Camping Helps Set Circadian Clocks Straight 173
cold fjord writes "Counsel & Heal reports, 'Many people are stuck in the vicious cycle of late nights and late mornings. However, a new study reveals that a week of camping in the great outdoors may help people set their clocks straight. A new study, published in the journal Current Biology, reveals that if given a chance, our body's internal biological clocks will tightly synchronize to a natural, midsummer light-dark cycle. The study found that a week of exposure to true dawn and dusk with no artificial lights had a significant effect on people who might otherwise describe themselves as night owls. Researchers found that under those conditions, night owls quickly become early birds. "By increasing our exposure to sunlight and reducing our exposure to electrical lighting at night, we can turn our internal clock and sleep times back and likely make it easier to awaken and be alert in the morning," Kenneth Wright of the University of Colorado Boulder said in a news release.'"
Why fix what ain't broken (Score:5, Insightful)
You call naturally awakening early "straight", I call it pagan witchcraft. I'm fine with staying up late thanks.
Re:Why fix what ain't broken (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Why fix what ain't broken (Score:5, Insightful)
also.. try doing this in Finland. in the summer or in the winter. natural clock..
Re:Why fix what ain't broken (Score:4, Interesting)
I usually hike through Swedish Lapland once a year in summer. Even though night is like 2-3 hours, it does feel like it's easier to rise earlier in the morning when I get back. Although it only lasts for like a week or maybe two.
Re: Why fix what ain't broken (Score:3)
I spent 5 days at sea recently. I was up from sunrise to sunset (almost 18 hours a day)everyday.
I felt more rested (5hours apart)while doing that than when I get 8 hours every night. Of course the first thing I did when I got back to shore was sleep for 10 hours, eat talk with people for an hour or so and then sleep for another 4 hours.
So maybe circadian rhythm isn't what it is cracked up to be.
Oh I am a normal early to rise early to bed type normally
Re:Why fix what ain't broken (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Why fix what ain't broken (Score:4, Funny)
Ok, cool, so camping helps circadian rhythms and the human health and all. What about teamkilling?
Re:Why fix what ain't broken (Score:5, Funny)
Ok, cool, so camping helps circadian rhythms and the human health and all. What about teamkilling?
Camping shifts the circadian-health median of the entire team toward an objectively "better" state. It can be said that camping raises the overall health and quality of life for everyone.
Teamkilling on the other hand is a zero-sum game. The troll's erection grows proportionally to everyone else's level of discontent, with total hardness tipping the very edges of the Mohs scale when the voice chat explodes in rage.
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Ok, cool, so camping helps circadian rhythms and the human health and all. What about teamkilling?
Probably not a good idea. The powers that be tend to frown on campsites full of corpses.
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Which is the actual reason for being a night owl (schedule is constrained by waking time to go to lectures/work)
Re:Why fix what ain't broken (Score:4, Insightful)
So let go of the Puritan work ethic - just because you wake up early doesn't mean you have to go to work right away - I can't remember the last time I didn't spend an hour or three enjoying a leisurely morning or working on my own projects before going to work.
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He's the one who said "early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise
Except there are plenty of people quite well off that stay up late and sleep in.
Note that Franklin did not claim that was the ONLY path to being healthy, wealthy and wise...
It's been shown that it's just not healthy to get less than 7 hours sleep a night.
And? Where did I say I don't or you shouldn't? Staying up late does not mean you have to wake up early, in fact you would lose sleep and that would be bad.
The health
Try having a child (Score:5, Insightful)
It does the same thing, for years on end, without having to take vacation days. The funny thing is that you do actually get used to it; I was a night owl, but not anymore. Now, if I do sleep in, I actually wake up with a headache.
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Didn't work for me - he inherited my non-sleeping ways!
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You'd've been S.O.L. if I was your kid - even when I was real little, I'd find myself staying up late into the night and consistently waking up past 10AM.
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It does the same thing, for years on end, without having to take vacation days. The funny thing is that you do actually get used to it; I was a night owl, but not anymore. Now, if I do sleep in, I actually wake up with a headache.
Get yourself checked out at a sleep clinic for sleep apnea. I'm not kidding, nor trolling. I have the condition myself. You're MUCH better off to get treated early than end up nearly losing your job or killing yourself driving because you can't stay awake anymore. Perhaps you don't have it. But the kind of headache you describe should have been an early warning sign for me, had I known what to look for.
Hope you're healthy.
Re:Try having a child (Score:4, Interesting)
Get several cats. Vocal ones, like Siamese, work best.
Feed them once a day, in the morning.
In about six months, you'll be getting up at 5am to feed them.
Dogs can be effective as well, depending on the breed and age. A young lab or border collie is good. An older hound, not so much.
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In about six months, you'll be getting up at 5am to feed them.
In about six months I'd be letting them outside and shutting the door. Or if I had actually gotten attached to the beasts, I'd be looking for a robo-feeder.
Re:Try having a child (Score:4, Funny)
Here's what my dogs have to say about being on the wrong side of the door at breakfast-time: Bark-bark-bark-bark-bark-bark-bark-bark-bark bark-bark-bark-bark-bark-bark arf-bark, scritch-scratch, bark-bark-bark- ...
Of course, that's pretty much the same thing they say when they're on the right side of the door, too. Can't blame them. It's breakfast time, after all.
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"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of."
-- Ogden Nash [brainyquote.com]
(Unstated but equally true of cats.)
Re:Try having a child (Score:4, Interesting)
Your sleep in headache may very well be related to mild dehydration. You'd probably do better if you drank a tad more before going to sleep.
Re:Try having a child (Score:4, Insightful)
Or caffeine withdrawal.
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True, could be. Or nicotine.
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Your sleep in headache may very well be related to mild dehydration. You'd probably do better if you drank a tad more before going to sleep.
...or drank a tad less.
Re:Try having a child (Score:4, Funny)
...or drank a tad less.
Woah, woah, slow down there. We don't want to be too hasty.
Re:Try having a child (Score:5, Funny)
Try having a child ... The funny thing is that you do actually get used to it; I was a night owl, but not anymore.
I got used to it (and it amuses my old friends that I get up early) but I never really stopped being a night owl. Give me a chance, and I switch to my night owl schedule in a day.
Being awake when the sun is out is unnatural. I understand that sunlight is necessary for green plants, but I'm not a green plant.
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Far from it.... speaking strictly physiologically, it's abundantly clear that human beings evolved to function primarily in well-lit conditions. Most significantly, the density of rods in the human retina readily shows that human beings, especially when compared with retina from creatures which are nocturnal, simply are not going to be anywhere nearly as effective at seeing in low-light conditions, which is what would persist at night under a strictly "natural"
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I just got back from a multi-night camping trip. Natural low-light conditions are amazingly bright. Once those rods are adjusted for the darkness, and no artificial lights are around to throw them off, we can see at night well enough on clear nights to safely walk around and see what's moving around.
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Still, compared to a cat or an owl, you're night blind.
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speaking strictly physiologically, it's abundantly clear that human beings evolved to ...
Bah. Physically the most distinctive thing about humans is the size of their brains. Clearly we evolved to invent the electric light.
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>I'm not a green plant.
But you do have really horrible night vision - make a habit of wandering around after dark and the lions or wolves will eat you before you even know they're there. Now *that's* natural.
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But you do have really horrible night vision ...
Humans live in groups, and even in small hunter-gatherer bands, have some specialization of labor. Clearly I'm evolved from the sort whose job was to stay up around the campfire and guard against the wolves and lions (or at least yell "run!").
Re:Try having a child (Score:5, Insightful)
It does the same thing, for years on end, without having to take vacation days. The funny thing is that you do actually get used to it; I was a night owl, but not anymore. Now, if I do sleep in, I actually wake up with a headache.
Of course, this doesn't work for everyone. Like any definition of "normal" it fails to notice that variation in the population may be an evolutionary strategy with benefits to the whole, while perhaps sub-optimal for the individual. Or that there's simply not sufficient selection pressure for homogenization. Or even that certain 'mutations' confer an evolutionary advantage (though most result in death or disability, true enough!).
In this case, having the occasional night owl might be useful to a tribe to keep watch for predators, who often hunt at night. Having them nodding off because they're not really night owls while everyone else sleeps wouldn't just affect the individual's reproductive success... but the entire tribe's.
In other news, being a night owl is a bona fide medical condition [wikipedia.org] with a genetic basis and high comorbidity with certain other disorders. And as we gain better understanding, we're finding a significant fraction of the population isn't just a "lifestyle change" away from a cure. The only reason it's classified as a disorder is because of society's narrow views on what is normal and useful; Not because it's unnatural or needs to be "fixed". For some things, it's society that needs to adapt, not the individual.
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Which is a reference to Vitamin D deficiency, if you'd actually read it. Not sure how that has anything to do with what the OP was talking about :)
Re:Try having a child (Score:5, Funny)
Talk about the cure being worse than the disease.
Surprise (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone who has been camping should have experienced this. It's really nice to be in sync with the day again, makes one happy. With computers (blue lights destroys Melatonin and thus makes you less sleepy), days last longer and longer.
Re:Surprise (Score:5, Informative)
With computers (blue lights destroys Melatonin and thus makes you less sleepy), days last longer and longer.
There's a neat program called f.lux [stereopsis.com] which smoothly cranks down your display's color temperature when the night comes. I'm not sure if it makes any big difference in terms of melatonin production, but it can create a bit more relaxing atmosphere to the evenings. Suits also yellowish indoor lighting.
Re:Surprise (Score:5, Informative)
Debian/Ubuntu/etc users could easily install the 'redshift' package: http://jonls.dk/redshift/ [jonls.dk]
If it helps, my config file at ~/.config/redshift.conf is:
; Global settings
[redshift]
temp-day=6400
temp-night=3900
location-provider=manual
; The location provider and adjustment method settings
; are in their own sections.
[manual]
lat=51.5
lon=-0.1
(Also, I'm disappointed to see "f.lux is patent pending" at the bottom of their page.)
On Android, I have added a "Night Mode" button. I think this is only possible with Cyanogenmod, and it's an on-off change, rather than the gradual change done with f.lux or redshift.
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Debian/Ubuntu/etc users could easily install the 'redshift' package: http://jonls.dk/redshift/ [jonls.dk]
If it helps, my config file at ~/.config/redshift.conf is:
; Global settings
[redshift]
temp-day=6400
temp-night=3900
location-provider=manual
; The location provider and adjustment method settings
; are in their own sections.
[manual]
lat=51.5
lon=-0.1
(Also, I'm disappointed to see "f.lux is patent pending" at the bottom of their page.)
On Android, I have added a "Night Mode" button. I think this is only possible with Cyanogenmod, and it's an on-off change, rather than the gradual change done with f.lux or redshift.
Thank you, I did not know that one could create a config file for redshift. I've been starting with a shell script for my day/night parameters. Tell me, is a positive longitude east or west? I assume that positive latitude is north.
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Tell me, is a positive longitude east or west? I assume that positive latitude is north.
Positive longitude is east. Positive latitude is north.
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Thank you, I did not know that one could create a config file for redshift. I've been starting with a shell script for my day/night parameters. Tell me, is a positive longitude east or west? I assume that positive latitude is north.
A positive longitude is east of Greenwich, a negative one West.
My -0.1 is roughly the centre of London. The astronomical observatory at Greenwich was built on a hill to the south-east of the City of London, away from the fog and smoke.
A handy lat/long trick for you (Score:2)
Tell me, is a positive longitude east or west? I assume that positive latitude is north.
Go to Google Maps [google.com] and zoom in on your location. The city itself should be enough. Click on the Link button [imgur.com] and copy the link. Open that link in a new tab, and you should get the lat/long coords of your map's center to show up in the search field.
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I can't believe I could have been using my computer at night without redshift.
There is a package for OpenBSD and you can check if your system is supported on their homepages.
My xterms are goddamned sunsets.
I am moved.
Thank you.
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I'm writing this right now with Redshift running. If I click the little icon in the system tray my eyes feel physical pain as the screen becomes a barrage of blue, then when I click it again suddenly feel calmer as the deep orange sunset hue sets in.
Video is automatically "beneath" the filter too, unless using xv which, for some reason appears "above" the filter (ie is not redshifted at all).
The only problem is I have to remember to switch it off when colour-correcting photos :)
Re:Surprise (Score:4, Interesting)
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Are you suggesting that the high temperature full spectrum lighting throughout my white walled house might not have been such a hot idea?!?! 8@
Actually they're there for S.A.D and I've just not bothered getting round to putting in some regular incandescent lighting for after bedtime.... .
However they're really isn't anything like a light you feel you can get a tan off in the bathroom to wake you up in the morning.
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Our ancestors came from East Africa, which is close enough to the equator that the days don't vary much in length. Rather different from living in Helsinki.
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Fine, if you want to be pedantic about words: I am saying the day cycle that you live becomes longer than the Synodic day. Which crashes with normal peoples lives.
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With computers ... days last longer and longer.
That's a problem? You can sleep when you're dead.
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I would wonder if it's just the light/dark that's doing it, though. I didn't read the study so I don't know how this study was done, but I will verify that when I go camping for a few days or more, there are lots of things about my lifestyle that changes. For one thing, I'm not watching TV, playing video games, or working. I am also generally exerting myself more by hiking around, engaging in other strenuous physical activity, and perhaps carrying a heavy pack. I have a completely different diet when ca
I wonder if this works in Northern Lattitudes (Score:3)
Re:I wonder if this works in Northern Lattitudes (Score:4, Informative)
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I'm sure Google will commission an app that turns Google Glass into a sleep mask which will gradually go from opaque to translucent as the night turns into day (for those of extreme latitudes).
What problem can't technology solve?
Choose your campsite wisely (Score:2, Interesting)
There is certainly some merit to this research. However, be careful where you go camping. After my recent two-week camping trip to Iceland, my internal clocks are set to this insane there-is-no-night-and-your-are-never-gonna-sleep-again mode. It's been two weeks since I got back and still can't get enough sleep.
Made the same experience (Score:4, Interesting)
but... (Score:2, Funny)
Camping to reset my circadian cycle sounds all nice and that, but where do I get power for my gadgets, and where do I get 4G Internet connectivity out in the boondocks?
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but where do I get power for my gadgets
Buy a couple of USB battery packs on Amazon. 10-12 AH should last you a couple days, so just swap them out from your vehicle once a day.
Or buy a deep cycle battery and take it with you, then charge it when you get home.
and where do I get 4G Internet connectivity out in the boondocks?
The Internet is in the air in much of the US, popular campgrounds included. Some of them even have WiFi.
Is camping necessary? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why not just open the blinds before bedtime and turn off the lights progressively at night... or whatever the magic is... that does this?
I assume most whacked out rythms are just either from work schedules or start from bad self-discipline keeping on watching TV or hanging on the computer way past tired. In the latter situation, with smartphones, that means not even most accessible camping is going to help.
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Why not just open the blinds before bedtime
But then you can't sleep naked...
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Why not just open the blinds before bedtime and turn off the lights progressively at night... or whatever the magic is... that does this?
It may not be as simple as staying indoors and opening blinds or reducing lighting at night. The article I read yesterday (here [bbc.co.uk]) said the test subjects were exposed to 400% more sunlight when camping outside compared to their usual indoor environment... so sun exposure may also play a role. Considering that Vitamin D (which the body synthesizes in the form of cholecalciferol from sun exposure) acts contrary to melatonin levels (which spike during sleep), perhaps sun exposure provides a strong natural cue
Shame (Score:2)
I love camping, but having worked nightshift for the last 30 years and most likely will do the same for the rest of my carreer, this explains why I feel so out of sorts whenever I go.
What else is new? (Score:2)
If you are in the wilderness this works after some time. However, 'owls' get up later than 'early birds' because of different internal clock implementations. Some are faster than earth rotations and others are slower. The clock calibration with sunlight works perfect in the summer or in equatorial regions, but not in winter. In addition, I cannot work in an area where there is no artificial light and no modern civilization around. Therefore, setting the clock right once a year will not help for long. It wil
Normal sleep cycle???? (Score:3, Insightful)
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But how does working those hours affect you?
My wife is a nurse and a worse night owl than me. On occasion she's worked 7AM-3PM, but she can never get used to it and always feels out of sorts. She's fine though working 11PM-7AM. She can do it forever and rather likes it. Most other people say it's a killer. Depends on the individual.
In related news (Score:5, Funny)
Studies show that me picking a fight with, oh, just about anyone, will get my clock cleaned, a hunderd percent guarantee.
And who doesn't love a clean clock?
Then three days later, it's back to normal (Score:2)
Right. Then the person gets back from his/her happy little camping trip and back into his/her normal life and three days later he/she is back on the same stupid schedule. I've done this many times and camping is not necessary—any outside influence that causes one to rise earlier will do. I didn't read the article but it sounds really stupid to me, so I won't.
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I use a dawn simulator for a morning "alarm" instead of a regular alarm clock. It doesn't keep me from staying up late, but it does make keeping an good morning rhythm easy in the winter when the sun comes up much later.
Well duh. (Score:2)
You know who doesn't have his clock straight? (Score:2)
Bill Clinton.
Sometimes I just can't help myself. Most times. All the time.
"real owl"; never worked for me (Score:3)
I've been tested to have a natural 3AM - 11AM (standard time) sleep cycle. I've done quite a bit of camping, for week+ periods, and it never changed that cycle. I'd still be up 'til well past midnight and totally ass-dragging 'til lunch. Saw a LOT of stars in the woods, desert, shore, though.
I doubt that they had real biological (genetic alleles) in that test, or true larks, for that matter.
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There's a difference between "golly I'm such a night owl" and having a circadian rhythm disorder [wikipedia.org]. It's like the difference of "I'm so anti-social I have autism" and actually being diagnosed.
Well, either that or... (Score:2)
... sleeping on the ground outdoors isn't really comfortable.
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... sleeping on the ground outdoors isn't really comfortable.
Hammock. Sleeping bag and some sort of trap over you. Maybe a mosquito net depending on where you are. Most comfortable, lightest, best way to sleep unless you go where there are no trees.
Once we got behind on traveling to where we were camping, so it was like midnight, moonless night when we got to the spot (2 mile hike). While everyone else was cursing in the dark trying to get their tents set up, I had my hammock, and tarp taken care of in 10 mins.
Travel (Score:4, Funny)
Nonsense (Score:3, Funny)
Unless you camp like a sissy with lots of fancy equipment nature won't help you a bit in South Florida. First the heat will kill you. The insects will drive you mad as a March hatter. You will be miserable. Snakes, alligators and human psychopaths are more than a tiny issue and to make it worse we have wild boar that will kill you in the blink of an eye. One long weekend in our natural environment and you'll drop on the first air conditioned concrete slab you come to and sleep like a rock. You will feel like a victim of torture and may never be the same again for your entire life. You will most likely gain religion as much of your camping experience will be spent begging Jesus for the misery to let up.
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Florida is not fit for human occupation. For one, it is full of Republicans.
Yes. And no (Score:2)
I used to experience something similar, but basically this boils down to either your tent getting way too hot way too early, simply having nothing to do at night and therefore going to bed early or actually using your body during the day (as opposed to sitting in a chair all day), causing it to actually be tired for a change.
I have recently acquired a new obsession - night photography. Now camping fucks up my circadian clock even more:)
Controls for exhaustion and boredom? (Score:3)
While I think there's likely some truth in the studies' conclusion, I don't think it controls for the environmental changes and attributes it all to avoiding unnatural light, and I don't think this is necessarily an accurate assessment.
One of the things that happens when you camp and hike is that you eat less and burn more calories. One of the things that keeps us up is our high calorie diets coupled with our sedentary lifestyles, causing our bodies to burn off excess calories through stupid things like nervous twitches. You can see the same circadian fix as the one the study proposes by working out for an hour and a half a day or doing heavy physical labor.
Couple that with how much easier it is to sleep when you're bored, and the fact that there's not much you can do in the woods at night compared to day, and you get a natural gravitation towards sleeping during the dark hours of the day. Hiking may regulate our sleep, but I think there's more factors here at play.
Bored (Score:2)
You could do the same thing simply by going to bed early
Someone had to pay for this study? (Score:2)
So what (Score:4, Funny)
I work night shift You insensitive clods!
Temp and sounds plays a role (Score:4, Interesting)
I find that even without light, sound and temp also helps regulate sleep. In the spring/summer/fall when nights are 50-68F (10-20c) I open windows at night. I find that both the coolness of the morning combined with birds chirping, and to a lesser extent people leaving for work constantly, help me to feel more alert when waking up regardless of when I went to sleep.
That said with out any kind of alarm and in a controlled environment with zero stimuli, I'll sleep almost exactly 8 hours.
I do this to reset my kids "summer schedule" (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I do this to reset my kids "summer schedule" (Score:5, Funny)
Right. There's nothing better than throwing on a backpack and heading out into the woods to escape the pressure cooker of the office.
Oh crap! Now I'm really screwed!
Any outdoor activity (Score:2)
While I haven't been camping much, I now have a small (27') sailboat. The one thing I notice is that event though there are lights in the cabin, I'm usually nodding off at around sunset. I do wish I could stay up longer, as in many of these places the stars truly are spectacular (as is the phosphorescence) but alas. :)
In this case ... (Score:2)
Re:Turn off the god damn sun so I can get some sle (Score:5, Insightful)
Attacking science, no matter what popular opinion of it is, is dangerous. You didn't die of some terrible disease because scientists figured out vaccines. Engineers using what scientists figured out about electricity, magnetism, and mathematics built the computer you are using to read about this "bullshit". We already have enough anti-intellectualism in this world. There are morons in congress (and people who vote for them) that want to take a religious, "common sense", or tough guy approach to problems even in the face of overwhelming evidence.
Considering sleep quality and quantity is vital to a persons mental and physical health, sleep research is important. There might be some people reading this that have never lived in a rural area and have never been camping that might just have sleep problems that could benefit from this.
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The concept of a flat earth was never "innate", at least in Western cultures over the past 2200 years. [wikipedia.org]
According to the wiki, as early as 1604, smoking was considered unhealthy [wikipedia.org], which is pretty soon given that tobacco became known after the discovery of America. Only the tobacco industry was actively trying to
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The concept of a flat earth was never "innate", at least in Western cultures over the past 2200 years.
But 2201 years ago it was. The GP didn't use the "in Columbus' day" line.
As for smoking, at various times and places they also thought that masturbation or eating uncooked fruit was bad for you. Scientific study showed they were wrong in 2 out of 3 cases.
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Being an 'early bird' has no positives...
The early bird may catch the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
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One job I had was close to a highway that was heaven at 6am but turned in to hell at 6:05. If I left on time, I got to work 10 minutes early. If I left 5 minutes later, I wouldn't get to work 5 minutes early but 5 minutes late!
Re: Not surprising but shitty interpretation as us (Score:3)
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Also I am sure they actually measured the melatonin levels.
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Get a better tent, with proper ventilation.
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