“I’d give anything to get my body back on a regular sleeping schedule…”
Oh, would you?
How about your phone? Or laptop? All while camping in the Rockies for a week?
Yes, while sacrificing technology alone may feel like a wasteland vacation, doing both was the design of a recent sleep study – taking test subjects camping sans technology – in the name of making their internal rise ‘n rest cycles mirror the sun’s. As a quick sidenote, I’ll admit, it wasn’t until I started writing for this site that I learned what a “chronotype” was. Early birds. Night owls. All of these “sleep personality” categories describe what’s called a chronotype. And, up until I read an article on this study I just referenced – with weirdos leading peeps into the wild to reclaim their circadian rhythm, I didn’t realize that those doze-proclivity titles were totally changeable. But they are.
What the researchers (from the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at the University of Colorado at Boulder) did specifically was take eight people into the Colorado mountains for seven days or so. The catch? As mentioned above – no artificial lights of any kind. While that obviously negated things like phones or ipads, it also meant no flashlights either. The only lights these guys had whatsoever was coming either from the fire sphere in the sky or the one they built on the ground by night.
“Can you play the iPhone opening ringtone? I miss it. I just- I just… need to hear it.”
And the results?
Every one’a these guys – regardless of what their “chronotype” was – synched with the sun by the end of the week. Why? Because melatonin levels (which rise to help us sleep in the evening and lower in the morning) inversely match solar exposure. But the trick is, we hafta actually be exposed to natch light. Thus, in the absence of fake illumination and presence of real daytime rays, there were no more nocturnal personalities or premature risers. People naturally became drowsy at dusk and ready to roll at the first golden glimmer of daylight invading their tents. Boom. Just like that, the myth that a chronotype’s some unalterable, genetically coded identity… gets debunked. Chronotypes are inculcated by culture and careers. Nada mas.
Per the director of the study, Kenneth Wright:
“What we find in modern electrical lighting patterns that we are exposed to is that those melatonin levels are still high for a couple of hours, or an hour at least after we wake up,”
So, if you’ve been dubbed some label you don’t like, all you have to do is pack your backs “Into the Wild” style and head out to the mountains. Once the demands of life you’ve left behind are no longer relevant, you can recalibrate. Who knows. Once you’re realigned, you might even realize that the path you’ve chosen for yourself isn’t worth the red eyes or delirium you’re suffering. You don’t have to settle for a slumber identity diagnosis, like it’s some terminal disease of dreamtime. In the argument of “nuture versus nature”, all you have to do is give nature a chance to change it. Laugh, if you like, at the prospect using PTO for pitching tents and missing emails. But if you’ve literally tried everything else and you’re truly at your wit’s (and candle wick’s) end, then it may start to seem like a feasible option.
Well, all’a that, or just make time for more sunlight in your busy schedule.
Because, yes, there is a less extreme way of tweaking your body’s melatonin oscillations. In fact, Wright, says that the camping effort demonstrated how imperative it is to get more daylight in our lives. No, that walk to the car or cafe isn’t enough. No, that fifteen minute break (which you spent smoking) isn’t sufficient either. As he puts it:
“Anything we can do to bring in more natural light we think will help keep our clocks timed earlier.”
In all reality, yes, a camping trip sounds like an eye-opening holiday for how to get better shut-eye.
But, obviously, it’s not gonna be the ultimate answer for altering chronotypes. Not unless you plan on moving off the grid anytime soon. Other than that, it’s like sending an addict to rehab. Sure, you’ll do great out there – but if you’re not willing to implement any of what you’ve learned during your hiatus upon your return, it’s kindofa waste. You relapse. Similarly, for technology addicts and workaholics, you might enjoy your nature excursion. But once you’ve resumed living in the concrete jungle, how much of it will remain? How much of it can remain? The true takeaway of this study, I feel, is the absolute fact that we can change our chronotype. We can limit nightly exposure to blue light (technology). And we can increase our daytime exposure to legit photons falling from the sky (taking a walk or jog every morning). Actually do that (versus just telling everyone that you are. Via status update. From you faux lit phone.)
And see if things don’t start improving.