Sleepiness and light levels

It’s mid afternoon and I long for a siesta. My eyes are drooping and I simply can’t be bothered to do anything. So I thought I’d pick up the book laying nearby, plump for a page and write something about whatever it is I find. And hey presto, it’s about how light levels affect the release of melatonin (the sleep hormone).

It seems in the summer the illumination level is 113,284 lux, in winter it drops to 58,895 lux. At dusk the level has drastically reduced to 8,200 lux, although just 1000 lux is sufficient to suppress melatonin levels in the same way as daylight . In an office environment (which is where I am right now) the light level is a mere 500-750 lux, i.e. NOT enough to stop melatonin telling my body to feel sleepy! No wonder I need a snooze

Guess I’ll go and stick my head outside, catch myself a few lux before I start catching a few zzzzzzz’s.

This entry was posted on 01/08/2008 at 03:14 pm and is filed under Seedlings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.