Vampires have it right — why sleeping in complete darkness is a good idea
One of the most important aspects of recovery – not to mention enjoying life in general – is sleeping well. Some new research is telling us how to do that.
Eliminating all light has been a long-standing recommendation for maximizing sleep hygiene, an idiosyncratic term for the preparation process for quality sleep. Now, a study from Brown University is showing that there’s more to this process than just turning out the lights or covering up the eyes.
This vampire is going to have a terrible morning
Exposure of human skin to ultraviolet radiation promotes a calcium signaling response. What made this experiment different was that researchers were able to determine that melanocytes (human melanin-producing skin cells) contain rhodopsin. What’s rhodopsin? A light-sensitive receptor was previously thought to exist only in the eye. That’s right, your skin can see – at least in a manner of speaking.
Exposure to artificial light has produced inconclusive results in other experiments but there seems to be a clear correlation between UV light and melatonin – a sleep regulating hormone. Now that rhodopsin has been found in malanocytes, we can make a clearer connection between exposure to sunlight and wakefulness.
In the days before alarm clocks to wake us up and electric lights to keep us up, synching up sleep cycles with the rise and fall of the sun made a lot of sense. However, now that we’re extending ourselves beyond the rhythms that millions of years worth of evolution have developed, we have to be as diligent as possible in ensuring that the little sleep we get is of the highest possible quality.
On the practical side, this means investing in a set of black-out blinds or, at the very least, covering up like a Victorian while you get your Zs.
Geoff
Melanocytes doing their thing
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Interesting study and conclusion here. I totally need the room to be pitch black in order to get a restful nights sleep. If I sleep in a room without room darkening blinds, then I will be easily awoken when the sun comes up. This is fine or weekdays, but on the weekends I enjoy sleeping in a bit.
take care…
03.12.2011, 4:57 pm