In what will probably not be a surprise to most grey nomads, living in the Great Outdoors is great for your health, your sense of wellbeing … and your sleep!
A research team from the University of Colorado Boulder in the US has shown that it only takes a few days of camping for people who have been used to restore their circadian rhythms to a more natural setting. The advent of electrical lighting and blinds and curtains blocking out the morning light has meant that people now stay up way past sunset and often sleep in way past dawn.
The team measured the levels of melatonin – the hormone that regulates sleep and wakefulness – in a group of people who went on a weekend camping trip and those of a group who stayed at home in a modern environment. The study, published in Current Biology, found that the campers’ melatonin levels kicked off and sent them to sleep around 2.5 hours earlier when relying on daylight rather than electrical light.
“Late circadian and sleep timing in modern society are associated with negative performance and health outcomes such as morning sleepiness and accidents, reduced work productivity and school performance, substance abuse, mood disorders, diabetes, and obesity,” says co-author Kenneth Wright. “Our findings demonstrate that living in our modern environments contributes to late circadian timing regardless of season, and that a weekend camping trip can reset our clock rapidly.”
In an earlier study, the same research team found that exposure to a standard summer day/night cycle – roughly 14.5 hours of sunlight, followed by 9.5 hours of night – pushes our biological urge to sleep back a few hours, closer to sunset.
· Do you sleep better when you are travelling? Do you go to bed earlier and wake up earlier? Do you wake up feeling more refreshed than you did when at home? Email us here to share
