I'm curious about something. I recently wrote in my article about summer fatigue and you mentioned it too in this newsletter that "A good light environment includes full-spectrum daytime sunshine as well as 10-14 hours of complete darkness at night." During these long summer day I find it hard to get enough complete darkness and it definately shows in my energy, sleep quality, and mental health. Do you have any tips and advice about this?
Hey, that’s a great thought and yes, things are definitely different the more polar the climate. So, if you are up for (and have a schedule that allows) moving into a polyphasic sleep pattern, you can do what the animals and our ancestors did and sleep half your hours in the night and the other half around noon. I shared an anecdote about this from Jean Craighead George (author of the Julie of the Wolves series) in https://www.brighterdaysdarkernights.com/p/midnight-sun and about some of Thomas Wehr’s work on this topic in https://www.brighterdaysdarkernights.com/p/sleep.
Another strategy is to focus more in infrared light (sun below 30 degrees above the horizon or UV index 0-2), which stimulates subcellular melatonin release (as opposed to pineal melatonin release which is stimulated by darkness).
Great article Nikko, as always.
I'm curious about something. I recently wrote in my article about summer fatigue and you mentioned it too in this newsletter that "A good light environment includes full-spectrum daytime sunshine as well as 10-14 hours of complete darkness at night." During these long summer day I find it hard to get enough complete darkness and it definately shows in my energy, sleep quality, and mental health. Do you have any tips and advice about this?
Hey, that’s a great thought and yes, things are definitely different the more polar the climate. So, if you are up for (and have a schedule that allows) moving into a polyphasic sleep pattern, you can do what the animals and our ancestors did and sleep half your hours in the night and the other half around noon. I shared an anecdote about this from Jean Craighead George (author of the Julie of the Wolves series) in https://www.brighterdaysdarkernights.com/p/midnight-sun and about some of Thomas Wehr’s work on this topic in https://www.brighterdaysdarkernights.com/p/sleep.
Another strategy is to focus more in infrared light (sun below 30 degrees above the horizon or UV index 0-2), which stimulates subcellular melatonin release (as opposed to pineal melatonin release which is stimulated by darkness).
Awesome, thank you Nikko! I've always found naps quite helpful during summer and I'll make sure to watch sunsets to get some subcellular melatonin in.