Do you know any real-life morning people? The kind who hop out of bed five minutes before the alarm and immediately spring into alertness? If you're like me, those people are exotic objects of your envy, while you try to will yourself to sleep at night and have a stress injury from hitting the snooze button too much. Sleep researchers say the most important sleep and wake-up cue for your body is light. Is the light in your life messing up your sleep cycle?
There are lots of good tips out there for people who have trouble sleeping — how and when best to eat, drink, exercise, etc. But let's focus on how light can make an impact.
Make Your Evening Dimmer. Low light stimulates the body's production of melatonin, the sleep hormone. After dinner, turn down the lights in your home. Switch out the bulbs in your bedroom for low-wattage lamps, or even light a few candles to get your brain in the mood for bedtime.
Turn Off the Screens: According to the New York Times, "the light from a computer screen or an iPad has roughly the same effect as the sun." And, since sunlight is the brain's primary signifier of 'awake time,' backlit screens should be banished from our evening rituals. This is definitely the hardest piece for me — I even commit the cardinal sin of checking my phone when I wake up in the middle of the night (you never know when it's going to be your move on Words With Friends)! But clearly that has to stop.
Blue is Bad. Of all the light to have in your bedroom, blue light is the worst, apparently because our brains interpret it as sunlit sky. So that alarm clock with the 'soothing' blue light might actually be messing with your head! Same with the classic blue glow of the TV. Try to turn screens off at least an hour before bedtime, to give your body a chance to adjust, and maybe swap out your blue clock for a differently hued display.
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You may enjoy reading Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival, by T.S. Wiley, c2000. It covers this concept in great detail.
I am a morning person married to a night person. I have learned to keep my cheerfulness to myself before 10 am. And he learned early on never to talk to me about anything serious after 9pm, or I'd still be awake, sobbing, at 3am wondering where life/marriage/ I had gone wrong.
We agree on 1) no tv in the bedroom; 2) quiet time reading, usually our Kindles, before bed (mine just starts earlier than his); 3) a cup of weak tea with milk around 9 pm-ish; 4) no huge meals or lots of alcohol in the evening.
I think establishing a routine that works for you, and sticking with it, is key.
Also, there's an iphone app - Sleep Cycle - that wakes you in your lightest sleep phase, which makes it easier to get up. I've got friends who swear by it.
There's a program you can download called F.lux http://stereopsis.com/flux/ which will dim your computer screen to mimic sun-up/sun-down which is supposed to help as it doesn't confuse your brain about what time it is. Black out curtains and my boyfriend got a timer to plug his reading lamp into as he tends to fall asleep reading then the light stays on. http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Conserve-Socket-F7C009q-Energy-Saving/dp/B003P2UMS0/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1328711056&sr=8-4
I am one of those morning people who wake up alert and fairly perky. One thing I did years ago was take a clock out of my bedroom. Actually I dropped my alarm clock, broke it and was too lazy to replace it. Relieving the stress of time ticking by in my face was revelatory. Now I use my iHome as an alarm, set to NPR, in the next room. Waking up to Satirius Johnson and Renee Montaigne is a much better way to start the day then some crazy buzzer assaulting one's senses.
We don't keep major electronics in the bedroom, like TVs or laptops. We have one red light lit radio-alarm clock (that we only use for knowing the time) on his side of the bed--so it bothers me none. :-D
Also, the bedroom is the only place where we still have incandescent lightbulbs. If I want to read, my light shouldn't be a bother to him, plus my lamp shade is a bit dark. If I use my pad for reading, I use the lowest light setting.
The only thing that bothers for sleeping is the window. I need new curtains because the ones I have now are so cheap that the sun's bleached the solid color from them for years now. A lot of light does get in and then, also, we need a third because two aren't enough to cover the width of the window sufficiently.
So windows. Make sure your windows are well covered to ensure a good night's sleep!
We also don't allow any electronics upstairs (no TV, no phones, nothing). We do have alarm clocks, but I haven't set mine in over seven years. In the latter part of last year however, I experienced terrible night-owlness (nothing wrong with that except when you have to be up early the next day, which I did). I realized that what changed was more screen time. I'd stay downstairs with the TV on, messing on the computer or playing games on my phone. I decided my New Year's resolution would be to go back to turning the TV off at 10pm, then reading in bed and then asleep by 11. It's made a world of difference in how quickly I get to sleep and I can wake up at 6am without an alarm and with enough sleep.
I also wanted to add that I do the dim light thing at night and this drives my husband crazy. I just liked low, romantic light in the evening. I'm going to show him this article!
I love the F.lux program!
There's an Android app called Screen Filter that I use to dim my mobile. I like to play solitaire on my phone before bed (reading is too stimulating for me) and I set the filter to 20% when the lights are out. It's just bright enough to see but not so bright that it bothers my husband or disturbs my sleeping patterns.
I'm also putting in my vote for F.lux. It's really great and makes a huge difference.
In terms of the phones, I have a condition on Tasker (an android app) that changes the color temperature to warm around 7pm so that the blue lights aren't as harsh.
D*mn! I guess I need to buy blackout liners for my white drapes! And that stupid blue alarm clock HAS to GO! (I didn't realize!) (Although it is annoying enough that I actually set it then turn it face down on my night stand -- amazingly bright.)
My bedroom is so dark at night I ended up adding a red light under my bed on a timer that comes on during the night. If nature calls I can find my way out without killing myself on any furniture and the best part is when I am lying in bed and the red light is on below the bed I can't even tell as it only illuminates the floor and everything else is still dark.
LOL #dulcibella - I am a night person married to a morning person! While I LOVE the kisses at 6.00 am (and the sighs of "it's such a beautiful day!") I am fairly envious.
I can't believe I'm admitting this -- but we both go to bed before 10 pm and read together to ease into sleep. No kids yet, obviously. He's out like a light and I get an hour to calm down and think before I sleep too.
@Dulcibella - sleep cycle completely changed my life! i totally recommend it to anyone who has trouble waking up in the morning. my biggest obstacle when getting up early is not being able to shake the grogginess, and this takes care of that.
I can't fall asleep if there's ANY light on (although I've gotten used to my red alarm clock). My fiance's computer is in our bedroom so I went crazy one night and ran around with a roll of black electrical tape and taped over anything and everything that had a stupid little blinking light on it (printer, humidifier, monitor, router, speakers, you'd be surprised how many things have lights on them. In the future I'm going to put everything on timers but the tape is doing its job for now. :P
I am so like you 0tk421!!! When I sleep somewhere else, I cover up any source of electronic light, usually with a pillow or blanket if I can't just turn it off.
I'm a firm believer in the power of light and have practiced the gradual dimming of lights at night for a good while. It helps prep my body and mind for sleep. Oddly, computer light does not keep me awake as they say it does. I also have a routine of no talking on the phone and no heavy conversation via media/text in the last few hours of night. I read (but online) and it's nothing heavy. Usually just decorating sites/blogs like this great one. :)
Don't hate me because I'm beautiful; hate me because I'm a wake up bright and early never use an alarm clock chipper in the morning person.
My husband is a night person. He hates me because I'm also a fall asleep anywhere anytime I want person even when the music is blaring and the tv is glaring.