Hate waking up in the mornings? This is how you can change that
Have you ever wondered why you always hit the snooze button for an extra 15 to 30 minutes of sleep in the morning?
It’s because our sleep/wake cycle or ‘circadian rhythm’ is not naturally in sync with our artificial clock or the natural one.
Instead, it is a little slower, running for 24 hours and 30 minutes on average, says global lighting major Philips in a whitepaper on the subject. This, it says, means we are naturally inclined to sleep and wake 30 minutes later each day.
If this slower rhythm is not regulated then by the end of the week our sleep/wake cycle could be off by more than two hours and we would be hitting that snooze button quite frequently, it adds. But how do we regulate it – without using the despised alarm clocks, that is?
Light scientists may have actually come up with a solution for that one.
Exposure to blue-rich morning light can speed up our circadian rhythm to wake us up earlier and improve the daily functioning of people with an early morning lifestyle, says Philips.
Lighting expert Professor Derk Jan Dijk, University of Surrey, adds: “Dimming lights a few hours before bedtime facilitates a more rapid onset to sleep and it will prevent your body clock from being shifted to later hours. If you want to shift your clock to earlier hours it is good to be exposed to light and specifically high intensity blue-rich light, when you wake up.”
In the whitepaper, Philips compiles key insights from over 10 years of ongoing research about the effect of light on our ‘circadian rhythm’.
Source: Emirates 24/7
Published: 01 Nov 2014
