Understand
Morning light, evening dark
The simplest lever on the body clock, and the one most often skipped.
3 minSource: Narrated
The idea
Light is the main signal your body clock uses to decide when you should be alert and when you should be winding down.
Daylight within an hour or so of waking, outside rather than through a window, sets the clock for the day. Ten to twenty minutes is enough on a bright morning, longer on a gray one.
In the evening, the same logic runs backwards: less bright light, especially overhead, in the hour before bed.
If mornings are dark
In winter this gets harder, and a daylight lamp is one option some women find useful.
It is not a treatment for low mood. If the winter months reliably flatten you, that is worth a conversation with your doctor.
Sleep is where memory consolidates and mood resets. It compounds further than almost anything else here.
General information, not medical advice. Narrated never diagnoses.
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