get rid of your curtains!
If you struggle with waking up in the morning and the sound of your alarm makes you wish you could end it all, you’re not alone. The sudden jolt of an alarm in combination with sudden bright lights is not exactly what nature had intended for us, and could be causing long term damage to your body.
Waking up to the brutal attack of an alarm has been found to increase heart rate and blood pressure, causing the body to secrete adrenaline and instantly sending your body into a fight or flight response, thus raising cortisol levels. Being constantly woken this way and left in this activated state for an extended amount of time can lead to chronic stress, which can then lead to serious more sleep problems, decreased immune system functioning and even depression. When you’re woken suddenly during deep sleep, your ability to think clearly is so badly affected that it’s like being drunk! In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, scientists found that when people were woken during deep sleep, their ability to think clearly was significantly affected; impacting their short-term memory, cognitive abilities and even counting skills - participants were operating at just 65 percent of their peak performance, the equivalent of being drunk! And this state didn’t disappear quickly - some impairments were still detected for up to two hours after waking.
As well as this, bright light exposure after wakening has been shown to set off a significantly elevated cortisol response in the morning. One study compared the effect on cortisol levels of the ‘dawn-simulation’ technique (which mimics natural sunrise conditions) with the common sleep-wake transition of complete darkness to sudden bright light. The study concluded that cortisol levels were significantly lower in participants who experienced the gradual light condition upon waking.
Waking up with the sun allows the body to settle in to its natural circadian rhythm, and you can expect to feel more alert, productive, happier and less tired throughout the day. You’ll find it a hell of a lot easier to get out of bed and you won’t be starting the day groggy and filled with dread and irritation. Instead, you’ll be stepping out of bed feeling more positive, refreshed and ready, making it easier for you to respond calmly and rationally to any potential stressful situations that might come up during the day.
“Ok so that’s all well and good … but how do I know I’m going to wake up on time for work if I just have to trust that I’ll wake up with the sun?” Or,
“But I have to wake up before the sun has even started to rise.”Well, rewilding is cool because it seeks not to remove us from our evolved capacity, but to find solutions in a modern context, and rather encourages us to embrace our technological advancements in ways that make these natural states possible for the contemporary human. We can have the best of both worlds - we can live guided by the natural mechanics of our bodies and extract the best parts of modern inventions to help us remain healthy and happy as we continue to progress.
If you are in a position where you have to wake up before the sun or you doubt that you will wake up on schedule, there are options. We now have access to sunrise simulation alarm clocks that mimic the rising sun to wake you up in a more natural way.
Some highly rated dawn-simulating alarm clocks include:
Philips HF3520/60 Wake-Up Light Therapy Alarm Clock ($90)
Philips HF3650/60 Smartsleep Sleep & Wake-up Light Therapy Lamp ($180)
Totobay Wake Up Light ($26)
Witti Beddi Glow Smart Alarm Clock ($30)
Amir Wake-Up Light ($33)
You may think it seems unlikely that your body would know when to wake up naturally with the sun, but the body is connected to the environment in a deep way, and it is possible for you to learn to rediscover and trust in this connection.
References:
Alhola, P., & Polo-Kantola, P. (2007). Sleep deprivation: Impact on cognitive performance. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 3(5), 553-567.
Gerstner, J., Aton, S., & Heller, H. (2015). Waking up to the alarm: sleep, clocks, and making memory (s)tick. Frontiers In Systems Neuroscience, 9. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2015.00065
