Rhythm and blues

This article first appeared in print in the January 2020 issue of Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine.

Sleep: it really is dreamy

Sleep may be even more essential than food. Every single animal on this planet exhibits at least a primitive form of sleep, and would die of sleep deprivation long before starvation. An adaptation to life on a spinning planet, this sleep-wake cycle is our circadian rhythm, a molecular clock inside our cells that aspires to keep us in sync with the sun.

The dark side of light

While the science behind sleep and health accumulates, the length of an average American’s sleep decreases beneath the suns dutiful rise and fall. The ability for us to stay awake independent of natural light can be attributed to the invention of electric lights, televisions, computers, and smartphones. Thomas Edison declared sleep “an absurdity, a bad habit” when he gave us light bulbs, believing we would eventually do away with such a purportedly unproductive state of mind. With the invention of LED bulbs, energy efficiency soared, along with exposure to sleep-disturbing blue light. Smartphones, laptops, and TVs bathe us in blue light in the name of elongating the day’s entertainment and productivity – yet this light tricks our brains into thinking it’s daytime, inhibiting the production of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate our daily biological rhythms, reduce the risk of chronic disease, and contribute to regulated metabolism and blood sugar. Blue light can truly have us feeling the blues.

From moonlighting to bluelighting

Ironically, while we are up late in the name of efficiency, our memory is declining, we’re guzzling coffee to stave off yawns, and we’re missing out on what some theorists posit is the most intelligent, creative, insightful, and free playtime of the brain; the brains’ self-activation. Some even entertain the idea that we survive during the day only to ensure the body is ready to sleep at night. While sleeping, it’s theorized that spindles stimulate the cortex to preserve information acquired during the day, and link it to knowledge in long-term memory. In studies, when people are introduced to certain new tasks, their spindle frequency increases that night. The more spindles they have, the better their performance the next day. “Sleeping on a problem” is founded in science, as sleep makes connections otherwise not consciously formed. Knowing this, the misguided irony of burning the candle on both ends is hard to ignore.

Red sky at night, sleepers’ delight

Picture a sunset; it’s beautiful pink and orange colours showcase a calming red light spectrum. It’s hard not to notice that this warm light has less power to alert the brain or reset the biological clock. Humans are visual creatures, with more than a third of our brain devoted to processing visual information. For early Homo sapiens, aside from firelit communions, most activities would have ceased with the sun. Follow suit by powering gadgets down after dusk, or using apps like f.lux for your computer screens, wearing blue-blocking glasses, using Himalayan salt lamps, dimmed “warm” full spectrum lighting, or candles. These small changes can help you dodge that tired-and-wired feeling when you lay down to sleep. Keep your room dark and cool, and use blackout shades or a sleep mask. Shutdown your electronics early and head to bed: the greatest virtual reality world available to you is waiting to be found in sleep and dreams.