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Of Night Owls and Early Birds

© Traute Klein, biogardener

From birth, people are destined to be early birds or night owls. Take advantage of your internal clock to get a good night's sleep.

Darkness and Light

Why do people sleep at night and not in the daytime? Is it just because of the absence of light? I don't think so. If that were the case, then we should be able to fall asleep at any time, as long as we are in a darkened space. We should also be able to do with less sleep in the summer than in the winter. We should also have no problems with jet lag. Nature does respond to darkness with silence and sleep, even when it does not occur at the expected time. I have described that phenomenon in the article "Hush of Awe, the Unexpected Eclipse," linked below. Man is no longer dependent on light and darkness to carry on his daily schedule. He therefore no longer responds to darkness in the same way as nature. No, the reasons for our need to sleep at certain times has to be found elsewhere.

Getting Those Three Winks

Why is it that I am sleepy in the evening when other people, even those in my own family, are wide awake? And why am I wide awake in the wee hours of the morning, when everyone else in the house is just turning over in bed, settling in for the last lag of their beauty sleep? At exactly 8 p.m., I tend to doze off, no matter where I am or what I am doing. I have been aware of this since I was a little child. Even then I noticed that my mother experienced the same sleepiness exactly one hour before it would hit me. For as long as I remember, at 7 p.m. sharp, she would stop talking, her eyes would close, her hands would drop into her lap, and she would be dead to the world.

Different Nap Times for Different People

I got my first clue to the solution of the puzzle listening to my mother telling my favorite story. Daily I would ask her to recount how she prepared for my arrival into this world, and part of the story was the revelation that I was born at 8 p.m., the very hour when I doze off. On my sixth birthday, my birthday present arrived at 7 a.m. That is when my brother Hans was born. And guess what? He cannot fall asleep in the evening, and trying to wake him in the morning is like raising the dead. I don't think that Hans ever made it to school on time. And I don't think that he has ever gone to bed at a normal hour. He has no trouble sleeping all day, though.

The copyright of the article Of Night Owls and Early Birds in Natural Health is owned by Traute Klein, biogardener. Permission to republish Of Night Owls and Early Birds in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.