"How to Sleep Like a Caveman" offers a fresh and insightful perspective on achieving better sleep by drawing on principles from ancient times. The book does a good job of explaining complex concepts in a way that is easy to understand, making the advice feel practical and achievable. While some readers might find certain suggestions a bit extreme for their modern lifestyles, the overall approach is thoughtful and provides a solid framework for understanding and improving sleep hygiene. It's a really interesting read that provides actionable steps for anyone looking to ditch their restless nights and embrace a more natural way of sleeping.

😴 Bookish Thoughts
This was such a fascinating listen! As someone who struggles with insomnia, I was hooked from the title alone. The book covers so many aspects of sleep! From debunking common myths to explaining how things like light, temperature, and even our eating habits impact rest. It was incredibly insightful without feeling overwhelming.

I especially appreciated the audiobook narration. The narrator made potentially dry material feel digestible and engaging! It could’ve easily felt like a lecture , but instead it felt easy to follow.

🎧 Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🎙️ Narration Style: Solo
🎧 Pub Date: May 20, 2025

Thank you to HarperAudio and NetGalley for the advanced listening copy. All thoughts are my own.

How to Sleep Like a Caveman by Merijn van de Laar is an informative introduction to the science behind sleeping well. Weaving historical sleep methods with modern science, this book provides multiple methods for having the most effective sleep possible.

My biggest takeaway from How to Sleep Like a Caveman? Most sleep studies are poorly designed. Merijn van de Laar explains how so much of what we think we know about sleep is based on bad science and worse reporting. Surprise! We don't need eight hours of sleep at night. This book leans heavily into the idea that it isn't actually poor sleep which is to blame for many of our sleep issues, it is the way we think about sleep. It is stressing about not sleeping which turns not sleeping into a major problem. Lots of food for thought. I appreciate the very specific and practical advice found in the last part of the book. Thank you to the author, narrator, publisher, and NetGalley for the eARC.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC in audiobook format.

How to Sleep Like a Caveman: Ancient Wisdom for a Better Night’s Rest by Merijn van de Laar, narrated by Joe Eyre

In a world obsessed with sleep hacks, blue-light blockers, and melatonin gummies, How to Sleep Like a Caveman offers a refreshingly primal perspective: maybe the secret to better sleep isn’t more technology—but less of it. Merijn van de Laar, a sleep scientist and self-proclaimed “recovering insomniac,” invites listeners to step back—way back—to the Paleolithic era, where our ancestors slept under stars, not stress.

This audiobook is part science, part anthropology, and part gentle rebellion against modern sleep myths. Van de Laar dismantles the tyranny of the eight-hour rule, critiques the overprescription of sleep meds, and urges us to embrace our natural rhythms—even if that means waking up at 3 a.m. and not panicking about it. His tone is warm, witty, and deeply humane, making complex research feel like a fireside chat rather than a lecture.

Joe Eyre’s narration is a perfect match. His voice is calm without being soporific, articulate without sounding clinical. He delivers van de Laar’s insights with a quiet confidence that feels more like a trusted guide than a guru. Whether he’s explaining the evolutionary logic behind segmented sleep or the psychological toll of chasing perfection, Eyre keeps the pace steady and the tone reassuring.

What makes this audiobook stand out is its blend of ancient wisdom and modern compassion. It doesn’t promise miracle cures—it offers perspective. And in a culture that treats sleep as a productivity tool, that’s radical.

This was my first time reading a nonfiction book about sleep, and more specifically about sleep difficulties, despite the fact that this is something I’ve personally struggled with for as long as I can remember. I found this book to be a solid and engaging introduction to the topic, and I really appreciated how it wove together historical, anthropological, and scholarly perspectives in a way that flowed well together.

I thought that this book struck a thoughtful balance between exploring the history of sleep and presenting current scientific research, which helped prevent it from becoming bogged down in one over the other. That said, I did find parts of it a bit repetitive, and there were some structural challenges that made it harder to stay fully engaged throughout. These issues didn’t detract from the content itself, but they did make me lose focus at times.

I also want to note that certain parts of the book felt somewhat insensitive or lacking in critical reflection; sometimes in relatively minor ways, such as a word choice, and at other times more significantly, such as in the way some cultures and communities, both past and present, were portrayed. There were moments where the language or framing felt overly simplified or detached from the broader historical and scientific contexts in which that knowledge was produced for Western audiences (which are/were often extractive and/or exploitative). A more nuanced, careful approach would have strengthened the book’s engagement with these topics and the people whose experiences and practices it draws upon.

Nevertheless, I found this to be an interesting and worthwhile read, full of useful information, resources, and avenues to explore in more detail. It’s definitely sparked my interest to explore the topic of sleep further and, in that sense, I think the book succeeds in doing what the author aims for in their professional work: helping people better understand, and ultimately improve, their relationship with sleep.

3.75 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperAudio for the advanced copy for review. Opinions are my own.

By the title of the book I assumed we were going to learn how you could just pass out and sleep all night. but one of the things I found truly fascinating was what all relates back to the caveman or ancient Man that we have ended up bringing forward even though we live in a totally different life. I guess maybe with enough years of microevolution we maybe could weed some of that out. but the other thing I absolutely love about this book is everything is fact-based. so there's a study for everything that is talked about in this book. and he was very open pointing out if that study one way or the other was a very small study that only contained a small population or if it was a meta study or what was going on. I appreciate it that. but I definitely found some highly interesting things. I wanted to try out the sleep journal but I don't think I quite followed exactly what we were supposed to do to find out how much sleep my body required. I wanted to go and refer back to it so I was hoping to find a print edition or PDFs and there isn't such a thing. now this was a preview copy of the audio and so perhaps in the released audio there might be a PDF, and I'm sure there will be a print copy made available. definitely worth the read if you have any interest in sleep whether good or bad or just finding out about sleep

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperAudio for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was intrigued by this audiobook because I value my sleep so much, I wanted to learn more about how to sleep effectively or more soundly. This book does just that.

In his book, Van de Laar discusses the sleep studies conducted on modern day hunter-gatherers (as close as we could get to how cavemen likely slept) and compares the trends to Western societies. He then gives advice and help on how to train our sleep to mimick these, and ideally, help with issues like insomnia or daytime sleepiness.

Van de Laar breaks down common myths, tips, and tricks, and debunks or supports them using research. I really appreciate that he emphasizes the research and science behind each commonly known trick or social media trend to determine whether it’s based in science or not. He also gives his input as to why certain things may or may not work, based on his background as a sleep therapist.

Overall, the book was easy to listen to, and was backed by research and meta analyses instead of just surface level “help”. I’ll definitely be applying some of these tips to my sleep!

I’m always interested in learning about how to get better sleep, knowing how much it is linked to longevity, health, and low inflammation. I appreciated the scientific evidence that this book provided as well as the practical tips. I learned a lot about how I can reform my own sleep life And really enjoy the aspect of this book that connected to that of Neanderthals. The audiobook was a perfect medium for this, I thought the narrator did very well , which helped me to keep up.

If you enjoyed Why We Sleep, you will love Sleep Like a Caveman. It is more focused on practical tips for sleeping, but still includes a lot of theory about why we sleep the way we do. It's a lovely blend of anthropology, psychology, and biology. The tone is hopeful rather than preachy, it makes you excited about getting better sleep rather than feeling guilty over bad sleep.

When I teach students to analyze arguments and rhetoric, I always ask "was it persuasive enough to make you do something differently from now on?" and even when they think the argument is well written and well reasoned, that question sometimes makes them realize it still wasn't persuasive enough to make a change. This is one book that, for people personally, IS persuasive enough for me to try new sleep habits. I think the premise of "what environment did we evolve to sleep best in" is clever, and the title is not just attention-grabbing, it really is a through line to every chapter.

I’ve read several books on sleep and followed many suggestions on how to get a better nights rest but none seem to help. I appreciated that this book provided a lot of scientific studies and was so thorough in its explanation on the many different things that can hinder our sleep. While I’m not sure I believe that cavemen were truly better sleepers, I do find the focus on our human needs for sleep from an evolutionary aspect to be fascinating. I’ll definitely be looking more into some of the tips provided to see if they help. Some parts of the book seemed to get drawn out with scientific studies and medical jargon. While I appreciate the data, I would have liked to see more information with tips and methods for the listener. I also appreciated how many “myths” about sleep were debunked.

The narrator did a great job in catching my attention. I definitely would recommend this book to someone who is interested in improving their sleep.

I don’t read many self help type books but I’ve always had a number of issues when it comes to sleeping so when I saw the arc for this I decided to give it a go. I honestly didn’t think it would be that big of a help but I didn’t see how it could hurt and hey, maybe I can learn a couple of things.

This book is all about sleep, of course. It talks about what sleep is, why we sleep, how to create the ideal conditions for sleep to happen, and it talks about several sleep disorders at the end of the book.

I’m sure this has a lot of information in it that could help people. I just think this information is delivered in just about the worst way you could deliver it. The book is written by a sleep specialist and sleep therapist and you can tell. This is not a good thing. The information is given in a very scientific and stiff way and I had the worst time trying to focus on it. I read this via audiobook and I had to keep rewinding because I realized that the overflow or information and statistics was causing me to zone out and not realize what I was actually listening to. (I told this to several people I know and they all said the goal of the book may be to bore you to sleep when listening). I honestly doubt I’m going to remember a majority of what I listening to by the end of the week let alone long term.

Like I said I’m sure that there is some good advice in here and some people are going to take a lot out of this but I’m not one of these people. Maybe I have to listen to it again to fully absorb the contents? I don’t know. Overall I’m not sure I recommend this but I’m not mad I read it.

This book was… pretty good. It is really written with insomniacs in mind, and the two take away messages I got are:

1) if you are having trouble sleeping, or you think you are lying awake too long at night, it’s okay to sleep less. So if you are in bed for nine hours, but sleep for six, it’s okay to only spend six hours in bed. He goes in detail about how to do this properly (this numbers, and how to increase and so on). He talks about how most of us don’t actually need nine hours in bed.

2) if you are lying awake at night, that’s okay. He talks in detail about how this one tribe spends nine hours in bed, but is only asleep for a little over six, and how that is normal. If you are laying in bed, resting, that’s okay, and almost as good as sleep. The problem only comes when you worry about why you aren’t sleeping.

Honestly, after writing this out, I increased my rating to five stars. It’s a little dry, but I do think I’ll listen to it again.

I learned so much from this book. Very informative and enjoyable. A great read.

So much useful information about sleep which has been a long term issue for me.

I usually enjoy listening to books about sleeping slowly as I go to bed at night. However, I received this one over a holiday weekend so I listened to it pretty quickly.

Overall, I thought it had great information for better sleep hygiene, and what I found most interesting is the argument against the need for 8 hours of sleep every night. Maybe that will help my sleep anxieties a bit?

Excellent listen and very engaging audio! Full of facts and advice clearly explained and connected to many many examples. Would recommend!!

Where’s my fellow night owls? If you’re looking for something to listen to during those sleepless hours, I’ve got a fresh audiobook rec! How To Sleep Like a Caveman, by sleep therapist and scientist Dr. Merijn van de Laar.

This audiobook reviews the history of human sleep patterns, tracing back to our caveman days. It publishes on May 20th, following its book format release earlier this year. Dr. van de Laar explores archaeological findings and anthropological studies, busts some sleep myths, and shares handy tips for improving your sleep hygiene.

I’ve explored quite a few books and podcasts on sleep, and while this one has some great insights, personally I found it a tad repetitive and not as deep on the anthropological side as I had hoped. The doctor shares his own sleep challenges, which adds a personal touch, but I didn’t walk away with a ton of new knowledge.

That said, I still enjoyed the listening experience! These kind of health-help nonfiction books tend to resonate with me better via audio. I also think the narrator did a fantastic job, adding a witty flair that kept me engaged.

*I listened to the ALC via NetGalley and Harper Audio Adult. It’s a 3.5 rounded up for me:)