[Reblog]Trouble Sleeping? Go Camping

From the 2 August 2013 article at Scientific American

Artificial light sources can negatively affect circadian rhythms, scientists say

By Joel N. Shurkin and Inside Science News Service

This story was originally published byInside Science News Service.

Throughout most of human history, humans went to bed shortly after the sun went down and woke up in the morning as it rose. There were candles and later oil lamps, but the light was not very bright so people still went to bed early.

Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder found that if you live by the sun’s schedule, you are more likely to go to bed at least an hour earlier, wake up an hour earlier, and be less groggy, because your internal clock and external reality are more in sync. The sun adjusts your clock to what may be its natural state, undoing the influence of light bulbs.

The work is published in the current issue of the journal Current Biology.

The disconnect between the outside environment and sleep is one reason why even native Alaskans have problems sleeping in the almost endless days of the Arctic summers, and get depressed during the long nights of winters.

The subjects in the Colorado study lived more normal lives.

Read the entire article here

Related articles

• Study: Can camping reboot your sleep cycle? (designntrend.com)
• Camping for a week resets body clock (bbc.co.uk)
• Waking Up Tired? Blame Electricity (news.sciencemag.org)
• A week’s worth of camping synchs internal clock to sunrise and sunset, CU-Boulder study finds. (zedie.wordpress.com)
• Camping Could Reset Your Internal Clock: The Answer to Sleep Woes (scienceworldreport.com)
• A week of camping can make you a morning person (salon.com)
• Artificial light causing drowsiness (stuff.co.nz)