Why don’t humans hibernate?

As the mercury plummets and back-to-work blues set in for much of humankind in the UK, many other creatures are cosily spending winter in a blissfully dormant state of hibernation.

It would be easy to envy bats, bears and hedgehogs their seasonal torpor, but research has suggested that humans once hibernated, too – and scientists believe we may one day do so again.

Why don’t humans hibernate?

It’s mostly a question of time and geography. Our evolutionary ancestors were “tropical animals with no history of hibernating”...