Have you ever noticed that when you don’t get enough sleep, everybody around you becomes so stupid? I mean, how do those stupid people know to show up the next day and to be so annoying? How do they know when I’ve had a bad sleep, and why do they torture me with their incompetence and irrationality!
I wouldn’t mind, but the same people act wonderfully after I’ve have a great night sleep. They understand me. They follow directions perfectly. They get what I am trying to accomplish and they help me in every way that they can. It’s almost like they are different people.
I’ve never quite understood this phenomenon or even how those are able to act exactly in accordance to how tired I am. What I have understood however, is that if I want to have a productive day, I need to ensure that I get a good nights sleep the night before. That way, the people that I work with show up with a much livelier group!
The one factor that I have found to increase sleep time is light modification. Until Thomas Edison decided to change the world, there were distinct periods of each day that had a light cycle and a dark cycle. As the world evolved around its own axis, some areas would be exposed to the sun and the other side of the earth would be exposed to darkness.
Edison changed that when he invented the light bulb. Now we have light 24/7. In the grand scheme of things, it’s great. With never-ending light we now have “more time”. We have more time for work, play and whatever else we choose to do with the “extra” time.
The big problem with this however, is that we don’t sleep anymore. Not only don’t we sleep anymore, we literally CAN’T. Light, whether artificial or real, means one thing to our brain – daytime. And when it’s daytime, we’re not designed to be sleeping.
The system that dictates our internal sleepiness and arousal is the circadian rhythm. This system is regulated by the environment outside of us, mainly via the light/dark cycle. Our brains receive light/dark information largely through our eyes and this is dictated by the circadian rhythm.
When you have signals that tell your brain it’s daytime, such as staring at a light coming from a t.v or computer, then you disrupt this natural signal. These light signals release “arousal” hormones and that’s why you are wide awake at 10.30 p.m at night. Since our brains don’t understand artificial light, it can only make sense of the situation by assuming it’s daytime.
The solution is to turn off all the lights. When its supposed to be dark, its supposed to be dark. We run into another problem here however. It’s impossible to turn off the lights! We’ve become too accustomed to them. We need our TV’s at night. We need our computers at night. We need our artificial light!
The next best solution, and this may sound weird, is to wear sunglasses at nighttime. If you are going to be exposing yourself to artificial light then wearing sunglasses will at least curtail some of that affect.
Since light going into your eyes is the primary indicator of light/dark cycles, blocking the light will go a long way to keeping your natural body rhythms in check. Sunglasses are an easy way to do that. It’s not the ultimate solution, but if it helps you get a good nights sleep, then it’s definitely worth the abuse that you’re going to get from your friends!
Conor Hughes is a performance coach specializing in fitness, wellness, accelerated learning and longevity. Conor has a blog where here explores these areas through the process of neuroplasticity. You can learn more about Conor and his journey into neuroplasticity by visiting his blog What is Neuroplasticity