Join U of T alumni and friends in Vancouver for a thought-provoking lecture on sleep's role in shaping the human mind, behaviour, and culture through evolution and beyond.
- Remarks begin at 6:30 PM PDT
- Reception and presentation
- Q&A follows the presentation
Barbara Dick
Assistant Vice-President, Alumni Relations
University of Toronto
invites University of Toronto alumni and friends to attend a reception, featuring a special presentation on
The Sleepless Ape: What Human Sleep Reveals About Evolution, Health and Modern Life
by
Professor David R. Samson
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Sleep and Human Evolution Lab
University of Toronto Mississauga
Humans are the sleepless apes. Compared with our closest primate relatives, we spend remarkably little of our lives asleep, yet our sleep is unusually intense, flexible, social and deeply tied to what makes us human. In this accessible lecture, biological anthropologist David R. Samson takes audiences from great ape sleeping platforms in African forests to Hadza camps in Tanzania, where firelight, social life, danger, caregiving, and ecology shape the rhythms of the night.
Drawing from his book, The Sleepless Ape: The Story of Sleep in Human Evolution, Samson explores how sleep helped sculpt human cognition, cooperation, vigilance, parenting, and culture. The talk reframes sleep as more than a private health habit. It is a window into our evolutionary past and a living biological system still negotiating the demands of modern life.
Special offer: Add a copy of The Sleepless Ape: The Story of Sleep in Human Evolution to your registration and receive 40% off the retail price. Pre-ordered books can be picked up at the event and signed by Professor David R. Samson following the lecture.
About the Speaker
David R. Samson is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto Mississauga and Director of the Sleep and Human Evolution Lab. A biological anthropologist, he studies the evolution of sleep, cognition, and social life across humans and other primates, using non-invasive technologies to record sleep and sleep architecture in lemurs, orangutans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and human communities. His fieldwork has taken him from great ape nesting sites in Africa to Hadza hunter-gatherer camps in Tanzania.
His research has been featured by outlets including the BBC, Time, The New York Times, New Scientist and National Geographic. He is the author of The Sleepless Ape: The Story of Sleep in Human Evolution.
Have questions about this event?
Contact Regional Programs at regional.programs@utoronto.ca
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