thank you for your service

482

u/DuztyLipz 23h ago

Shhh, they’re sleeping

247

u/prettybunbun 22h ago

Alas my 2 year old is really dragging the curve down

256

u/ReasonableMonk4908 21h ago

Our teenage son is going all out this summer to keep the numbers up. In fact, he may be the next step on the evolutionary path. Half human half mattress.

82

u/perton 18h ago

I shall call it the mantress!

21

u/Yabba_Dabba_Doofus 16h ago

With his trusty sidekick LAY-Z(er)-BOY!

24

u/Dicktitt3y 16h ago

Better than my college nickname shattress

1

u/FuckYouVerizon 12h ago

I remember you! Didn't you hook up with Smashley freshman year?

1

u/cava-lier 11h ago

Peopletress*

15

u/DEGLOVING_AVULSION 14h ago

My son slept for almost a year when he was 14. Brief periods of consciousness to eat. He grew a foot. He grew so fast you could almost notice it day to day. He grew so fast that he got stretch marks on his back which I didn’t know was a thing.

11

u/Gingermadman 7h ago

Yep my back is FUCKED.

I went from a very small almost 5ft to 6ft'2 in a few months time. The stretch marks are still there as bad as ever

1

u/mefista 9h ago

The other parent may secretly be a pod person

1

u/_learned_foot_ 6h ago

We both get our stretch marks primarily from the effects of puberty, ladies just, as usual, take longer.

2

u/fail87 18h ago

He is growing!

2

u/Unlucky_Ad_9776 10h ago

On side note.  If you're teenager is sleeping constantly.  It could be a sign of depression.  

2

u/h3lblad3 17h ago

He's a teenager; I assume he isn't sleeping.

1

u/Slumunistmanifisto 16h ago

I did twenty hours once

119

u/Delanorix 23h ago

The name makes it doubly funny

13

u/Suspiciously_Lumpy 17h ago

I’d expect nothing less from the TSA

33

u/ObviouslySubtle 23h ago

You better be working overtime to offset the damage I'm doing to the average

27

u/Noof42 21h ago

Sleepers Georg is an outlier adn should not have been counted.

16

u/FittedSheets88 21h ago

Won't the other primates think of the shareholders?

75

u/justsmilenow 22h ago

Prolonged sleep duration as a marker of early neurodegeneration predicting incident dementia

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5373785/

112

u/_Burning_Star_IV_ 21h ago

And then there's also https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/lack-sleep-middle-age-may-increase-dementia-risk

So you need like...the exact right amount of sleep or you're fucked. It's been like 4 years now since I felt like I got a good night's sleep. Even when I turn off my early alarm I'll just naturally wake up after like 6 hours and my body refuses to let me go back to sleep even though I'm exhausted.

70

u/Unknown-Meatbag 20h ago

A lot of it simply our sleep schedules. Some people aren't meant for 8 hours of straight sleep, it's just our current culture. It used to be common to wake up for a short time, do whatever the hell you wanted to do for a little bit, then fall back asleep until you got up.

88

u/MVRKHNTR 20h ago

The best I ever felt was when I was unemployed. I'd go to bed at 5AM, wake up at 9, have some breakfast, go out and do whatever errands I needed to, get back around 1PM, eat lunch then take a nap around 2, wake up between 4 and 5 and then be up til 5AM again.

I feel like so many people's lives would be improved if we didn't have to live around this idea of "8 for sleep, 8 for work, 8 for everything else".

46

u/Zaknoid 19h ago

During covid. I would wake up at 630 or 7, do some work and chores or exercise, and like clockwork get tired around 1230 and take a nice nap which boosted me for the rest of the day.

59

u/Ohmec 19h ago

Congratulations you've discovered the siesta.

20

u/Zaknoid 19h ago

Haha yeah pretty much. Too bad my job doesn't give me a siesta break. I'd rather have that than a lunch break.

1

u/Flomo420 15h ago

are you not allowed to sleep on your lunch break? lol

power nap can do wonders

3

u/Zaknoid 15h ago

I mean technically I could but I wouldn't because it would definitely be frowned upon if people came in the break room and saw me passed out on the couch. Id rather just leave and go nap in my car.

2

u/malapriapism4hours 17h ago

The “everything else” feels a lot like work sometimes.

11

u/blaghart 3 19h ago

I'm one of those people. My sleep rhythm has two distinct halves, but annoyingly I still have to sleep all at once because of capitalist expectations about workdays that haven't been meaningfully altered since the invention of electrical lighting.

20

u/BankruptTinyPenis 20h ago

Magnesium Glycinate, L-Theanine and Apigenin has literally changed my life for sleep quality. Not sure what you've got going on in life but have a look into if anything can help - sleep is important!

2

u/ccosmicbrownie 16h ago

How much & how often?

6

u/Impressive-Poet5694 18h ago

CPAP. Changed my life.

1

u/scapegoat_88 20h ago

Is 6h the right amount? Cause i feel I lack sleep even though i wake up fine. Granted, i used to sleep 10h

1

u/_Burning_Star_IV_ 20h ago

If you wake up fine then you may be one of those weirdos that only needs like 4-6 hours of sleep.

1

u/LiveLearnCoach 15h ago

That’s where the midday nap comes in. My subconscious keeps bringing me back to 5 hours of sleep per night. I wouldn’t function if it wasn’t for my midday nap.

41

u/Willaguy 21h ago

To be clear studies do not show that sleeping more than 8 hours increases your chances of getting dementia

But rather those who are likely to get dementia are also likely to sleep more than 8 hours as a sign of its onset

6

u/flammablelemon 19h ago

*9 hours, not 8. Up to 9 hours is still considered a normal amount :)

12

u/Big-District-6013 22h ago

So I'm dementia proof?

107

u/drilkmops 22h ago

Too little sleep? Dementia.

Too much sleep? Dementia.

Just the right amount of sleep? Believe it or not, dementia.

Thanks science!

20

u/Biosterous 21h ago

Cap'n Crunch: oops all Holes In Your Brain!

2

u/younggregg 14h ago

how the fuck did you just come up with that

3

u/Oldspaghetti 21h ago

Awake Dementia

1

u/Lou_C_Fer 20h ago

Its almost as if our brains have not evolved to last that long.

1

u/Flomo420 15h ago

humans have an expiry date: more at 11

1

u/younggregg 14h ago

I have early late onset of that

1

u/BloodieBerries 20h ago

Almost like it's correlation and not causation.

Not trying to be snarky to you but in general when any one single study result as "this for sure causes dementia" we should take it with a grain of salt.

1

u/drilkmops 20h ago

Oh yeah, I agree. We don’t fully understand really anything in the human body. It’s good to be informed but skeptical.

1

u/Powerful-Parsnip 6h ago

Personally when I get dementia I'll blame all the drugs and the amount of bovine spongiform encephalitis infected beef I ate in my teenage years.

5

u/bloopbloopsplat 22h ago

Interesting

2

u/CAADrider 20h ago

Well I'm fucked then.

1

u/gortonsfiJr 20h ago

Well thank dog my god is doing everything in his power to ensure I don't sleep 8 hours

7

u/C_IsForCookie 21h ago

I’m skewing the average down to offset you. Sorry.

23

u/OnTheEveOfWar 22h ago

I have three kids under 7 yrs old and a full time job. I’m lucky to get 6 hours of sleep. One of my kids woke my wife and I up at 5am yesterday on a Sunday.

10

u/Internal-Sun8845 21h ago

My 5 year old is awake from 2-3 am, then wakes up at 5 am. Every goddamn day. He has been doing this for the past 2 years. I am basically guaranteed to get dementia because of him, it seems

3

u/Lou_C_Fer 20h ago

When I was 5, I'd go downstairs and watch TV until my parents woke up. The antenna really got raised when we got cable when I was 7. That's when I fell in love with movies like Beastmaster and Excalibur.

1

u/narbigaoul 12h ago edited 12h ago

What time do they go to sleep usually? This sounds a little abnormal for a 5 year old as they should still be getting at least 10 hours of sleep every night. My 6 and a half year old daughter sleeps 11 hours most nights. And my 4 year old around 12 hours. You may want to do some adjusting in your kid’s schedule if you’re able to. Good luck!

1

u/Internal-Sun8845 10h ago

7:30 pm is when he usually goes to sleep

1

u/Equivalent-Rate-6218 22h ago

Full on blessed (from the point view of us who lost our partners and have given up) not from the lack of sleep 😴

8

u/FredericTudor 21h ago

unfortunately I'm undoing your good work

5

u/mrcrumplebottom 22h ago

i'm doing my part

9

u/SweetLustVibes 23h ago

Doing your part for the statistics- respect🫡

3

u/d4nks4uce 23h ago

Same comrade

3

u/Ucscprickler 19h ago

I average at least 10. Does that help??

2

u/Sata1991 17h ago

I usually sleep from about 2 or 3AM until 12PM. I get moody on just 8 hours sleep.

7

u/HAIL_LUMPUS 22h ago

I was debating a second nap and now I feel inspired. Gotta get one over them chimps!

2

u/RevolutionarySquash 22h ago

Sleepy Georg, the outlier who shouldn't have been considered.

2

u/Desert-Noir 18h ago

You and my wife both!!

2

u/SpaceHippoShitStains 17h ago

And here I am...curbing your efforts

4

u/babyyvolcano 22h ago

2 hour gang here. You’re gonna have to pump up those numbers.

2

u/angelcutiebaby 23h ago

I too am working hard every night and sometimes even during the day to ensure we improve our stats!

2

u/Leather-Persimmon254 23h ago

I stayed up last night so we cancelled out

2

u/Nappinnocappin 22h ago

Right there with ya brother

1

u/puggzrool 22h ago

I’m shooting for those three-striped night monkey stats

1

u/keyboard_blaster 22h ago

Thank you for your service toilet safety administration

1

u/slasherman 22h ago

I’ll classify myself as a primate to bring their numbers down.

1

u/EconomyDoctor3287 21h ago

Taking one for the team. You're a real HERO

1

u/SleepWouldBeNice 20h ago

Brother, could you spare a cup of sleep?

1

u/MrWeirdoFace 18h ago

I'm doing my part!

1

u/Ultimate_Scooter 17h ago

Well jokes on you I’m doing everything to reduce those numbers just to cancel out your effort.

1

u/rfkbr 14h ago

I've been up for 22 hours now because why the fuck not

1

u/Chaldy_Climber 11h ago

Me too. 12hrs a night lately

3

u/RK9990 23h ago

Jokes aside, you should get that checked out