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Reluctancy to leave bed

I've often noticed (and I'm probably not the only one to do so) that when I wake up in the mornings I am reluctant to leave the comfort and warmth of my bed. The instant I make any move to leave my bed (such as throwing off the covers) I have no trouble and can immediately go about my day but if I do not I will lay there for a while.

Is this in any way adaptive? It seems to me that staying in bed would be counter-productive. In ancient times this would surely mean missing out on the opportunity to spend more time hunting or foraging and therefore having a more secure future

Any thoughts as to why we do this?

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  • Asked by WizzPhiz
  • on 2010-10-24 08:48:19
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Categories: Human Body.

Tags: humanbody, HumanMind.

 

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Jon-Richfield says:

I think it was Ogden Nash who said: "Where there's a will there's a velleity." Who are you and I to argue with Ogden Nash?

A very general principle in the selection that our ancestors were exposed to, has been that we expend as little of our resources as we reasonably can, and delay unavoidable expenditure for as long as possible. In bed, warm, not yet hungry? Then stay that way; with any luck you will die or get a chance to procreate before arising is unavoidable.

Staying in bed was not always counter-productive, or we would never have been selected for sleeping. Similarly, overwork can kill us, just as over-eating and over-drinking can. There is no parameter that we can not overdo. As a rule in nature the things that we are tempted to overdo are those things that depend on resources that rarely are available in excess. Selection for complex strategies that require long foresight is something of an evolutionary novelty in human beings.

Pity about that!

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Tags: humanbody, HumanMind.

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posted on 2010-10-25 16:56:54 | Report abuse


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