"It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change."
— Darwin
Dreamspan is an evolution research and product company.
We're asking one fundamental question: what's the future of human healthspan?
We’re uncovering answers by building at the intersection of evolutionary biology & current technologies.
The Problem
Today, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment in human history: our biology and modern environments have never been so fundamentally mismatched.
Humanity has seen three big revolutions—agricultural, industrial, digital—that changed everything. But our bodies still evolve at nature's slow pace.
We have termed this mismatch between our fast-changing environment and slow-evolving biology the evolutionary delta—a disconnect driving many of today's greatest health challenges.
We have identified 3 broad evolutionary deltas:
1. Evolutionary Lag
A mismatch where biological systems evolve too slowly to keep pace with rapid environmental change.
Example: The Respiratory System
Our respiratory system evolved to deal with the natural particulates of an old world. Today, our air is filled with modern pollutants—vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions, and indoor fumes that our bodies never anticipated.
The Problem: Our respiratory system hasn't yet evolved to handle modern pollutants.
2. Evolutionary Misalignment
Traits that were adaptive in ancestral environments but are maladaptive in modern contexts due to altered conditions.
Example: The Metabolic Reward System
Our bodies evolved in environments where sugar was scarce—a critical source of quick energy that signaled survival. This scarcity triggered a robust dopamine response to sugar consumption. In our current post-scarcity world, however, the abundance of sugar has transformed this once-beneficial trait into a liability.
In 1700, people consumed roughly 4 pounds/year of sugar. By 2012, that number had soared to 180 pounds/year.
The Problem: Our metabolic reward system, optimized for scarcity, now drives chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease in an age of abundance.
3. Evolutionary Bug
Flaws or trade-offs in evolved systems that create vulnerabilities.
Example: The Challenge of Sleep
Sleep is a biological necessity, but evolution has left us with a flawed design. During REM sleep—the phase where our brains consolidate memories, process emotions, and refine learning—our bodies face an evolutionary trade-off. To prevent us from physically acting out our vivid dreams, the brain hijacks the hypothalamus to induce temporary muscle paralysis. Yet this survival mechanism also sabotages a critical function: the hypothalamus's ability to regulate body temperature. In non-ideal ambient temperatures, this flaw forces the brain to prematurely exit REM sleep—sacrificing cognitive restoration for survival.
The Problem: We're left with a paradox: the same system designed to protect us during dreams actively undermines the quality of our rest.
Our Vision
At Dreamspan, our vision is to bridge evolutionary deltas to advance the human healthspan.
We believe the next revolution will be a healthspan revolution.
Our company's one true metric: the amount of time we add to the human healthspan.
Sahu,
Founder, Dreamspan