To Sleep Better... Reset Your Body Clock

Circadian rhythms.  Sounds like something involving a bug and a percussion section, doesn't it?  But what most of us refer to more simply as our "body clock" controls our sleep and for a lot of people, it seems out of whack.  It seems to control sleeplessness.

How to resolve the struggle between a person and their body clock has been a big question, but now there's a study showing evidence of a rather simple (and enjoyable) solution: go camping.

The study, conducted by the University of Colorado in Boulder, found that many people's body clocks responded to the simple "sun up, sun down" rules that are pretty clearly stated by the world around us.  It was reported in the online journal "Current Biology."

Researchers took their study group to the tents and campfires but left behind flashlights and all tech gadgets. "No artificial lights" allowed.  The result?  The eight (yes, it was a very small study group) were allowed only campfire light, and while they still shifted back on when they went to sleep, the total amount of time they spent sleeping stayed the same.

The advice agrees with a lot of the things that we've recommended in "The Great Sleep Checklist."  Back away from the computer screens in the evening.  Turn down the lighting around your house.  Dim the dinner overheads and see if you can "power down" the lit faces of the clocks around you.  You might sleep better for it.  

(Photo: courtesy BBC online.)