Camping Helps Set Circadian Clocks Straight

cold fjord writes "Counsel & Heal reports, 'Many people are stuck in the vicious cycle of late nights and late mornings. However, a new study reveals that a week of camping in the great outdoors may help people set their clocks straight. A new study, published in the journal Current Biology, reveals that if given a chance, our body's internal biological clocks will tightly synchronize to a natural, midsummer light-dark cycle. The study found that a week of exposure to true dawn and dusk with no artificial lights had a significant effect on people who might otherwise describe themselves as night owls. Researchers found that under those conditions, night owls quickly become early birds. "By increasing our exposure to sunlight and reducing our exposure to electrical lighting at night, we can turn our internal clock and sleep times back and likely make it easier to awaken and be alert in the morning," Kenneth Wright of the University of Colorado Boulder said in a news release.'"

Comments

Try having a child

[ControlFreal]

It does the same thing, for years on end, without having to take vacation days. The funny thing is that you do actually get used to it; I was a night owl, but not anymore. Now, if I do sleep in, I actually wake up with a headache.

Re:Try having a child

[girlintraining]

It does the same thing, for years on end, without having to take vacation days. The funny thing is that you do actually get used to it; I was a night owl, but not anymore. Now, if I do sleep in, I actually wake up with a headache.

Of course, this doesn't work for everyone. Like any definition of "normal" it fails to notice that variation in the population may be an evolutionary strategy with benefits to the whole, while perhaps sub-optimal for the individual. Or that there's simply not sufficient selection pressure for homogenization. Or even that certain 'mutations' confer an evolutionary advantage (though most result in death or disability, true enough!).

In this case, having the occasional night owl might be useful to a tribe to keep watch for predators, who often hunt at night. Having them nodding off because they're not really night owls while everyone else sleeps wouldn't just affect the individual's reproductive success... but the entire tribe's.

In other news, being a night owl is a bona fide medical condition with a genetic basis and high comorbidity with certain other disorders. And as we gain better understanding, we're finding a significant fraction of the population isn't just a "lifestyle change" away from a cure. The only reason it's classified as a disorder is because of society's narrow views on what is normal and useful; Not because it's unnatural or needs to be "fixed". For some things, it's society that needs to adapt, not the individual.

Re:Surprise

[jones_supa]

With computers (blue lights destroys Melatonin and thus makes you less sleepy), days last longer and longer.

There's a neat program called f.lux which smoothly cranks down your display's color temperature when the night comes. I'm not sure if it makes any big difference in terms of melatonin production, but it can create a bit more relaxing atmosphere to the evenings. Suits also yellowish indoor lighting.

Re:Turn off the god damn sun so I can get some sle

[hurwak-feg]

Call it bullshit, but even things that you consider innate should still be held to the standard of peer review publishing. Remember, it was once innate that the earth is flat. People studying "scratch, itch, or not blink" and not too long ago smoking figure out things about health effects of all sorts of things that are innately harmless because there is no immediate affect. Asbestos, lead, and smoking come to mind.

Attacking science, no matter what popular opinion of it is, is dangerous. You didn't die of some terrible disease because scientists figured out vaccines. Engineers using what scientists figured out about electricity, magnetism, and mathematics built the computer you are using to read about this "bullshit". We already have enough anti-intellectualism in this world. There are morons in congress (and people who vote for them) that want to take a religious, "common sense", or tough guy approach to problems even in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Considering sleep quality and quantity is vital to a persons mental and physical health, sleep research is important. There might be some people reading this that have never lived in a rural area and have never been camping that might just have sleep problems that could benefit from this.

Re:Surprise

[xaxa]

Debian/Ubuntu/etc users could easily install the 'redshift' package: http://jonls.dk/redshift/

If it helps, my config file at ~/.config/redshift.conf is:

; Global settings
[redshift]
temp-day=6400
temp-night=3900
location-provider=manual

; The location provider and adjustment method settings
; are in their own sections.
[manual]
lat=51.5
lon=-0.1

(Also, I'm disappointed to see "f.lux is patent pending" at the bottom of their page.)

On Android, I have added a "Night Mode" button. I think this is only possible with Cyanogenmod, and it's an on-off change, rather than the gradual change done with f.lux or redshift.