Are You Getting Enough Sleep? Sleeping properly?

[RedFox]

In reference to those waking up......try relaxing and enjoying it, and not worrying about it. It could be you're body has gone into detox mode too...

I noticed last night I had some fear creep in last night....as if 'something was in my room', only to remember that this was probably higher melatonin levels. After remembering this it went away.

WHILE YOU WEREN'T SLEEPING

Carbohydrates and insulin comprise the tools we need to survive scarcity only if we know when the time is coming. [...]

THE TRUTH REALLY IS OUT THERE

Studies in 1993 and 1994 reported that human volunteers at the NIH were monitored for hormonal release and brain activity by Dr. Thomas Wehr. The volunteers slept eight hours (a short night) and fourteen hours (a long night). The first result was the obvious: Longer periods of melatonin secretion upped white cell macrophage and lymphocyte production. This is a good thing.

The second most obvious difference hormonally between short and nights was the amount and length of prolactin secretion. This change in melatonin and prolactin secretion reflected the long night's fragmented sleep pattern. The long-night subjects spent as many as five of the fourteen hours lying almost awake. Wehr's group slept in two nightly bouts, each preceded by up to two and a half hours of wakefulness, with a high secretion of prolactin throughout. That means they got a total of about nine hours of actual sleep as we know it. And, in our time, nine hours of sleep is all we know. The sleepless five hours were very much like the awake-alert quiet state infants display repeatedly in a twenty-four-hour period. The brain-wave readings were akin to those observed during transcendental meditation. Interrupting the subjects' reveries—by talking to them—caused prolactin levels to drop.

Wehr's study goes on to suggest that "prolactin in humans probably facilitates a switch to 'quiescent wakefulness: just as it prompts brooding behavior in birds." The NIH doctor does agree that the fourteen-hour dark period in winter, or at least seven months out of the year, is exactly what our ancestors would have experienced before the invention of artificial light sources. This awake-alert period in adults is now an extinct sleep state.

It is statistically proven that ninety or so percent of all babies are born between midnight and 4:00 A.M., the exact time their mothers would, it nature, be in a meditative state with high endorphin (painkiller) levels just like yogis who are able to walk over beds of nails and hot coals without any effect. In this state, an unmedicated birth would be far more tolerable. It was in this period of time, which we no longer have access to that we solved problems, reproduced, and transcended the stress, an most likely, talked to the gods.

In follow-up standardized tests designed to evaluate mood and fatigue subjects exposed to fourteen-hour nights rated themselves as happier more energetic, and more wide awake during the following day. But those tests were designed to uncover only debilitating sleepiness. Sleepiness is only a cognitive symptom. When you're tired, you really are experiencing massive metabolic derangement between you and the bacteria controlling your immune system and reproduction, which is translating to mental aberrations.

Short nights that mimic summer mean:
• Reduced melatonin secretion, which reduces white cell immune function;
• A severe reduction in the most potent antioxidant you have—melatonin;
• Less prolactin at night and way too much in the daytime (prolactin secretion at night means more and stronger NK and T cells. Prolactin secretion during the day means autoimmunity and carbohydrate craving).

I actually had the above happen last night....I'd been having a dream like state start to happen during the POTS last week, and this morning I woke up and was in a really lovely relaxed half awake state....after needing the bathroom (street lights outside providing enough light to see), I came back to bed and went back into that state.....and promptly started dreaming while I was still concious.

The above quote was on my mind along with Ark's article about communication from the future....but only very loosely.
The dreams came in short bursts.....but one made me pay close attention.
The UK at the moment is quite mild. I was listening to news reports (or discussing news reports) about a sudden downpour of snow.....3-6ft in an hour or two! What's more it had covered a large part of the UK quickly, and with absolutely no warning from anyone.
The image I saw was of the busy main road outside my housing estate covered in 3-4inches of snow at night (8-10pm probably, so perhaps it took 2-4hours to drive what would have taken 10 minutes), I was driving very slowly and it was freezing....what was interesting to note was the emotional content.....I felt utter relief and was over joyed to be home safely!!

I laid in bed and wondered about the possibility it was a warning? 3-4 inches of sitting snow on the motorway would cause chaos for sure....let along hearing about 3-6ft of it in a hour or two.

The next dream was of a snow covered landscape and bare tree's....and it was breathtaking. I felt (again it is interesting to have emotional content that is so strong) in awe. I realised that perhaps if this was the future I could check the date on my watch....I could a glimpse of the day, it said '26'.

So....I'm not sure what to make of that, other than warn you all (if you're in the UK), to get home asap if you see sudden snow/blizzard conditions, if the day was warm with no snow predicted.
I'm going to buy snow chains or similar right now.

 

[SeekinTruth]

Thanks for this thread. I've been reading it with great interest. And thanks a million, Psyche for posting the excerpts from the Lights Out book. I tried to black out my room and slept in an almost totally dark room last night and the night before. The arrangement is just a temporary fix as I will take measurements and get aluminum foil to get total darkness. Right now I hung blankets over my black curtains. Still a couple of tiny leaks, but the room is almost pitch black. There's a streetlight right outside my window.

My bedroom door was another problem. There's a window above and I put an old calendar with pushpins and fixed some of the leaks last night. Still a bit of leaks. And around the door I cut about one inch strips of a zigzag fold brochure from my internet provider and closed all the gaps by attaching the strips with pushpins.

I'm using a movie/photo light stand and grip equipment to have a "flag/gobo" using about a 24 inch square piece of foamcore (one side's black, the other white, I have the black side facing me) that I can position at any angle I want using the grip arm/head to keep the slight leaks from the window above my bedroom door from reaching my face.

The first night, I also used earplugs and got a decent night's sleep (although both nights I woke up several times but I just stayed in bed until I fell back to sleep). Last night, my father got up and fell, so I had to get up and help him at around 2AM. But still after going back to bed (after being in overhead light) I was able to calm down and fall asleep again after a while. This morning, I woke up groggy (felt like when I've taken too high a dose of melatonin) at 8:45AM, which is pretty late for me, although I was half asleep and half awake for quite a while before getting up.

I've had sleep issues for many years that greatly improved after I moved to Armenia in summer 2006, but I've been having some problems again lately. So this thread was very timely for me. The last 10 years or more in New York City, I was basically an insomniac and averaged about 3 to 4 hours of sleep. Usually being unable to sleep before 3 or 4 AM and waking up between 7:30 and 8AM no matter when I went to sleep.

After I arrived in Armenia, I began sleeping around 5 to 6 hours the first few weeks. I had brought a bottle of melatonin with me and began taking some for about a month and started getting average 7 hours a night. But the tablets were 3mg and I was having a hard time getting up in the morning and feeling groggy for a good 45 minutes after waking up. I cut the tabs in half, but it wasn't much better. Then I cut them in thirds and it seemed 1mg was the right dose for me. After a little over a month, I didn't need anymore melatonin and have mostly been averaging 7 hours a night, with some occasional problems sleeping here and there. I usually wake up between 6 and 7AM.

Lately, my (and my parents') schedule is all screwed up because my father's been waking up just about every night after a couple of hours of sleep and just wandering around, sometimes eating, etc. This has been going on for about a month so I'm pretty sleep deprived and so's my mother. My father sleeps during the day most days, sometimes like 4 or 5 hours of deep sleep. So I'm trying to sort this problem out now. And soon I'll have the large windows and door to a balcony with large glass, as well as the window above the bedroom door totally light tight using aluminum foil and hopefully get the full benefits.

<snip>
Also, the eczema on the pinkie finger of my left hand has started to come back slightly. I used to have this really bad when I was working in the restaurant industry. I eventually figured out it was triggered by stress and after I quit the industry it seemed to take care of itself. I discovered coffee was also a trigger, which makes sense since coffee causes cortisol release. So now I'm wondering if cortisol is becoming increased through this experiment. Seems like the opposite of what should be happening.

<snip>

I had some trouble staying asleep in the beginning too. I just persisted in staying in the dark and it has gradually normalized. I also had some arthritic flare-ups so that might be similar to the rash flare up you have: autoimmune reaction.

It's really important to get up and eat meat and fat in the morning, and, since it is winter, to minimize carbs.

Yeah, I was thinking that, according to the excerpts from the book posted by Psyche, melatonin is a VERY important part of the workings of the immune system (and the strongest anti oxidant). So if you've had autoimmune problems, maybe that will be aggravated for a short time before improvements?

 

[3DStudent]

And one other thing, which is a little embarrassing, but it seems as though my body feels it's mating season now. I've been lusting after every woman I see over the last few days (internally, not acted upon of course).

I have my room pretty dark now, save for a few leaks from my window. So I get half a night's sleep in near pitch black. But I too have had more than usual lustful, or base thoughts recently. Also some general dissociative thoughts too so maybe that's related. My dreams have been a little easier to remember, but not as profound like others have been reporting.

It's really important to get up and eat meat and fat in the morning, and, since it is winter, to minimize carbs.

I'm wondering about this, because the Ultrasimple diet seems to be a lot of carbs, with the veggies being the thing you can always have. But maybe there's a difference between higher starch and more complex carbs? I eat some sweet potatoes, winter squash, and carrots every day, so I probably get a good bit of carbs.

 

[SolarMother]

Nickelbleu

Will definitely get the book onto my wish-list/ book pile (which is ever growing taller!)

Don't forget Inter Library Loans (ILL) for those of you that have libraries able to find books near and far, that you need. The loan period is usually at least a month, at least here it is. It seems these days with library funding being cut, the smaller the library, the more services you can get! I got this info straight from the horse's mouth--a local librarian.

 

[Ollie]

I'm wondering about this, because the Ultrasimple diet seems to be a lot of carbs, with the veggies being the thing you can always have. But maybe there's a difference between higher starch and more complex carbs? I eat some sweet potatoes, winter squash, and carrots every day, so I probably get a good bit of carbs.

Sweet potato (tubers) and carrot (root vegetables) are starchy vegetables - high in carbohydrates. Winter squash is mainly water and fibre.

This may help, or not.

 

[pete02]

And one other thing, which is a little embarrassing, but it seems as though my body feels it's mating season now. I've been lusting after every woman I see over the last few days (internally, not acted upon of course).

I have my room pretty dark now, save for a few leaks from my window. So I get half a night's sleep in near pitch black. But I too have had more than usual lustful, or base thoughts recently. Also some general dissociative thoughts too so maybe that's related. My dreams have been a little easier to remember, but not as profound like others have been reporting.

Whew.. I'm sure glad its not just me. I thought for some time there that I was just losing the battle with trying to overcome my flirtatious personality (which I believe I have to some extent) but these thoughts won't seem to leave me alone. I'm getting tired of telling my thoughts to shut up. It really does almost feel like mating season or something but I have never felt this way before. I have also noticed my dreams becoming easier to remember and some quite meaningful as well. I actually just had the same dream two nights in a row where I was with a man and a woman (it felt as if they were friends) in some kind of brothel and I was desperately trying to walk up the stairs and leave with them but every time I tried to get up the stairs some guy kept grabbing me and dragging me back in saying I couldn't leave. When I asked him why I would end up waking up. It just gave me this clear feeling of desperation and wanting to get out so bad that its pretty much burned into my memory now.

On a side note, my brother has also been trying the total darkness during bedtime and he had a question that I couldn't positively answer. He has turned out all lighting in his room successfully but we use electric heat and he has a radiant heater that illuminates orange while its on. Now my best guess was that it is still a form of artificial lighting so it kinda blows his total darkness but he won't have heat without it. The house came with gas heat and it becomes very expensive very quickly in these low temps so we use electric heaters instead. So does the radiance from this heater count as light also?

 

[shijing]

Hey Pete --

So does the radiance from this heater count as light also?

I'm pretty sure that it does (and it's an issue I've been trying to work around as well). The only solutions I've found so far are to either use it to pre-heat the bedroom before going to bed, and then turn it off before sleep, or otherwise get it below eye-level to minimize the light. I don't know if either of these solutions would work for your brother, but FWIW.

 

[mada85]

Thanks so much for this thread – the information presented is so logical and common-sensical!

I've been sleeping in total darkness for just over a week now, and it's clear now that I am not getting enough sleep and probably have not been getting enough for a long time. I've become really aware of needing much more sleep than I used to. Last night I had to go to bed an hour earlier than usual and this morning I got up half an hour later than usual after feeling completely exhausted in the late afternoon and evening. Since beginning the experiment I find that when I am tired in the evening I have an intense craving for total darkness and this craving seems to be occurring earlier each evening. I think I will end up sleeping for 10 hours nightly (or at least being in bed for 10 hours in the darkness).

I have a few hours of 'dead sleep', just as Ekirch describes, and then wake up for a while which is when my mental chatter is quite quiet and I can think much more deeply about things. I've gained some insights into myself, some of which have been quite eye-opening. I used to get really irritated with myself for waking up like that, but now I just enjoy lying in the darkness. Being in complete darkness feels really necessary and nourishing, like bathing in something cool and refreshing.

 

[Laura]

Those of you having sex center activity might want to remember that these intimations or inclinations, whatever you want to call them, are probably the result of getting true sleep and recharging of the soul. Keep in mind that, as a culture, we have not been taught about our feelings and sensations in any reasonable or truthful way. Having so-called "erotic" sensations can be simply an abundance of creative energy that you can choose how it is utilized.

Q: (L) We were talking earlier about sleeping and dreaming.
It seems to me that sleeping cannot be an evolutionary
benefit, because sleeping would not evolve as something
beneficial, because when you are asleep, you are
completely vulnerable to any munching monster that passes
by. Therefore, it is not conducive to evolution to sleep.
And, I think there is some other reason for this thing we
call sleeping. Obviously it is not to rest the brain,
because the brain is as active asleep as when awake. And
the bodily functions...

A: Bodies may get munched; souls don't, however!

Q: (L) Okay, yes, but still it makes me think that there is
something to this sleeping business that does not meet the
eye in strictly physical terms. Nobody seems to know why
we sleep. You made a remark once that dreams were a prime
opportunity for the implanting of negative information and
suggestions. This makes me think that we are even more
vulnerable during sleep than previously thought. Are we
induced to slepp genetically for the purpose of control by
other density beings? Could you comment?

A: Ask specifics.

Q: (L) Is it essential, in an evolutionary sense, for the
human body to sleep?

A: Yes.

Q: (L) Why is it that carnivores need more sleep than
herbivores, and on down?

A: Physicality, my dear, physicality.

Q: (L) What is it about physicality that necessitates sleep?
What are we doing while we are sleeping?

A: Body recharge.

Q: (L) Where is the body being recharged from or what is it
being recharged by?

A: Rest.

Q: (L) What is the soul doing while the body is sleeping?

A: Same, it taxes the soul greatly to be embodied.

Q: (L) Is this why, when people suffer sleep deprivation,
they go psychotic?

A: Yes.

Q: (L) Why are the results of sleep deprivation, psychosis,
delirium tremens, and psychedelic drugs and some mystical
states so similar in their expressions and manifestations?
What is being seen?

A: Openings.

Q: (L) Well, if doing without sleep provides an opening, what
is it an opening to?

A: Density levels 4 and up.

Q: (L) It would seem to me - well, why is this not good?

A: Who said it wasn't?

Q: (L) Well, apparently a lot of people who have psychotic
episodes, literally go out of their minds. They can no
longer function in this world. They LOCK them up!

A: Yes...

Q: (L) Why does melatonin induce these openings?

A: Gentle hallucinogen.

Q: (L) SV's mother took it and got all discombobulated with
it!

A: Perception is key. If you really "dig" 3rd density, it
makes you uncomfortable to see into the higher densities.

Then this:

Q: (A) Now, I was reading in the transcripts that sleep is necessary for human beings because it was a period of rest and recharging. You also said that the SOUL rests while the body is sleeping. So, the question is: what source of energy is tapped to recharge both the body and the soul?

A: The question needs to be separated. What happens to a souled individual is different from an organic portal unit.

Q: (L) I guess that means that the life force energy that is embodied in Organic Portals is something like the soul pool that is theorized to exist for flora and fauna. This would, of course, explain the striking and inexplicable similarity of psychopaths, that is so well defined that they only differ from one another in the way that different species of trees are different in the overall class of Tree-ness. So, if they don't have souls, where does the energy come from that recharges Organic Portals?

A: The pool you have described.

Q: Does the recharging of the souled being come from a similar pool, only maybe the "human" pool?

A: No - it recharges from the so-called sexual center which is a higher center of creative energy. During sleep, the emotional center, not being blocked by the lower intellectual cener and the moving center, transduces the energy from the sexual center. It is also the time during which the higher emotional and intellectual centers can rest from the "drain" of the lower centers' interaction with those pesky organic portals so much loved by the lower centers. This respite alone is sufficient to make a difference. But, more than that, the energy of the sexual center is also more available to the other higher centers.

Q: (L) Well, the next logical question was: where does the so-called "sexual center" get ITS energy?

A: The sexual center is in direct contact with 7th density in its "feminine" creative thought of "Thou, I Love." The "outbreath" of "God" in the relief of constriction. Pulsation. Unstable Gravity Waves.

Q: Do the "centers" as described by Mouravieff relate at all to the idea of "chakras?"

A: Quite closely. In an individual of the organic variety, the so-called higher chakras are "produced in effect" by stealing that energy from souled beings. This is what gives them the ability to emulate souled beings. The souled being is, in effect, perceiving a mirror of their own soul when they ascribe "soul qualities" to such beings.

Q: Is this a correspondence that starts at the basal chakra which relates to the sexual center as described by Mouravieff?

A: No. The "sexual center" corresponds to the solar plexus.
Lower moving center - basal chakra
Lower emotional - sexual chakra
Lower intellectual - throat chakra
Higher emotional - heart chakra
Higher intellectual - crown chakra

Q: (L) What about the so-called seventh, or "third eye" chakra?

A: Seer. The union of the heart and intellectual higher centers.
[Laura's note: This would "close the circuit" in the "shepherd's crook"
configuration.]

Q: (V) What about the many ideas about 12 chakras, and so forth, that are currently being taught by many new age sources? [Barbara Marciniak, for one.]

A: There are no such. This is a corrupted conceptualization based on the false belief that the activation of the physical endocrine system is the same as the creation and fusion of the magnetic center. The higher centers are only "seated" by being "magnetized." And this more or less "External" condition [location of the higher centers] has been perceived by some individuals and later joined to the perceived "seating" locations, in potential. This has led to "cross conceptualization" based on assumption!

Back when we were sleeping in the psychomantium - which was total darkness - there was this:

Q: (L) Okay, I have been hearing funny popping and crackling
sounds in the psychomantium at night. The other night I
even saw an Egyptian guy walking back toward the mirror
along the side of the bed where I was. He looked exactly
like one of those carved images with the funny
perspective. It seemed that he must have come out of the
mirror, interacted with me in some way, and I was awakened
by his presence as he was going back... We have been
sleeping regularly in the psychomantium and there is a
HUGE increase in frequency and clarity of dreams. There
is an interesting energy in the tent. Who or what was
this being I encountered?

A: Find out.

Q: (L) Is there anything we can do to enhance this process?
We sleep in it and are trying to just be used to it being
there without expectation.

A: Good.

Q: (L) Is it a doorway that can be used while we are
sleeping?

A: Yes.

Q: (L) Do we use it while we are sleeping?

A: Probably.

 

[Gawan]

Back when we were sleeping in the psychomantium - which was total darkness - there was this:

[...]

Thanks for mentioning, I thought alot about this psychomantium and remembered it, as I had this tent idea.

The tent still needs to be improved, some light leaks in and sometimes the "thing" falls on my head during the night.

In the first days I also woke up in the middle of the night and slept a little bit more nervous, also connected with some nightmarish dreams (about ghosts and haunted houses).

Unfortunately the last days I went pretty late to bed, cause of some parties I didn't like to miss.


***edit***

But I'm really looking forward going early to bed again this night, cause staying too long awake messes my system up.

 

[Torstone]

Hi,

very interesting topic, and I followed an example I read about using aluminum foil to shut the light out from the windows.
Works wonders for my ability to sleep when I can just lie down and relax in darkness and calm myself down to get ready for entering the dreamworld. :)
Although keep in mind when taping the aluminum foil to the window to tape along the sides so you block the light from coming in all edges of the window.
I did not do so, it still works, just looks like a mess and lets some light through on the sides.

Even though we're led to believe that the immune system is our defense system, nothing could be further from the truth. The immune system i5 planetary, not individual. Our hormonal interface with the world in the form of the HPA axis means that the immune system is really "the mar behind the curtain" working the knobs and dials that make the broil-seem so competent. The elements of the immune system—gut, skin, fa: lymph, brain, and glands—all recognize, communicate, memorize, rear_ and even plan to survive earth changes that have been timed into or.: programming by millennia of experience. These capabilities mean that the immune system is as sentient, on its own, as you think you are.

Had some problems understanding this part when reading through quotes from the book lights out.

So the immune system is very much independent and is running its own show, a system within the system so to speak where it has its own "will"?

Anyway thanks for all information on sleeping, it helped.
Can`t wait to read the book :)

 

[Lucius]

Hi,

very interesting topic, and I followed an example I read about using aluminum foil to shut the light out from the windows.

Great idea about aluminum foil to shut the ligt from the windows, I will try this.

 

[Torstone]

Here is where i got the idea

If you have to, cover your windows with a couple layers of aluminum foil. If the neighbors think it's weird, just say you have to have dark to sleep and it's the cheapest way to get the room dark. The extra benefit is that it might cut off the odd EM wave here or there. Cover every source of light, even the clock or the blinking light of your smoke alarm.

Gonna put an extra layer on the window tonight to get it really pitch black.
Don`t know what the neighbors think though, maybe they think I am trying to contact aliens with my shiny aluminum foil :P

 

[Mrs. Peel]

Gonna put an extra layer on the window tonight to get it really pitch black.
Don`t know what the neighbors think though, maybe they think I am trying to contact aliens with my shiny aluminum foil :P

Yeah, same here. My bedroom window faces a row of houses behind me, and my patio is right underneath. I'm sure the neighbors think I've got some secret laboratory up there.

Still trying to block out the blinking green glow from the smoke alarm. There are so many open vents on it that I need to put a box or loose towel over the whole thing and am trying to find some sticky stuff that won't peel the paint off the ceiling, as I don't want to poke holes in it with tacks or nails.

 

[Gaby]

An update from the Wiley protocol blog:

Good old Melatonin- Making news again
01/19/11 12:56, by Olivia Uribe, Categories: Sleep and Health, Andropause, Light , Tags: estrogen, lights out, melatonin, progesterone, sleep, wiley protocol

http://173.201.152.181/wileyprotocol/blogs/blog1.php/good-old-melatonin-making-news-again

Link: _http://www.stonehearthnewsletters.com/melatonin-insomnia-blood-pressure-relaxation/proactive-prevention/

News have been released that “according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), exposure to electrical light between dusk and bedtime strongly suppresses melatonin levels and may impact physiologic processes regulated by melatonin signaling, such as sleepiness, thermo regulation, blood pressure and glucose homeostasis.”

In my book Lights Out, I have pointed out that melatonin and progesterone are both master-switch hormonal controllers. If either one is out of sync, it reads to nature as “pushing a red button.” Any light at night changes natural rhythms.

As time goes on, we increase the amount of responsibilities and tasks that we take on, and as a result we sleep less and less. “In 1910 the average adult was still sleeping nine to ten hours a night. Now the average adult is lucky to get a full seven hours a night. You can’t make melatonin in the daytime or with the lights on. We need to understand that “going to sleep with the sunset means a whole-body melatonin bath.” When we sleep short nights that mimic summer mean: Reduced melatonin secretion which means reduces white cell immune function; A sever reduction in the most potent antioxidant that you have-melatonin.”

In the study, recently reported researchers evaluated 116 healthy volunteers aged 18-30 years who were exposed to room light or dim light in the eight hours preceding bedtime for five consecutive days. An intravenous catheter was inserted into the forearms of study participants for continuous collection of blood plasma every 30-60 minutes for melatonin measurements. Results showed exposure to room light before bedtime shortened melatonin duration by about 90 minutes when compared to dim light exposure. Furthermore, exposure to room light during the usual hours of sleep suppressed melatonin by greater than 50 percent.

In Light’s Out I point to studies in 1993 and 1994 that reported that human volunteers at the NIH were monitored for hormonal release and brain activity by Dr. Thomas Wehr. The volunteers slept eight hours (a short night) and Fourteen hours (a long night.) The results included, “Longer periods of melatonin secretion upped white cell macrophage and lymphocyte production. The second most obvious difference hormonally between short and long nights was the amount and length of prolactin secretion. This change in melatonin and prolactin secretion reflected the long night’s fragmented sleep pattern.

“Given that chronic light suppression of melatonin has been hypothesized to increase relative risk for some types of cancer and that melatonin receptor genes have been linked to type II diabetes, our findings could have important health implications for shift workers who are exposed to indoor light at night over the course of many years,” said Joshua Gooley, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass. and lead author of the study.

Seventy million Americans admit they are tired. In Lights Out, I proved that the major killers correlated with obesity- heart disease, diabetes and cancer- are caused by short nights, by working ridiculously long hours, by literally burning the candle at both ends, and by the electricity that gives us the ability to do it.” “Working late in bright lights after dark, or watching David Letterman or checking late-night E-mail , for even just half an hour, all register as the long days of summer to your inner environmental controls. The amount of sleep you get signals to your body the mode that it is in.” Winter signifies famine to your internal controls. Famine on the horizon signifies instinctive carbohydrate craving to store fat for hibernation and scarcity.” If you sleep at night for the number of hours it would normally be dark outside, you will only crave sugar in the summer, when the hours of light are long. It is the perennial adaptation or the chronic, constant intent to hibernate, that causes overconsumption of carbohydrates and obesity and its attendant high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and inevitable heart failure. In Sex, Lies and Menopause, I point out that “The artificial triggers of man-made light and food not only fool your insulin, cortisol, and melatonin system-which wreaks havoc with your sleep cycle and make you jumpy and crave sugar- they affect your sex hormones too. Without estrogen, women can’t sleep. Estrogen grows life, and progesterone refines and stabilizes it. Our lifestyle of living in an endless summer will have to change before we can hope to solve the many ailments that come from sleep deprivation, with prescription drugs. The only person to benefit from sleeping is you.