Ken Stuart posted:
>BTW, another factor required for melatonin production is darkness.
>Don't expect to fall right to sleep, if you've had all the lights on
>brightly in the preceding hour!

And Janet Walbaum posted:
 a sleep therapist advised we were not designed to wear sunglasses
>outdoors or work in an enclosed environment and suggested my circadian
rhythm was out of whack.  He told me to walk east each morning at sunrise
for 40 minutes. Evidently, while we sleep, the essential amino acid,
tryptophan, is emitted from our brain which allows us to sleep.  We were
intended to awake with the sun (after falling asleep in our caves at
sundown) and toil outdoors all day.   The sunlight entering our eyes
would immediately shut off the stream of tryptophan, allowing it to build
up again, for use again that night.
>He explained, if it is not shut off by exposure to sunlight, it
continues
>to seep from the brain during the day, which causes a shortage when it
is
>needed at night.

I don't intend this as taking exception to anyone's experience in this
area, just thought a different perspective  might be of interest to some
of you.  This topic caught my attention because it is a central issue
where I live, about a hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle.  It
hasn't been dark here for several weeks,  nor will we see a starry
 night for a few more months.  In midwinter, of course,  we have about
four hours of daylight.

In the summer, some people tape aluminum foil over their windows,
or use blackout curtains,  and complain of not being able to sleep.
This is usually the mark of a newcomer.  Chechakos fall into a
rythm after a few years here, and those among us who
have had ancestors here for the last ten thousand years or
so  are physiologically and culturally accustomed to adapting
to the changing light.
        Most of the folks I know just stay up later in the
summer, and wake up earlier.  It's not unusual to be gardening,
fishing, doing yardwork or construction at midnight.  Because the
summers here are short, plants, animals and people seem to use
their days intensely in foodgathering activities. Although most of
the urban dwellers here could survive on grocery-store procure-
ments, such ritual food gathering activities as hunting, fishing,
berry picking and gardening seem to be almost compulsively
pursued by people here both summer and winter, which I find
kind of intriguing.

          In the winter, people tend to sleep longer, as if
catching up on the lost sleep of summer.  In the Athabascan
communities, the coldest months of the year are the time of
storytelling and visiting and repairing gear.   I've heard
 it suggested that the need for extra sleep  is caused by
depression, but  I have a hunch that it's more physiological.
However, even with sunlight streaming in at three in the
morning, I am still pillowhugging at that time.  And even
though it is almost midnight and  still broad daylight, I am
planning on hitting the rack as soon as I sign off.

It's obvious that it's possible to sleep in the presence of
daylight, to be awake and functioning in its absence,
I don't mean to belabor that.  My point is that there
are circumstances when adaptation to such a cycle
seems natural and deeply satisfying.

regards, Kathleen

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