time of birth, internal clock, night owls, early birds, night owl, early bird, sleepy times, clock, sleep, birth hour, sleeping traute klein, biogardener

From birth, people are destined to be early birds or night owls. Take advantage of your internal clock to get a good night's sleep. Darkness and Light Why do people sleep at night and not in the daytime? Is it just because of the absence of light? I don't think so. If that were the case, then we should be able to fall asleep at any time, as long as we are in a darkened space. We should also be able to do with less sleep in the summer than in the winter. We should also have no problems with jet lag. Nature does respond to darkness with silence and sleep, even when it does not occur at the expected time. I have described that phenomenon in Hush of Awe, the Unexpected Eclipse. Man is no longer dependent on light and darkness to carry on his daily schedule. He therefore no longer responds to darkness in the same way as Nature. No, the reasons for our need to sleep at certain times has to be found elsewhere. Getting Those Three Winks Why is it that I am sleepy in the evening when other people, even those in my own family, are wide awake? And why am I wide awake in the wee hours of the morning, when everyone else in the house is just turning over in bed, settling in for the last lag of their beauty sleep? At exactly 8 p.m., I tend to doze off, no matter where I am or what I am doing. I have been aware of this since I was a little child. Even then I noticed that my mother experienced the same sleepiness exactly one hour before it would hit me. For as long as I remember, at 7 p.m. sharp, she would stop talking, her eyes would close, her hands would drop into her lap, and she would be dead to the world. Different Nap Times for Different People I got my first clue to the solution of the puzzle listening to my mother telling my favorite story. Daily I would ask her to recount how she prepared for my arrival into this world, and part of the story was the revelation that I was born at 8 p.m., the very hour when I doze off. On my sixth birthday, my birthday present arrived at at 7 a.m. That is when my brother Hans was born. And guess what? He cannot fall asleep in the evening, and trying to wake him in the morning is like raising the dead. I don't think that Hans ever made it to school on time. And I don't think that he has ever gone to bed at a normal hour. He has no trouble sleeping all day, though. Well, I had to investigate that subject. Whenever I noticed someone dozing off or even looking sleepy, I would ask what time of the day he was born. And what did I find out? Almost everyone dozes off at exactly the moment at which he first saw the light of the world. That isn't too amazing considering how strenuous the birth process is on mother and baby alike. It tires the infant sufficiently to make him want to get a good rest before tackling the problems of life outside the protective womb. And that must be the time when his life clock gets set for his sleepy-hour. Take Advantage of Your Built-in Clock If I am in bed at my birth hour, sleep comes easily. If I ignore that time, sleep may escape me later. Having to go to sleep at a time far removed from the birth hour leads to sleep problems. It causes people to resort to sleeping pills and herbal relaxants, but it does not solve the problem. If we could only choose our birth hour as the hour at which we go to sleep, we might all be able to sleep soundly without sleep inducers. I pity the poor souls who were born in the morning. They are never awake in school, at least not in the morning. How can they learn? If they are lucky, they will get a night job and then have a legitimate excuse to sleep all day. If businesses with shift work were smart, they would question their employees about their birth hour and schedule shifts around the time that each employee is wide awake. No Clock for Special People There is one group of people who do not appear to have their life clocks set at all, and those are the ones who are born by Caesarian section. They did not have to struggle to be born. They came into this world fully awake. They seem to be able to fall asleep or be awake whenever they choose. Trying to get a Caesarian baby to keep a regular sleep schedule is a lost cause. I have tried it for years, because my hubby is one of them. I have given up trying. I would love for you to share three things with me: the hour of your birth your hour of sleepiness your peak hour of productivity. Join the ongoing discussion which was started after a previous article on this topic. In another entry in the Suite 101 Eclipse Event "The Hush of Awe, the Unexpected Eclipse" I recall the 1963 total eclipse which I experienced without having any idea of what was about to occur. One of our Suite101 editors, Florence Cardinal, also writes about Sleep Disorders at About.com.

© 1998 to 2002 Traute Klein, AKA biogardener
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