The Sleepy Time of Year

monday-blogs-post-1We’re moving closer and closer to the sleepy time of year.

I’ve mentioned this on my blog before, but my sleep cycle is influenced by how much daylight there is at any given point in the year.

In the summer, I wake up early with the sun. This means that I’m up and ready to go at 5 or 6 a.m. in June when the days are long and sunrise happens early.

Now that we’re headed into fall and sunset is happening earlier and earlier every day, my sleep cycle is shifting again. I start feeling drowsy soon after the sun goes down and often go to bed an hour earlier than I would have a few months ago. I’m also waking up later in the day than I do in the spring and summer.

This happens regardless of if I’m sick or healthy. No, it doesn’t seem to be a sign of an illness or anything like that. Other than needing to catch a few extra winks, I feel exactly like my old self in every way I can think of. While seven hours of sleep is plenty in the summer, I simply seem to need more of it when the sunlight fades.

Due to the early sunsets and late sunrises we’re having now in Ontario, this means that autumn is the time of year when I am at my sleepiest. As soon as the winter solstice hits, I will start wanting less sleep again.

This is temporary, but I should probably never live in the Arctic Zone!

In the meantime, I like to joking refer to this as my hibernation period. monday-blogs-3

It’s sleepy.

It’s cuddly.

It also makes me wonder how our ancestors slept in the past. I’ve read that it was common in some cultures to go to bed when it grew dark outside and then to wake up for a few hours in the middle of the night before going back to sleep until morning.
I’d love to know if any of my readers have noticed similar patterns in their sleep cycles. Have you noticed in changes in it from one season to the next? What is your bedtime routine like? How do you sleep?

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0 Responses to The Sleepy Time of Year

  1. Megan Cutler

    This actually makes a lot of sense, since our bodies are designed to respond to the natural light cycle. For me, if I wake up and have to use the restroom when the sun is rising, it will sometimes be impossible for me to get back to sleep ^^;;

    But I’m actually the opposite. I’m very much a night person. I have to put myself on a strict by-the-clock sleep schedule or I just end up not being able to sleep normal hours at all. (That could have a lot to do with me being an insomniac though.)

  2. Mary Gee

    I’m much more likely to get up early in the summer because it is light out.

    I had too many years when I was working and had to get up in the dark

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