Sleep … naturally

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We take the modern world for granted, and accept that this is just the way things are. But they haven’t always been this way, and we should remember that. For example, if you go back a hundred and fifty years, or maybe two hundred, the only light you would ever have would be a) natural daylight or b) candlelight or light from an oil lamp.

storm lanternIt seems so archaic now, and like something out of some old black and white movie, but there are plenty of people still around who remember when the only form of domestic lighting (apart from candlelight) was gaslight. It was a huge step up to have domestic electric light available. Even more amazing, many who had electricity fitted were soon able to have television. What an amazing time for innovation!

Okay, so we move on. We have electric lights. We have them in our homes and we have them in the street. Night has practically become like an extension of normal daylight hours, and we can experience bright light at any time of day or night. Amazing, yes, undoubtedly! But not natural.

Humans have always lived by natural rhythms … till now

dawnFor hundreds of thousands of generations humans have lived by the natural cycles of daylight and dark. People would get ready to bed down for the night when it was going dark, and they would get up in the morning at first light. That was the natural way. And it’s generally the way animals still live their lives to this day – their waking hours are still determined by the light of the sun. But not ours. No, we’re too clever for that … we’ve tricked Mother Nature and decided we can do what we want, when we want, and even have daylight 24 hours a day if we feel like.

But is that really any good? Following Mother Nature’s dictates is a pretty good idea, generally speaking, and we’ve done it for millions of years. Just because we move the goalposts, that doesn’t mean our bodies have kept up with the changes. Physically, we’re just the same as we were a couple of hundred years ago (two hundred years is just a blink of the eye in terms of evolution). So it’s probably not the cleverest move to try to trick Mother Nature just to suit ourselves. She’s too smart to be tricked anyway, and we try it at our peril.

We’re very fond of having a night life, and living in cities that never sleep. We love the idea that we can control things to this extent, and outsmart Mother Nature. We tend to forget that what’s natural is generally what’s good for us.

And just to back this up, researchers have known for years that shift workers are more prone to illnesses, even cancers. And anyone who’s ever worked shifts for any length of time knows that it leaves you feeling disoriented and uneasy.

Technology is advancing quicker than we can adapt

pc at nightOn top of all that, our technology is moving forward at an ever faster pace. We carry mobile phones, we use tablets, we have … 24-hour connectivity. It’s good to have all this potential magic, but it can spell disaster for our health if we just use it randomly and without due care and attention.

While researchers have accepted for years that working unnatural shifts is a health risk, they are now seeing it as possibly one of the causes of the rising incidence of obesity and chronic disease. Any upset to the natural circadian rhythms is suspect; we’re meant to abide by nature’s clock and we deviate from it at our own risk. The circadian rhythms, by the way, are the physical, mental, and emotional rhythms that follow a [very] roughly 24-hour cycle and respond to the light and darkness of an environment.