Swellness

A monthlong series exploring all things health and wellness.

Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos: Retailer, Getty Images

Let me tell you a horror story about city living. Woman moves into a new apartment with windows facing the street. Woman realizes that streetlights shine in through said windows and make it too bright to sleep. Woman buys blackout blinds. Woman then finds that despite always being a “morning person,” waking up now feels almost painful, like she is a bear being roused from hibernation. Her brain is thick and dull as lead soup, her body heavy like logs.

This is a story I know all too well. The paradox of thick shades, which help me sleep at night, is that they also make it too dark to wake up. My phone alarm would find me bleary and confused, and I often overslept after turning it off. So I did what any reasonable sleepy person would do: I caved to my targeted ads on Instagram and bought a sunrise alarm clock, the kind that gradually lights up your room until it chirps you awake. Almost right away, I returned to my normal, “morning person” self again.

How does this work? “Your brain is always trying to predict dawn and dusk. Historically, this was essential for survival, as land-based animals, we had to work out when the sun was coming up and going down,” explained Dr. Rafael Pelayo, a clinical professor at the Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine. In fact, light is one of the most important ways that our brains perceive time. “There’s a part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, and it acts like a conductor to synchronize all the rhythms the body has, like the circadian rhythm that controls our sleep cycles,” said Dr. Pelayo. “This nucleus sits right above where the optic nerves from your eyes cross, so the light hitting your eyes in the morning helps set that clock and tell it that it’s dawn.”

When I relayed my own experience to Dr. Pelayo, he …….

Source: https://www.thecut.com/2021/06/product-recommendation-sunrise-alarm-clock-to-wake-up.html