This summer… SLEEP UNDER THE STARS
To get your slumber schedule back on track, book a weekend under canvas. US researchers have discovered that because our internal clock, or circadian rhythm, is governed by the natural light-dark cycle, two nights in nature can have truly transformative effects. Participants went camping for a weekend, with no mobiles or unnatural light sources like head torches; on returning, their body’s rise in the hormone melatonin, which promotes sleep, had shifted one hour 24 minutes earlier, helping them nod off. It’s all down to the natural light, which hits photoreceptors in the eyes, altering the brain’s master clock which prompts a cascade of events that help us snooze. And it’s beneficial to more than just your eye bags: delayed sleep timing has been associated with poor cognitive performance, diabetes and obesity. So carry on camping!
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