So THIS is why it's harder to sleep as you get older

From NetDoctor

Ever feel frustrated that your ability to sleep has declined as you've got older? You used to lie in for hours at the weekend as a teenager, but now it's impossible to get back to slumber after waking very early. We're betting a lot of you do.

But now scientists may have pinpointed why a good night's kip becomes more elusive with age. It could be an evolutionary survival trait that helped keep our ancestors alive.

Scientists from the US looked at modern hunter-gatherers – the Hadza people of northern Tanzania - and discovered that when family members of all different ages live together, the differences in their sleeping patterns ensures at least one person is awake, or sleeping very lightly, at all times.

The researchers believe these mismatched sleep schedules may be an evolutionary leftover from a time thousands of years ago when a predator might be on the prowl in the middle of the night.

Study author Charlie Nubb, professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University, North Carolina, said:

Any time you have a mixed-age group population, some go to bed early, some later. If you're older you're more of a morning lark. If you're younger you're more of a night owl.

And if you're in a lighter stage of sleep, you'd be more attuned to any kind of threat in the environment, he says.

So while poor sleep is understandably annoying, at least you can tell yourself you're primed for survival next time you wake up too early.

The study will is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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