Scientists have explained why some people have trouble sleeping in the winter. This was reported by the University of Washington press service.
The study was conducted on 507 students studying at the same university. The data showed that students got about the same amount of sleep each night, no matter what time of the year. However, on winter school days, students go to bed an average of 35 minutes later and wake up 27 minutes later than on summer school days. The expedition surprised the expedition as Seattle is located at high latitudes and gets about 16 hours of sunlight at the summer solstice, enough evening light for social life, and just over eight hours at the winter solstice. That is, evening activity in sunlight in the summer intuitively seemed more reasonable.
It turns out that this is due to the body’s internal clock – circadian rhythms. “During the day, especially in the morning, light speeds up your clock, so you’ll get tired earlier in the evening, but exposure to light late in the afternoon or early at night delays the onset of fatigue by delaying your clock,” the authors explain. It is the result of the collision between these opposing effects of staying still.” Every hour of the day, the clock “advances” by 30 minutes, and in the evening – 15 minutes. Thus, the circadian clocks fell behind in the summer, as the students did not get enough daylight during the winter months.
In this regard, scientists advise to go outside more often during the day in winter, since this effect is manifested mainly by natural light – even in cloudy weather.