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Take Control of Your Health
Advice for Better Sleep
with Joseph Mercola, D.O.
Dr. Joseph Mercola
of Mercola.com
Your biological clock is not the only thing that reminds you to shut your eyes every 24 hours; a new study has found that it’s actually light that governs your sleeping patterns. Your eyes use light to reset your biological clock through a mechanism that is separate from your ability to see, researchers at Johns Hopkins University found.
Researchers genetically modified laboratory mice so that a particular set of retinal ganglion cells—the ones that receive input from the rods and cones of the eyes and send information to your brain—no longer functioned. The mice were still able to use light to see normally, but had great difficulty synchronizing their circadian rhythms to light or dark cycles.
The findings suggest that people who have trouble sleeping or seasonal depression may be having a malfunction that is contributing to their inability to detect light, which in turn may adversely affect their biological clocks.
This is a CRUCIAL part of health maintenance that many overlook. They are insensitive to the fact that electrical lighting is a relatively recent innovation and less than a century ago this simply was not available.
Organisms evolved to adjust themselves to predictable patterns of light and darkness, in a physiological cycle known as the circadian rhythm. Once artificial light effectively varied the length of a day, the average night’s sleep decreased from around nine consistent hours to roughly seven, varying from one night to the next. The irregularity prevents circadian rhythms from adjusting to a pattern and creates a state of permanent “jet lag.”
So while electricity and efficient lighting have clearly provided major benefits to society, these benefits come with a price—the betrayal of your inner clock.
It would serve you well to do a thorough “light check” of your bedroom, as any source of light—even one as tiny as the green glow from your clock radio—could be interfering with your ability to sleep, and more importantly, your long-term health.
Making simple changes in your bedroom to keep the light out during the night can have a major impact on your sleep quality. Even the chiropractor at my office, Dr. Lloyd Fielder, was surprised at the benefit when he installed blackout drapes in his bedroom. He was shocked at how much better he felt—it radically improved the quality of his sleep.
Personally, I sleep in a room that is so dark, it’s even pitch black at noon. You can achieve this in your own bedroom by:
- Installing blackout drapes
- Closing your bedroom door if light comes through it, and even putting a towel along the base to prevent light from seeping in
- Getting rid of your electric clock radio (or at least covering it up at night)
- Avoiding night-lights of any kind
- Keeping all light off at night (even if you get up to go to the bathroom)— this includes the TV!
Source: Nature April 23, 2008
