1 Minute - The amount of time, on average per night, that a group of modern Tanzanian hunter-gatherers were all asleep at the same time. Experts say the minuscule overlap supports the notion that humans evolved different sleep patterns as a way to ensure someone was up to alert others of nighttime threats, such as predators.
Pet peeve of mine, a lot of descriptions are like this where the implications are that the evolution was directed and intentional (as a way to ensure someone was up). In reality it's less glamorous. The humans who happened to be randomly de-synchronized in their sleep patterns didn't get eaten by tigers or murdered by bands of ruffians. The ones who all slept at the same time ended up dying and didn't pass on these 'sleep at the same time' genes to their offspring. That's the evolutionary pressure, not some sort of evolving different patterns as a way to ensure someone was up to alert others. That sounds so carefully planned out.
Really what we think happens is random mutations give a survival advantage.
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