I know evolution is governed by chance and it is random but does it make sense to “ruin” sleep if there’s light? I mean normally, outside, you never have pure darkness, there are the moon and stars even at night. In certain zones of the Earth we also have long periods of no sunshine and long periods of only sunshine.
I don’t know if my question is clear enough but I hope so.
Bonus question: are animals subject to the same contribution of light or lack of it to the quality of sleep?
I’m not sure I’d say fairly well. Maybe always well enough to not walk directly into a tree in otherwise open terrain. A full moon will be comfortable to walk around in, but new moons happen just as often, and sometimes the moon is below the horizon.
Source: Have walked around in the country at night.
I mean, my night vision was always better than most…
But growing up as kids we’d be sprinting thru the woods playing tag at like 10pm summer nights, not a single electric light in sight
You’re not going to recognize someone 100 yards away, but you’re not walking around with your hands in front of your face to make sure you don’t run into anything.
If you’re under an open sky, or even a primitive shelter, you’re not in complete darkness.
Hmm. Are we talking a high canopy, and fairly level ground? I feel like I’d definitely break an ankle if I tried sprinting otherwise.
I never had too much trouble, but sometimes things hiding in tall grass would surprise me, and in heavily treed patches I’d occasionally hit a low branch I didn’t notice.
I also have to account for the fact that there was some light pollution, and I could always see skyglow from towns in the distance. I doubt land ever gets close, prehistoric or not, but in the darkest conditions that happen at sea apparently you can’t see your own hands.
Yeah, we played paintball even, but stopped because one guy ran straight off like a 6 foot mini cliff. A couple of us were chasing him and he just disappeared. Was freaky as shit like that scene from LotRs.
Yeah, I’m talking really hillbilly stuff, zero light pollution.
A ship gives off a lot of light pollution, but even without that, between the water reflecting and nothing blocking light, it’s brighter out there unless there’s heavy clouds cover. And even then it’s gotta be a lot of clouds and rough waves or else the light would still be refracting some.
Now a watertight compartment on a ship with the light switch on the outside?
Yeah, that’s complete darkness. It’s not just “can’t see your hand in front of your face”. It’s the absolute and complete absence of light. That’s total darkness.
And it fucks with you very quickly.
Lol, yup, that sounds right. I did that once, although it was only like 3 or 4 feet, and I didn’t like it one bit. Is was a sinkhole or something too, because it was cliff all around, and I had to find a spot to climb out. I didn’t visit that area again.
I forget where I heard about the sailing thing now. That would be a 1 on the Bortle dark sky scale, though.
i found i did indeed need to have hands out because i can’t see much at all in deep country at night on a new moon. maybe i just don’t have great night vision.
same, and i agree with you.