2019-09-01 In The Moment

dark skies

CalmMoment.com 103

reacts to day and night) at the National Institute
of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA. By
controlling the hours subjects were exposed to
daylight, his team attempted to recreate prehistoric
sleeping conditions in a group of young men from
Washington. The subjects’ days were shortened to
10 hours, and for one month the men came to the
laboratory each night to spend the remaining 14 hours
in dark, windowless rooms, encouraged to relax and
sleep as much as possible. As the subjects adjusted to
their new schedule, their sleeping patterns shifted
into two distinct phases.
The ‘first sleep’ was a deep, slow-wave sleep,
lasting around 4-5 hours before they awoke at around
midnight for an interval of quiet reflection and relaxed
wakefulness, described by the researchers as a state
of meditation. The subjects then returned to a ‘second
sleep’, but during the meditative waking stage,
the researchers recorded an increase in prolactin,
a compound that encourages an animal to rest.
The men also released higher levels of the growth
hormones that help the body to repair itself, which
reduced dramatically when the subjects returned
to their normal schedules. Dr Wehr guessed that
this rhythm of intermittent sleep was much closer

Tiffany's book

Dark Skies – A

Journey into the

Wild Night

(Bloomsbury,

£ 1 6. 99 ) is out on

5 th September.

Tiffany Francis

A writer, artist and

environmentalist from

the South Downs in

Hampshire, England,

Tiffany (tiffanyfrancis.com)

has appeared on BBC

Radio 4 and Channel 4.

She is writer in residence for

The Forestry Commission’s

centenary celebrations.

Dark Skies is her third book.

Pho

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rap

hy^ T

iffa

ny^ F

ran

cis

to that of our ancestors who, like many other

mammals, slept and woke in phases while never

leaving the safety of their dens.

The modern world means our sleeping patterns

have been adapted to suit office hours and school

runs. But that doesn’t mean we can’t find time to

escape into the darkness, even if we have families

and children to think about.

You don’t need to travel far to enjoy the night sky –

the back garden is a great place to find some alone

time or encourage your children to think about the

wider universe and their place in it. There is no

greater gift for growing humans than a gentle

reminder that we are one of many, to reflect on our

place in the ecosystem and admire the beauty of our

vast and magnificent world.