Many people experience this in their dreams. “A terrible feeling.” The reason is surprising

The moment when we fall asleep can be quite pleasant. We already have one foot in the land of dreams and the other in the state of consciousness. However, these first dreams, or rather half-dreams, can be hard, and surprisingly often. Raise your hand to everyone who has ever experienced the terrible feeling of falling, falling, tripping and all similar persistent dream sequences while falling asleep. The body usually reacts with a shiver and, without any qualms, violently wakes us up from the unpleasant ambush. Phew, it’s just a dream. We are still in bed, there are no suspicious circumstances, no precipices, too slippery stairs, holes in the ground and the like.

Why do we fall so often in our sleep?

This basically applies to each of us, without exception. Every generation back as far as the eye can see. Did the foremother also experience this strange feeling? Was her body also waking her up with sudden and uncontrollable muscle spasms? There are many indications that this is the case. When she spent most of her days, and especially her nights, in a tree, it was the sudden awakening caused by a shudder that could save her life and, in turn, create a reproductive opportunity that, in about a hundred thousand generations, could give you the opportunity to exist in this world. That’s right, what is now causing consternation was originally intended to protect life.

Why do we fall so often in our sleep? Press materials // MANDO Publishing House

When the foremother fell asleep on a branch, her muscles began to relax as she fell asleep, just as yours do now. However, if you sleep a few meters above the ground, the feeling is not the same as when you are lying on a comfortable and well-made bed. In the first case, it may involve a very high risk. Therefore, the still small brain of the foremother, probably slightly larger than the size of a grapefruit, interpreted this relaxation as a risk of falling and, as a result, sent an activation signal that could wake the sleeping person and protect her from danger.

A strange, instinctive response that has worked for over 95% of our earthly time now echoes ancient days. An evolutionary survival mechanism has turned into a bizarre tic. It is so realistic that it must have originally served a really important function and may have saved a whole host of human lives. I just wonder if my foremother felt it too, during her first nap on earth, when she no longer needed him.

Of course, we don’t know exactly why she decided to climb down from the tree, triggering a whole series of changes. Was it curiosity? Willingness to reach for additional food resources? Competition and fierce competition? Or maybe the tree itself asked her to leave its lush crown? Glacial periods that regularly hit the Earth could last hundreds of thousands of years and were a painful attack on the planet’s climate. In addition, there were changes in Earth’s air flows, which could also cause quite a stir. Perhaps one of the glaciations brought gusts of unpleasant cold and dry air to the previously mild climate, which gradually transformed the African jungles into vast grassy savannahs? Perhaps the foremother had no choice – when the trees disappear, one by one, what counts is solid ground under her feet.

Many people experience this in their dreams. ‘A terrible feeling.’ The reason is surprising OWL_VISION_STUDIO//shutterstock

Two legs have allowed us to go further than anyone else

So when she went towards the savannah stretching to the horizon, she was in no way aware that she was separating a separate evolutionary line, which in a few million years would mean only one representative of the Homo genus. She certainly strived to move on two limbs. Probably clumsily and wobbly, because her feet still had the characteristic curved toe that makes it easier to grab tree branches, but despite everything, it must have been a much more confident step. This developing bipedalism, which today so clearly distinguishes humans from the rest of mammals, then allowed them to permanently separate themselves from chimpanzees and say goodbye to our last common ancestor forever. Although, unfortunately, it was associated with a certain nightmare that accompanies us to this day, namely a narrow, stiffened pelvis that is able to bear the weight of the upper part of the body resting on it. When you use your front limbs to walk, a large part of your body can rely on the four-support system created in this way.

However, when two supports decide to radically change their function, then your anatomy must be completely changed. A huge part of the gravitational work falls on the pelvis, which from now on must be a stable frame supporting everything. This had disastrous consequences for the foremother and all her descendants. A transformed and stiffened pelvis means a narrowing of the birth canal. You can walk on two legs, but in return, nature puts a great curse on you – it is extremely painful and difficult to give birth to offspring. Perinatal mortality is painfully increasing. To do something about this, we need to start producing children who are able to squeeze through such a narrow passage. Therefore, their brain cannot be too large, and the skull bones must be sufficiently flexible. And this means one thing: children must be born much earlier, as “premature babies”. They are completely defenseless, unable to function without their mother. From then on, she must take care of them for the next few years. Here is one of the most significant features of the genus Homo – the period a child’s dependence on an adult is one of the longest.