Here is some interesting advice:
Morning light seemed to be particularly powerful: those exposed to a high stimulus between 8:00 and 12:00 took an average 18 minutes to fall asleep at night, compared to 45 minutes in the low stimulus group. They slept for an extra 20 minutes. Their sleep efficiency was 2.8% higher. And they reported significantly fewer sleep disturbances. These associations were stronger during winter, when people may have had less opportunity to receive natural light during their journey to work.
Gordijn also recently published a study which found that people slept better following more exposure to daylight. Here, the participants were wired up to polysomnography monitors to record their sleep in detail. “People had more deep sleep, and it was less fragmented after more exposure to daylight,” Gordijn says.
Makes sense to me. I absolutely despise gloomy days, which we have plenty of in Minnesota. I am solar powered and really need sunshine to have energy for the day, and to be able to sleep deeply at night.
ReplyDeleteWell, to me it seems just another theory with some science mixed in because I sleep less and there's more disturbance between April and August - it just isn't dark enough over here :-D
ReplyDeleteBut seriously speaking, even on a cloudy day in winter, there is more sunlight outside than inside. So you need to get out (shoveling snow for an hour is excellent exercise...) While you are breathing fresh air your blood becomes ''refreshed'' and you can think more clearly instead of wallowing in your worries which in itself helps in falling and staying asleep during night. Most times occasional insomnia is just ''something that keeps you awake'' ie stress/worry we didn't get out of our mind during the day.
It's actually quite an interesting article though a long one.
ReplyDeleteIt basically says that we need both light and darkness to regulate our sleep, and that the morning light acts like a double espresso, so it figures that people would sleep less in summer. Here in June it starts getting light at about 3.30 a.m., so I can sympathise:)
Fully agree about how important it is to get outside, apparently before midday is the best time...
Medcram (Roger Seheult MD) covers studies about this on a January 21st youtube video (Sunlight: Optimize Health and Immunity (Light Therapy and Melatonin)). Apparently researchers found that morning sun exposure (or 10,000 lumen light) affects cortisol and melatonin in the mitochondria (different from the pineal gland melatonin which gives us night time sleep) - very interesting stuff. On very cloudy days, 30 minutes of outside light in the am should be sufficient, less time with less clouds - or being 11 to 15 inches (28 to 38cm) from a 10,000 lux light in the morning for 20 to 30 minutes. In the video they say that if you can get light before 9am, it is best for the circadian rhythm. It is a long video, but is split up into bite size sections so it's easy to find what interests most.
ReplyDelete