Going Dark: An Experiment

[ThreeCat]

Hi all, After reading this article at the Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...s-off-at-dusk/ and then reading Clark Strands book "Waking Up to the Dark," I decided to go dark myself. I've been doing this since August, and have had very good results. "Going dark," as I am referring to it, means to turn off all of your electrical lights at dusk. The downside is that there isn't much to do in the dark except: sleep dream have sex meditate be there The upside is that suddenly, there is a lot of time available. Time to just be. There are also many health benefits, which Strand enumerates in his article. I will list a few for the sake of brevity: increase melatonin production: melatonin is only produced when the brain detects an absence of light. Without light, the body naturally segues into calmer and calmer states of mind, before finally falling asleep. This is also one of the reasons why so many people report insomnia in the US and other developed countries prolactin production at night: for most modern sleepers, waking up in the middle of the night coincides with cortisol production, which essentially is a stress hormone that wakes you up. In the brain of someone with no electric light, cortisol is replaced by prolactin, a hormone in mother's milk that is calming. Our bodies produce it naturally in the middle of the night. Waking up is very peaceful, and there is no fear of getting back to sleep. more sleep: you sleep more. You feel more rested. more dreams: for me, this extra sleep has provided more dreams. In a pure setting, one is able to sleep 10 or 11 hours a night, if desired, and there are many opportunities to WILD hour of the wolf: the natural state of waking in the middle of night. Can be used to think, meditate, DJ, or just lie there (one of my favorites) This kind of lifestyle does require one to give up some things, but if you already appreciate the life of the mind more than the life of Twitter, then it probably won't be too hard. If anyone has questions about going dark please let me know, as I would be happy to tell you more