Wright collected the participants’ saliva to measure their levels of the hormone melatonin – a biological marker of night time – throughout the night before and after the trip. The results showed that their circadian clock shifted two hours earlier following the camping trip. “A key finding from the study is that our circadian rhythm is earlier after [exposure to the] natural light-dark cycle, which means we’re later in our modern world,” Wright says.
Sleeping outside keeps us more in sync with our biology, not just the environment – Kenneth Wright
The campers’ melatonin levels dropped shortly before they woke up – whereas when they had been sleeping at home, melatonin levels stayed high for a while into the morning. “Our modern [artificial] light exposure changes our circadian rhythm such that in the hours after we wake up, our circadian clock in our brain is telling us we should still be asleep,” Wright says. “We should be asleep for [another] couple of hours in some cases.”
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