Humans used to sleep in two shifts

I think about historical, 2-phase sleep a lot.

One reason it will be difficult to restore natural sleep cycles is that life has become increasingly complex; we have exponentially more responsibilities than our ancestors had.

In short, we are unlikely have a couple more hours to add to our sleep periods.

This is a wildly romantic and patronizing view of our ancestors. Our ancestors had FAR harder lives with more complex responsibilities than anything you have today.

It's just so ludicrous to sit on your couch, eating takeout food, paid for either by social welfare or white-collar work (also done from your couch) and spitball "oh, our lives are just so complicated and hard now".

No, your life is stupidly easy now. That's probably a source of problems in-and-of itself, but that's another issue. You aren't worrying about starving to death, tracking prey through the forest, gathering enough roots to survive the winter, your children being eaten by wild predators, or jesus, the other thousand things your ancestors had to worry about on a day-to-day basis just to stay alive.

Controversy: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/10/the-many...

> I'm not really responsible for getting edible food, drinkable water, warmth, cover, shelter from the elements, protection from hostile animals or enemy humans.

You seem to be disregarding the countless unplanned for things that people assume aren't going to clutter up their lives.

A tiny, tiny portion of the things that consume meaningful time each week: trying to turn health insurance into usable medical care or getting any insurance to pay out filed claims - complex family finances such as tracking multiple credit cards to maintain a credit rating - tracking multiple income streams for tax purposes - shopping for clothes such as trying to figure out how to buy shoes online without scoring a pair that sat so long the soles won't hold, doing that again when they're out of stock, and again, and again - helping kids with homework, inc puzzling out unfamiliar educational methods that school districts change every few years - time spent commuting - time spent maintaining older vehicles - shuttling kids to and from activities - civic and community responsibilities - years of education followed by ongoing education and certifications in your field - every part of being self employed - caring for a family member who has profound, chronic disabilities - personal medical maintenance for a chronic condition - locating a product that that is suddenly not available because it's the only one that doesn't make your kid sick - taking pets to the vet - keeping the property up to keep the HOA off your back - suing the HOA when they're on your back anyway - fighting to get your street repaved - proving to Amazon your 7k box arrived empty - fixing your appliances - researching which appliances won't fall apart months after you buy them - pursuing an appliance warranty claim because your research didn't pan out - researching medical claims to see if changes to diet or sleep would reduce exhaustion - handling the aftermath of a traffic accident - protecting your family from surveillance capitalism - contacting your county about a traffic light issue - doing anything at all at the DMV - filing local, state and federal taxes - getting your car inspected - getting it inspected again after some arcane violation is spotted - fighting with ISP every month over bogus recurring charges - adopting out the kittens that appeared in your front garden - perusing a service connected disability when the VA lost your military records - documenting a bad neighbor - handling CPS when your bad neighbor figures out they can report you anonymously - handling the estate of a loved one who sucked at organization - putting your own post-death affairs in order - proving a SS disability claim - researching each political candidate and issue instead of party-line voting - being a payee - mental healthcare - handling the recurring fallout from someone else's MI - helping people move - helping someone who is elderly and lives alone - finding a new homeowner's policy when your insurer won't renew, doing that again next year, and the year after that....

Anyone could post a completely different list.

All of these time estimates go way up if you're poor, work two jobs and have $100 to cover $500 of need.

> I don't on a daily basis do things that could get me or my family members killed if I did them wrong.

Do you drive?