These days we moan about not getting enough sleep. But we often ignore the need for darkness.
In ancient times we were not aware of our internal “body clock” or our circadian rhythms, because we didn’t have artificial light.
Our bodies are still programmed to respond to light and dark as we did then, and it is important for good health.The sunlight gives us the cue to start our day, the darkness to switch off.
Sleeping in the light disrupts our production of an important hormone “Melatonin” which is crucial for good sleep. At night we “turn off” certain functions like hunger and and without that cue from darkness we disrupt these processes.
All living things are controlled by these rhythms, and disrupting them are implicated in many health
problems, like depression, obesity, even diabetes and breast cancer.
To get a proper nights sleep we need to cut out any kind of light.
If it is difficult to change curtains or turn of all artificial light, wearing a sleep mask will do the trick!
