Troglodytes are us.

[kickaha]

ginkgo went and got new drapes for the bedroom yesterday - very thick, very solid drapes.

The bedroom is now *pitch black* at night. We both fell asleep much more quickly, and slept much more soundly. At least, I did. Since she gets up easier in the morning, she whips the drapes back and the blinds up first thing, and that helps kick start my circadian cycle. (Kick start. Cycle. Heh.)

I think this is going to help my sleep schedule a lot. I'm *very* sensitive to light levels, it seems. Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a serious night owl. I work/play all night, sleep all day. This has caused me issues over the years, not the least of which is a complete lack of feeling rested. I can count the good nights of sleep in the past decade on my fingers, I bet.

Except when I'm camping, and then I'm completely diurnal. Sun goes down, I'm asleep. Sun comes up, I'm up. Heck, when I'm camping, I'll often get up at first light, and watch the sun rise. (This totally freaked out ginkgo the first time she witnessed this, since I woke *her* up to watch the sun rise over Badlands.) I sleep light when I camp, and frequently wake up to small noises, but I feel great the next morning.

Add in artificial light, a TV, a laptop, etc, and I'm up all night because darnit, there's still light. So, at my request, we've started lowering the lights at night. No more overheads past 9 or 10, just small lamps. That alone has helped a lot in getting me to bed by 12. I think the drapes are going to help a lot more.

Comments

[herithoth.livejournal.com]

Your experience of waking up in the middle of the night and then getting a second sleep is the experience of two-phase sleeping that most of mankind used to experience before the invention of modern lighting. People living in the Amazon and other remote areas of the globe still do. Sleeping continuously is a actually abnormal for human beings. People used to talk to each other and interpret their dreams, sew, have sex etc. in the darkness when they woke up in between. They say that people are meditating trying to recapture this state of mind. Exposure to light late at night raises one's risk of cancer too since it affects pituitary hormone release.

I've been trying to beat back the light that our bedroom gets from the security lights at the new place with blankets and now shades over the windows. We might go to blackout curtains if that doesn't work.

[ginkgo.livejournal.com]

The book we discussed with you last month got us talking about this topic again. I'd love to know the title. Was it _Nighttime_?

I was really unhappy with the curtain selections I found. I considered making my own, but I'm trying to relax away from having to do everything myself. When testing the light-filtering capabilities of the curtains in stores, I'm sure I looked like I was playing hide-and-seek with an imaginary friend. :)