Rather than thinking of nature and nurture as absolute determinants of our behavior, itβs more appropriate to think of any individual behavior or social form as existing on a continuum between nature and nurture. That is, everything is somewhat natural and somewhat cultural (and sometimes, what we say is natural is actually cultural). Sleep is a great example of this: yes, we all have a natural, physiological urge to sleep, but how each person β and each society β organizes sleep varies, based on cultural norms and individual preferences. For some, this can mean nightly, consolidated sleep in an eight-hour chunk; for others, it might mean biphasic sleep β breaking sleep into two (or more) blocks of sleep, arranged throughout the 24-hour day. So our sleep styles might have developed out of evolutionary selection. Or it might be a little more complicated.
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thenewgreen: The author makes mention that currently different cultures approach sleep differently. I don't doubt this but I wonder how large this variance is? Is it noticeably different from one society to the next? I've traveled a bit but I haven't noticed anything too substantial. Does anybody have instances where they've witnessed this?
posted 4298 days ago