Rural Eastern Cape villagers showed average Total Sleep Time of 7.6 hours, with men responsible for livestock having significantly higher % Light Sleep and lower % REM Sleep, and temperature being associated with changes in all sleep stages.
Average Total Sleep Time in the rural Eastern Cape community was 7.6 hours per night.
Average sleep architecture proportions were approximately 59.9% Light Sleep, 17.9% REM Sleep, and 22.2% Deep Sleep.
Men who cared for livestock had significantly higher % Light Sleep and lower % REM Sleep compared to men without livestock.
Temperature was positively associated with % Light Sleep and negatively associated with both % REM Sleep and % Deep Sleep.
Livestock presence did not significantly affect % Deep Sleep in either men or women.
This research suggests that rural villagers in the Eastern Cape of South Africa sleep an average of about 7.6 hours per night, which is broadly in line with general sleep recommendations. The study tracked sleep across 370 nights using ŌURA smart rings worn by 30 community members, measuring how much time people spent in Light Sleep, REM (dream) Sleep, and Deep Sleep. This naturalistic approach allowed researchers to observe sleep in people's actual home environments rather than in a laboratory setting. One notable finding is that men who were responsible for caring for livestock slept differently than men without livestock — they had more Light Sleep and less REM Sleep. REM sleep is associated with memory consolidation and emotional processing, so disruptions to it could have implications for cognitive and emotional wellbeing. Women's sleep was not significantly affected by livestock presence in the same way, which may reflect differences in how caregiving responsibilities are distributed by gender in this community. Additionally, warmer temperatures were linked to lighter, less restful sleep overall, affecting all three sleep stages. This research suggests that factors unique to rural, non-industrialized life — such as animal husbandry responsibilities and ambient temperature — shape sleep quality in ways that may differ from populations studied in industrialized settings. The authors emphasize the importance of studying sleep in naturalistic, diverse cultural contexts, as most sleep research has been conducted in Western, industrialized populations, potentially limiting how broadly those findings apply.
Kilius E, Li M, Samson D. (2026). Assessing Sleep Architecture in Rural Eastern Cape Villagers of South Africa Using ŌURA Ring Data.. American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.70215