I've Gone All "Nature" On Ya

I think S is worried about me. Last night he snapped the bedroom light on after I had so carefully turned all the big lights off and instead turned on a small bedside lamp.

"AAAAAHHH My circadian rhythms!!!!" I shouted.

He shook his head and said something about how soon I was going to be doing yoga.

See, last weekend my Dad, S, and I had a discussion about Daylight Savings Time. I've come to not like it. When I was younger I loved it because it meant we could play outside longer in the summer. Well, if the mosquitoes didn't carry us away, you know. But it seems to me that when I was little that's all it was......the summer. Daylight Savings Time now takes up most of the year. We just got off of it in November and it starts back up next month.

This messes with our bodies, I believe. I mentioned many posts ago about how the pioneers knew when to quit working---when the sun went down. But we, with all of our advanced living, could work all night if we wanted thanks to electricity and artificial lighting. I'm not slamming electricity--it is my friend. The point is, we are not in touch with common sense when we can keep all the lights burning and wonder why we can't sleep.

My Dad said it was called circadian rhythm. I had never heard of it but he explained that it was the reason some men couldn't handle shift work. (My dad worked shift work for over 30 years.) Basically, it's our body's cycle of a 24 hour day. We wake. We sleep. All of his is based on the sun and the seasons.

So I was already thinking about that when I stumbled across an article talking about how we never hear nature sounds anymore. Well, you might, but this writer worked inside a well-insulated building without windows. It gets to you. Her answer was to play CD's of nature sounds or download them to her MP3 player. I'll tell you, I've worked in a windowless building before and was shocked beyond belief to open the door and find a storm outside. Sheesh, talk about isolation!

So what do you think about all this? Don't you think there's something to it?

God made the earth and the 24 hour day and the seasons all for a reason. Just when things need to change, they do. Just when the earth heats up enough, before it overheats, the sun goes down. And just before it freezes into a big ice ball, the sun comes up. The seasons serve their purposes. Even though we all say, "I could live with _______ season all year long!" We know things don't work this way. We need all four seasons. We need both sunlight and dark.

So I've been trying to turn off lights in the evenings. Let it get darker before we go to bed. I open windows in the mornings. I'm listening to birds right now. I'm trying to go to bed earlier and get up earlier---a bit more like the pioneers and a bit more in line with the sun. Now, what do I do when DST starts?

I guess get black out shades?

And maybe do some yoga.