Sleep variability and nighttime activity among Tsimane forager‐horticulturalists

Bibliographic Data

ID8317662
AuthorsGandhi Yetish (0000-0003-1011-547X, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles California, United States of America, corresponding author), H Kaplan (0000-0002-7398-7358, Chapman University), M Gurven (0000-0002-5661-527X, University of California, Santa Barbara)
Year2018
Volume166
Issue3
Pages590-600
Publication date2018-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajpa.23454
PMID29989163
OpenAlexW2870609223
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited40

OBJECTIVES: A common presumption in sleep research is that "normal" human sleep should show high night-to-night consistency. Yet, intra-individual sleep variation in small-scale subsistence societies has never been studied to test this idea. In this study, we assessed the degree of nightly variation in sleep patterns among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists in Bolivia, and explored possible drivers of the intra-individual variability. METHODS: We actigraphically recorded sleep among 120 Tsimane adults (67 female), aged 18-91, for an average of 4.9 nights per person using the Actigraph GT3X and Philips Respironics Actiwatch 2. We assessed intra-individual variation using intra-class correlations and average deviation from each individual's average sleep duration, onset, and offset times ( ɛ ̄). RESULTS: Only 31% of total variation in sleep duration was due to differences among different individuals, with the remaining 69% due to nightly differences within the same individuals. We found no statistically significant differences in Tsimane sleep duration by day-of-the-week. Nightly variation in sleep duration was driven by highly variable sleep onset, especially for men. Nighttime activities associated with later sleep onset included hunting, fishing, housework, and watching TV. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to nightly sleep variation in the United States being driven primarily by "sleeping-in" on weekends, Tsimane sleep variation, while comparable to that observed in the United States, was driven by changing "bedtimes," independent of day-of-the-week. We propose that this variation may reflect adaptive responses to changing opportunity costs to sleep/nighttime activity

Sleep (system call) · Variation (astronomy) · Demography · Medicine · Obstructive Sleep Apnea Research · Psychology · Sleep and related disorders · Sleep and Wakefulness Research

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