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.
Winter weather’s affects on mood can be ...
One professor says vitamins, sunlight, activity and enough sleep can help students ...
The Science of Sleep
How your sleeping habits affect your lifestyle
A good night’s sleep relies on many ...
A regular sleep schedule, stress management and natural aids all help the ...
A case of the jerks
What’s behind those sudden slumber interruptions?
Sleeping through school
Siestas in sociology? Napping in neurobiology? Keeping up your energy for class ...
Better Options for Bad Situations: Naps
If you're going to do it, be smart.
Beat the winter blues
Winter months bring depression, affect sleep patterns and mood
Beating the winter blues
Sleep apart, stay together
Why sleeping separately is good for some relationships.
Good for you/bad for you
Watching late night shows could be disrupting your sleep.
Blue Christmas
Some people think cabin feer is to blame for a change in ...
Electronics cause sleep loss
Even the presence in a bedroom of devices such as computers and ...
More ZZZ's Please
Enter unconsciousness and see what goes on before the alarm clock goes ...
Better Options for Bad Situations: Napping
If you're going to do it, be smart.
To hell and back
A fight outside Naismith Hall began Thor Nystrom's year-long journey into the ...
Daytime dozin'
Jayhawk Dirty Talk
Peter offers advice to a with a interesting sleeping issue.
Add some zzz's to get some A's
Getting sleep during finals week can pay off on actual exams.
Beating the winter blues
Simple ways to combat your cabin fever.
Good For You, Bad For You: Wearing ...
Sometimes it's hard to tell.
The A to Zzzzz's of Napping
Are you a napper?
Sleep awareness week confronts bad student hygiene
Tables on campus Monday through Thursday offer tips for healthier sleeping.
Winter Warning
Winter weather poses a dangerous threat to skin, hair and nails. Cruel ...
More than a pretty campus
Explore nature and improve your health by stepping off the sidewalk
Saha: ‘Limitless’undervalues power of human brain
'Limitless' fails to recognize the power of the natural human brain,without cognitive ...
Depression plagues college students
Young people’s transition from high school to college often forces them to ...
Overworked students' dangerous race against time
Is too much work and too little time putting students' health at ...
Addicted to love
Falling in love resembles the physical effects of cocaine.
For Pain or for Party
The highs and lows of prescription painkillers and sedatives
Adderall addiction?
Students who abuse the stimulant love the high but hate the fall
The gift of the garden
‘Tis the season to watch out for ...
Stressful winter months can bring on a form of depression known as ...
Hartz: Diet colas, artificial sugar will drown ...
Two big studies found that drinking one can of diet soda a ...
Skills in scent-uality
Harness the power of smell to help you relax.
Not-so-common knowledge
Mythbusters - KU style
Basketball boot camp starts this week
That's disgusting: not wearing socks
The sock was invented for a reason.
Exercising care while pursuing perfection
Experts dispel myths, dispense advice on achieving a healthy workout.
One night of fun, one day of ...
The inside scoop on hangovers
Snap shot
Simple tips to improve your photographs.
Kansas Jayhawk fans hold aloft a reproduction of ...
2 comments
Erin Saupe, a Ph.D. student from St. Cloud, ...
1 comment
0 comments
Armed robbers continue to threaten.
3 comments
Lecture from Greg Mortenson, co-author of New York ...
0 comments
KUnited presidential candidate Libby Johnson and vice presidential ...
1 comment
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID