When humans ‘discovered’ fire...

[Randomguy]

...do you think we evolved to sleep with our faces toward the fire or our backs toward the fire?   Asking for a Neanderthal friend. 

[MickinMD]

23 minutes ago, Randomguy said:

...do you think we evolved to sleep with our faces toward the fire or our backs toward the fire?   Asking for a Neanderthal friend. 

We evolved to sleep before we had fire so my guess would be we'd tend to sleep with our faces toward darkness.

No one knows why we evolved a sleep mechanism. Some think that early creatures who slept during darkness were less likely to be detected by predators and they survived to pass the sleep habit on to the next generations.  If so, snoring must have begun much later!

[donkpow]

You're sure they slept at night?

[donkpow]

3 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

We evolved to sleep before we had fire so my guess would be we'd tend to sleep with our faces toward darkness.

No one knows why we evolved a sleep mechanism. Some think that early creatures who slept during darkness were less likely to be detected by predators and they survived to pass the sleep habit on to the next generations.  If so, snoring must have begun much later!

There is a fascinating monkey sleep scene in "2001: Space Odyssey".

[Randomguy]

I was cold as I slept the last two nights, with only a thin blanket to protect from the nighttime chill.  Do I face my back to the wall to maximize retained/reflected heat, or face forward and subtly warm the forward facade?

This is how my brain works. 

[maddmaxx]

Too many variables.  Are you the only one the bed?  Is the fire in a stove or is your house burning down.  These things all matter.

[Kzoo]

1 hour ago, Randomguy said:

I was cold as I slept the last two nights, with only a thin blanket to protect from the nighttime chill.  Do I face my back to the wall to maximize retained/reflected heat, or face forward and subtly warm the forward facade?

This is how my brain works. 

Sex with RW didn’t keep you warm?

[donkpow]

10 hours ago, Randomguy said:

I was cold as I slept the last two nights, with only a thin blanket to protect from the nighttime chill.  Do I face my back to the wall to maximize retained/reflected heat, or face forward and subtly warm the forward facade?

This is how my brain works. 

Have you forgotten your survival training?

[MickinMD]

A scientist, at some point, realized that two different species of human-infesting lice existed, one type that infests hair and one that infests clothing.  He realized that the two types would have been the same species but separated into a second species that focused on clothing, so if he could figure out how long ago the two types of lice became different, he could figure out how long humans have been wearing clothes.  The estimate is around 170,000 years.

[dinneR]

4 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

A scientist, at some point, realized that two different species of human-infesting lice existed, one type that infests hair and one that infests clothing.  He realized that the two types would have been the same species but separated into a second species that focused on clothing, so if he could figure out how long ago the two types of lice became different, he could figure out how long humans have been wearing clothes.  The estimate is around 170,000 years.

But when did we start wearing ties? And shoes must have come later.