Although my blog's time is near it's end, this has been an entry I've been dying to write for the past week and a half.
I have struggled with proper sleep for as long as I can remember. Ever since I was little, my parents would try to force me to go to sleep at 11pm. I would lie in bed and toss and turn and not fall asleep until much later. This gave way to college, where free reign over my own schedule led to disastrous and dysfunctional consequences. I ended up sleeping later and later until at one point in time, I was literally going to sleep when the sun rose and waking up when then sun set. Not exactly a healthy lifestyle by any means, but I'm sure anyone else that has been through college and had to cram for exams can identify on some extent.
Now that a large majority of us are working professionals, the issue of sleep becomes even more important because there never seems to be enough hours in the day to take care of our personal errands after eight hours of work. Since I started this blog, the single most difficult hurdle to overcome in my workout regimen was to wake up in the mornings and do cardio. Below is a sample chart of my current circadian rhythm to illustrate.
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Millions of us suffer from this condition and it's actually a fairly common one entitled Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS). This is a result of our internal circadian rhythms not being in sync with a regular 24 hour day. Of course, in the past before electricity and artificial light, this was never a problem because we received our cues to wake up and go to sleep from the sun. We lived outdoors. These days, we spend the majority of our time indoors, away from the sun. To exacerbate this situation further, we have LED computer monitors, TVs and artificial lighting which confuse our brains even more. As a result, we stay up later, and we wake up later. We're groggy and tired all day long. It's a vicious cycle which leads us to being less productive and less likely to achieve our health & fitness goals (or any other goals for that matter).
The Science:
In the back of our eyes, in addition to the rod & cone photoreceptors, there's another type that scientists have recently discovered (well, more like 10 years ago) called 'melanopsin' photoreceptors. These photoreceptors lie on the edges of the retina and have but one primary purpose, which is to absorb a specific wavelength of blue light. Any guess as to what this wavelength of blue light looks like? This should come as no surprise when I tell you it is the color of the clear blue sky. When this type of blue light hits these photoreceptors, it initiates a cascade of hormonal reactions in your brain that cause you to WAKE UP.
Not sleeping well? Feeling groggy in the mornings? Can't go to sleep at night? When was the last time you saw the blue sky for, oh I dunno, 15-20 minutes per day in the mornings? Never? Me too. What's more is that artificial indoor light provides almost none of this wavelength of light.
Fortunately for us, the lovely people over at Phillips have created a solution to this. It is a simple device called the GoLite BLU that emits a ton of blue light from this wavelength. The great things about this product are:
1. It cues your body to have a natural hormonal response instead of artificially ingesting hormones like melatonin.
2. Light therapy for correcting sleep overlaps with correcting jet lag and Seasonal Affective Disorder (People who get moody during the winter months)
3. It is proven to work. I just received the item in the mail last night so I can't testify to its effectiveness yet, but over 200 reviewers at Amazon.com giving an average of 4.5 stars saying how this device has turned them from chronic night owls to morning people can't be all wrong. In addition to this, Timothy Ferris of 4 Hour Body quotes this to be the singularly most effective corrective sleeping tool in his arsenal. Check it out here.
Ultimately, if you have problems sleeping, one of the first things you should analyze are your light cues. Respect the fact that your body's internal clock is sensitive and reacts to light. How much natural sunlight are you getting when you wake up? How much artificial light is keeping you up in the evenings (Computer monitors, TVs, having all the lights on)? Are you sleeping in complete darkness? Do you use curtains to block out the sun so you can sleep until noon? These are all things that can mess up your circadian rhythm.
For more information and a test/chart to see how off your internal clock is, check out this website:
I wish you a sound night's sleep!
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