Wearing sunglasses in the evenings is effortlessly fixing my circadian rhythm

[Rinse & rePeat]

So, for a few evenings now, I have been putting on a pair of sunglasses about 2-3 hours before I'm expecting to hit the bed, not taking them off until I'm in the bed. My sleep schedule has been shifting earlier by as much as 15-30 minutes a day. I first thought of using those blue-light blocking glasses, but I figured that sunglasses should work even better. I have set my screens and lights to the lowest level of brightness at which I can still read without too much difficulties.

I think my body is acquiring a form of Pavlovian conditioning to the glasses too. I put them on just 30 minutes ago and I'm already feeling the melatonin surging. My largest question for now is if by continuing this practice my sleep schedule would perpetually get earlier and earlier, or if I would eventually hit a schedule that the body would naturally prefer, a biologically wired circadian preference.

Anyone else tried something similar?

This is what I love about Ray “Peaters”, the quirky things we do for good health. Wearing sunglasses indoors makes me smile :)

 

[tankasnowgod]

Corey Hart has been doing this since 82.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2LTL8KgKv8

 

[ecstatichamster]

Nice hack. Makes sense. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Androsclerosis]

Not very, in the sense that I can usually recall having briefly woken up 1-3 times through the night.

Interestingly enough, this happened to me last winter and I noticed that the issue was created by stress from cold. Only in the days that I started wearing heavy clothes, my sleep and digestion quality increased to a 10.
In your case I think it's stress, not blue light (even if it can interfere a bit).
During the winter it was hard to wake up fully rested if I wouldn't follow these mandatory steps:
1. Eating every 2 hours
2. Wearing heavy clothes
I also felt a bit more sensitive to the stress of caffeine.
So I started having a full chocolate milk bar of 100g in the morning and for the next hours mermelaide.

 

[Androsclerosis]

I can believe that, since digesting is a taxing process. However, typically I will have to eat a small bowl of rice or a couple of fruits just before hitting the bed or I won't be able to fall asleep due to a subtle adrenaline surge from insufficient blood sugar, especially if I've eaten meat earlier in the evening. There was a thread recently about eating two tablespoons of honey before bed, this could work well since honey is so easy and fast to digest that it should not disrupt sleep.

Yes, that could work.
Also, you can try 1g of vitamin B3, it helps glucose oxidation and increases GABA, acting as a benzo. It was a powerful supplement during stressful days. Combined with 150g of carbs, your sleep will get on point.

 

[Lollipop2]

There is this french professor of pharmacology (who was imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital in parallel of his harsh criticism of the crisis management and because he is accused of having run illegal trial of drugs against Alzheimer's disease) who claims that he has discovered the hormone of sleep (which is not melatonin of course) and that it is secreted from 10pm for everyone and at everytime of the year.

Edit : in fact melatonin follows the same 10pm-6am pattern regardless of the season.

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s5Xp4nzeRfQ

Hey fascinating! Thanks for this. I have always heard that bed by 10:00 pm is super important but couldn’t honestly answer OP’s question about time zone and light differences.

 

[Adf]

Interesting. But could you be teaching your body to prime itself for sleep by putting on the sunglasses? EG. Your neurons could learn, okay reaching for sunglasses, sunglasses on, world is dimmer, less light entering the eyes, begin melatonin production, fall sleep shortly. How would this affect you in the long run? In a few months time might you suddenly feel sleepy while driving around in the daylight wearing your sunnies? Possibly amplifying the 'chill' effect of sunglasses that @JamesGatz mentioned above?

I'd be interested in an update in the near future if you want to keep tabs this theory.

 

[Vileplume]

Ray peat also recommends not eating 2 hours before bed, try that, it's a life changing.

Where did he recommend that?

I’ve often heard him talk about the benefits of consuming carbs, calcium, and salt—like juice or sugar milk or ice cream, or even “salty chips”—before bed to keep glycogen up. Same if you wake up in the middle of the night