As someone who takes two melatonin pills in the evening in order to fall asleep and three cups of coffee in the morning in order to feel awake, I have always been interested in sleep and insomnia. My memories of finding it hard to fall asleep and waking up during the nighttime (often after nightmares) date back to my early childhood. And I have seen the same phenomenon - to varying degrees - in my children. By now I am firmly convinced that babies and toddlers who find it hard to fall asleep have a higher risk of suffering from insomnia later in life. And it has a lot to do with temperament. So-called highly reactive babies, who are easily overstimulated and often struggle to fall asleep as they become more “hyper” rather than more sleepy, often become highly sensitive toddlers with various overexcitabilities. One study Ayurvedic Doshas as Predictors of Sleep Quality found that insomnia was highly correlated:
A regression analysis showed that higher scores for the vata dosha significantly predicted the time taken to fall asleep (longer with higher scores) and the feeling of being rested in the morning (less when vata scores were high). There was also a positive prediction between kapha scores and the likelihood of daytime naps as well as the duration. The descriptions in ancient Ayurveda texts did mention that vata dosha is associated with less restful sleep, while kapha dosha is associated with daytime somnolence
I have argued that vata dosha comes from hunter-gatherer genes, whereas kapha comes from farmer genes.It makes evolutionary sense that foragers who live IN nature have a lighter sleep than farmers who live sheltered from nature and have to work twice as much on top of that. While I don’t expect hunter-gatherers who are still able to follow their traditional way of life to struggle with sleep problems, I do expect them to do so when they live in our “civilised world”. Native Americans would be an example of that. Higher incidence of insomnia has indeed been shown among America’s First Nations in a study:
Five hundred and eighty-eight adults participated in a baseline survey conducted as part of the First Nations Sleep Health Collaborative Project. The prevalence of insomnia was 19.2% among participants with an Insomnia Severity Index score of ≥15. Following the definition of nighttime insomnia symptoms, however, the prevalence of insomnia was much higher, at 32.6%. Multivariate logistic regression modeling revealed that age, physical health, depression diagnosis, chronic pain, prescription medication use for any health condition, and waking up during the night due to terrifying dreams, nightmares, or flashbacks related to traumatic events were risk factors for insomnia among participants from two Saskatchewan Cree First Nation communities.
The rate of insomnia among Americans is usually estimated to be around 10%-15%, which means that the rate among the Native Americans is about twice or three times as high.
For more on hunter-gatherer vs farmer differences check out our book
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