❔Poll: How much time do you spend outside?

Find out how your exposure to natural light impacts your chronotype ⏰

Hi,

Hope you are having a great summer! Substack just introduced polls, so I thought I would give it a shot:

This question is interesting because in the context of circadian rhythms, people who spend more time outside tend to wake up earlier¹!

Check it out:

This came from an analysis that came from researchers in Germany and the Netherlands that was published in 2007. Here’s the paper:

Entrainment Of The Human Circadian Clock

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Here, we review our endeavors measuring human entrainment in real life, predominantly with the help of the Munich ChronoType Questionnaire (MCTQ). The large number of participants in our current MCTQ database allows accurate quantification of the human phase of entrainment (chronotype) and how it depends on age or sex. We also present new data showing how chronotype depends on natural light exposure. The results indicate the importance of zeitgeber strength on human entrainment and help in understanding the differences in chronotype, e.g., between urban and rural regions.

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So, if you have trouble waking up on time, maybe spending a bit more time outside each day can help with that.

If you have any experience with this, I’d love to hear about it.

1. Roenneberg, T. and Merrow, M. (2007). Entrainment of the Human Circadian Clock. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology, Volume LXXII.