You’re Not Tougher Than Sleep – And Changes to Your DNA Methylation Prove it
DEFRANKSWhen you think about it, spending roughly 7 of every 24 hours in a state of pure unconsciousness is kinda silly. Not just from a time-management standpoint, but from an evolutionary survival one.
Rewind a few thousand years, before comfy homes and locked doors, we (well, the tribe) slept out in the elements for thousands of years. Wouldn’t it have been evolutionarily advantageous to evolve right out of the need for sleep?
Unless, of course, sleep matters more than the risk of getting mauled by a sabertooth tiger in the middle of the night.
Which, as it turns out, it does. Decades of research have built an undeniable case that our nightly ZZZs are a foundational pillar of our cellular and metabolic health — which means cutting even an hour or two each night is one of the worst things you can do to your pretty cool meat suit over time.
A major blow to “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” enthusiasts everywhere. And newer data reveals one of the main ways it does the damage — by rewriting the expression of our genes themselves.
Here’s the Sleep / DNA Connection You Need to Know About…
