Abstract
Sleep studies in small-scale subsistence societies have broadened our understanding of cross-cultural sleep patterns, revealing the flexibility of human sleep. We examined sleep biology among BaYaka foragers from the Republic of Congo who move between environmentally similar but socio-ecologically distinct locations to access seasonal resources. We analyzed the sleep–wake patterns of 51 individuals as they resided in a village location (n = 39) and a forest camp (n = 23) (362 nights total). Overall, BaYaka exhibited high sleep fragmentation (50.5) and short total sleep time (5.94 h), suggestive of segmented sleep patterns. Sleep duration did not differ between locations, although poorer sleep quality was exhibited in the village. Linear mixed effect models demonstrated that women’s sleep differed significantly from men’s in the forest, with longer total sleep time (β ± SE = − 0.22 ± 0.09, confidence interval (CI) = [− 0.4, − 0.03]), and higher sleep quality (efficiency; β ± SE = − 0.24 ± 0.09, CI = [− 0.42, − 0.05]). These findings may be due to gender-specific social and economic activities. Circadian rhythms were consistent between locations, with women exhibiting stronger circadian stability. We highlight the importance of considering intra-cultural variation in sleep–wake patterns when taking sleep research into the field.
Highlights
Sleep studies in small-scale subsistence societies have broadened our understanding of crosscultural sleep patterns, revealing the flexibility of human sleep
The primary objectives of this study were to (1) characterize the overall sleep patterns of BaYaka adults in this community (2) examine whether there were any differences in these sleep and circadian variables in the same community between the village and forest locations, and (3) investigate whether gender-based differences occurred in sleep duration, sleep quality, sleep timing, and circadian rhythmicity
Non-Parametric Circadian Rhythm Analysis (NPCRA) analysis revealed that the BaYaka exhibited relatively consistent circadian rhythms between locations, with an overall interdaily stability of 0.55, intradaily variability of 0.11, and a relative amplitude of 0.86
Summary
Sleep studies in small-scale subsistence societies have broadened our understanding of crosscultural sleep patterns, revealing the flexibility of human sleep. Throughout the last decade, sleep studies in small-scale subsistence societies have broadened our understanding of cross-cultural sleep patterns, revealing that human sleep and circadian rhythms are plastic, responding to the environmental and social conditions which individuals inhabit[10,11,12,13]. These prior studies did not compare sleep and circadian rhythmicity between different seasonal settlements, which may elucidate the flexibility of sleep patterns in response to varying social and subsistence activities To this end, our paper aims to examine sleep biology in a foraging BaYaka community from the Republic of Congo who move fluidly between a denser village setting and smaller, forest camps as they access seasonal resources
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