Go Camping for Better Sleep
The growing number of lights in our homes – from smartphones, computers, and LCD displays on appliances – can negatively impact sleep by confusing the body’s natural cycle. One simple way to reset the body’s natural clock, according to a new study published in Current Biology, is to go camping. Researchers at the University of Colorado-Boulder took a group of adults camping in the Rocky Mountains, allowing only the sun and a campfire for light sources. Within a week, the test subjects had adapted to a healthy light-darkness sleep cycle. Lead author Kenneth Wright says that while camping is effective, there are other means to reset biological clocks, such as going for a walk in the morning, taking a few outdoor work breaks, and turning off, or at least covering, electronic devices and artificial lights – especially blue lights – at night. “If people were to change little things in their daily lives,” says Wright, “they could probably shift the timing of their clocks.”
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