Because the Earth revolves around its axis, for half of each day the world is filled with darkness. Many animals, including humans, have used this "dark" time to sleep. Since many animals rely on sight, there isn't much productive activity that can take place at night. Although it may appear that a sleeping animal is just wiling the time away doing nothing, nature is actually using this down time to do all kinds of regenerative things: dreaming, healing, repairing, resting...... Sleep is so important to humans that a few days without it can be devastating to one's psyche and health. Even though modern technology has made it possible for humans to be productive 24 hours a day, our biological rhythms are so deeply ingrained that sleep is firmly entrenched as a basic human need.
Let us look at another natural rhythm. Evolutionary biology has shown us that organisms are built to survive in a highly competitive world. Resources are not unlimited and most animals are built to survive in a scrappy, competitive struggle for these resources. In the history of life on Earth, only rarely would an organism find itself in the "land of plenty" for any extended period of time. One byproduct of this competitive struggle for resources is periodic bouts with hunger. One of my theories is that intermittent hunger is so natural a state for most life forms that nature has come to actually rely on it to perform many of the regenerative functions that sleep performs on a nightly basis.
Modern technology has made it possible for most humans to completely eliminate bouts with hunger. Many people can go through their entire lives without worrying about their next meal. I would argue that this is actually unhealthy: humans have a biological requirement to be in a fasted state periodically to maintain overall health . For the past several generations, modern humans have found themselves in a technological "land of plenty." Unfortunately we are not biologically suited for this. For the past half-century modern humans have been suffering the equivalent of sleep deprivation with respect to our digestive system. We are suffering from the diseases of affluence.
Let us look at another natural rhythm. Evolutionary biology has shown us that organisms are built to survive in a highly competitive world. Resources are not unlimited and most animals are built to survive in a scrappy, competitive struggle for these resources. In the history of life on Earth, only rarely would an organism find itself in the "land of plenty" for any extended period of time. One byproduct of this competitive struggle for resources is periodic bouts with hunger. One of my theories is that intermittent hunger is so natural a state for most life forms that nature has come to actually rely on it to perform many of the regenerative functions that sleep performs on a nightly basis.
Modern technology has made it possible for most humans to completely eliminate bouts with hunger. Many people can go through their entire lives without worrying about their next meal. I would argue that this is actually unhealthy: humans have a biological requirement to be in a fasted state periodically to maintain overall health . For the past several generations, modern humans have found themselves in a technological "land of plenty." Unfortunately we are not biologically suited for this. For the past half-century modern humans have been suffering the equivalent of sleep deprivation with respect to our digestive system. We are suffering from the diseases of affluence.
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