Need to read more
I was browsing through an issue of scientific american mind when I came across an interesting article that proposed that our current sleeping rhythm is on the contrary to our natural one. It brought up a certain historian's research, which discovered that before electricity and industrialisation took place, humans actually slept for four hours after sunset (presumably after 6 or 7pm) and then stayed awake until 2am before going back to sleep again. Our current consolidated 6-8hour sleeptime is therefore a relatively modern construct, thanks (or no thanks) to the invention of artificial lighting which led to extended day-times.
Leading from this argument we realise that further technological inventions--such as the radio, television, computer, and, of course, the internet-- have furthered blurred the lines between our day and night-times; indeed, most people I know usually sleep after 12 midnight and a significant portion, say 30%, invariably sleep at times later than 2am whenever they can afford to.
If clubs, television programmes, net-surfing, and even the voice of a radio dj is what's keeping us awake in these times, what occupied our ancestors from 11pm to 2am in the past? According to the article it's nothing much: they took the time to have sex or meditate on their dreams in the silence of the night.
I read another article from the same magazine, this one on why we cry. From what I gathered we cry for 2 reasons: to achieve a kind of goldilocks equilibrium, that is to say to calm our intense emotions down; and to communicate to others that we are genuinely feeling intense emotions. Derived from Zahavi's handicap principle, which explored why animals have apparently useless features such as a cumbersome peacock tail or gazelles jumping high up in the air when it delays its runoff time, the article elaborated that crying, even though it is an apparently useless feature itself (the amount of hormones it discharges is insignificant, and tears very often blind our vision, which is, in evolutionary terms, counter-productive and often life-threatening), has the merit of conveying our geniune need for help and concern, such as when a baby cries for his mother. It was a good argument, but it overlooked one thing: if crying is a tool for communication, then why do some people cry behind closed doors and silent walls?
Leading from this argument we realise that further technological inventions--such as the radio, television, computer, and, of course, the internet-- have furthered blurred the lines between our day and night-times; indeed, most people I know usually sleep after 12 midnight and a significant portion, say 30%, invariably sleep at times later than 2am whenever they can afford to.
If clubs, television programmes, net-surfing, and even the voice of a radio dj is what's keeping us awake in these times, what occupied our ancestors from 11pm to 2am in the past? According to the article it's nothing much: they took the time to have sex or meditate on their dreams in the silence of the night.
I read another article from the same magazine, this one on why we cry. From what I gathered we cry for 2 reasons: to achieve a kind of goldilocks equilibrium, that is to say to calm our intense emotions down; and to communicate to others that we are genuinely feeling intense emotions. Derived from Zahavi's handicap principle, which explored why animals have apparently useless features such as a cumbersome peacock tail or gazelles jumping high up in the air when it delays its runoff time, the article elaborated that crying, even though it is an apparently useless feature itself (the amount of hormones it discharges is insignificant, and tears very often blind our vision, which is, in evolutionary terms, counter-productive and often life-threatening), has the merit of conveying our geniune need for help and concern, such as when a baby cries for his mother. It was a good argument, but it overlooked one thing: if crying is a tool for communication, then why do some people cry behind closed doors and silent walls?
3 Comments:
That was quite enlightening. Thanks for the info, a lot of the stuff I had no idea about.
Qn:"...if crying is a tool for communication, then why do some people cry behind closed doors and silent walls?"
Ans:"to calm our intense emotions down"?
Hi.The article watered down its first argument: "the amount of hormones it discharges is insignificant".
As we grow older perhaps the need to communicate our intense emotions decrease. However I hazard the guess that our crying mechanism is still far from obsolete even when we're adults, in the same way certain organs are hardwired into our system even though they have no functional purpose. Hence we still cry even though we dont immediately demand attention. In this sense the act of crying is merely a reflex reaction and the calm we feel thereafter could itself be a reflex conclusion to the act.
Alternatively we cry behind closed doors and silent walls because we really do desire some form of companionship or attention. This desire could go unacknowledged by us, because we are obstinate or prideful or more immature than kids or whatever. The desire could also be abstracted: hence it wouldnt be surprising if one claims to feel a divine presence or voices in one's head in times of overwhelming darkness.
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