Thursday, April 16, 2009
In most college students younger years, and maybe even in recent years, sleeping with the light on was a necessity. Turns out, sleeping with the light on can screw up your sleep cycle.
Light, including sunlight and artificial light, affects our bodies in different ways. When it’s bright, light signals transfer from our eyes to suprachiasmatic nuclei, which are made up of tiny brain cells, and promote wakefulness. In a darker environment, our brains produce the hormone melatonin, which triggers sleep. Certain exposures to light and dark in a day maintains our circadian rhythms.
Nighty night: Sleeping with the lights off promotes a better sleeping environment because darker environments help the brain produce sleep-aiding hormones.
Sleeping in a bright room can make it harder to fall asleep and prevent our circadian rhythms from working properly, says Gary Carder, registered respiratory therapist at Pulmonary and Sleep Associates in Topeka. The supra chiasmatic nucleus controls our body’s biological clock. Exposure to too much light during the night confuses our body’s day/night cycle, Carder says.
He recommends making a bedroom as dark as possible when sleeping. If you sleep during the daytime, shutting off a bedroom from the sunlight will make it easier to fall asleep.
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