Cause And Effect Essay On Light And Sleep

Lights Affecting Sleep

Sleep has been connected to the grades of students. One in every four U.S. high school students admits to falling asleep in class at least once every week. As a result, research has shown that those who do poorly in class don't have much sleep. Not having enough sleep is common within the United States for students, because almost all schools begin early in the morning and many of these students either due to the delayed sleep phase syndrome or choose to stay up all night.

Due to the invention of the electric lightbulb in the late 19th century, we are now exposed to much more light at night than we had been exposed to throughout our evolution. This relatively new pattern of light exposure is almost certain to have affected our patterns of sleep. Exposure to light in the late evening tends to delay the phase of our internal clock and lead us to prefer later sleep times. Exposure to light in the middle of the night can have more unpredictable effects, but can certainly be enough to cause our internal clock to be reset, and may make it difficult to return to sleep. People who lived during the Industrial Age, before artificial lights, slept very differently from the way we sleep today. Many snoozed in two four-hour shifts, separated by a late-night period of being

These light cues trigger all kinds of chemical events in the body, causing changes in our physiology and behavior. For example, as evening approaches and the light in our environment dwindles, the hormone melatonin begins to rise and body temperature falls, both of which help us to become less alert and more likely to welcome sleep. With the help of morning light, melatonin levels are low, body temperature begins to rise, and other chemical shifts, such as a small increase in the activating hormone cortisol, occur to help us feel alert and ready for the