Being In The Dark... Really!
My area of greatest professional competency (today, after retiring from my teaching career) is working as a field biologist, advising agencies and land managers on how to restore and re-create native plants environments (at a NASA facility, and numerous state and local natural areas and parks).
For both wildlife (mammals, birds, insects) and plants, things in recent decades have changed dramatically in many respects. One of the greatest (and ominous) has been the universal proliferation of unnatural levels of light; even, now, inside otherwise “dark” forests or wood lots.
All organisms, from microbes to elephants and sequoia trees, are affected by, even controlled by the occurrence, duration, and intensity of light. Today, humans experience intense light for far longer than when light after dark was by oil lamps or candles. My hero, Thomas Edison (his biography, read as a fourth-grader, impelled my desire to become a scientist) changed the world; made life possible as we know it today. And that’s a world undimmed by the natural setting of the sun.
Let me cut to the chase, and tackle the problem. Neither animals, plants, nor humans now experience long, completely dark periods each night. Yep, we turn out the lights and go to bed. But there’s a street light out there illuminating a slit of light on the bedroom wall. No big deal, eh?
WRONG! Without daily 8 to 10 hour periods of absolute, complete darkness, the human pituitary gland (and other parts of the brain and immune system) simply continue to operate as though it were day. Simply, sleep is compromised. Sure, you slept last night, and you thought it was pretty good. But you could not recognize the multiple effects of low-level nocturnal light had in compromising deep sleep, preventing adequate episodes of rapid eye movement sleep (REM). Without adequate REM episodes, your immune system was compromised, and neurons were unable to adequately clear metabolic wastes from nerves and neurons (which is the Anavex/sleep connection).
In recent years the essential roles of sleep have been discovered. In the last century, there was little understanding of the actual functions of sleep. Sure, get little of it and you feel sleepy. But why is sleep so universal in Kingdom Animalia? Now we know. A deep sleep state, of adequate duration, is required for the biochemistry of nerves and neurons to dramatically change (the sleep state), allowing endogenous chemical resources to clear nervous system wastes. If they remain, pathology ensues (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, etiologically at least to some degree?).
I’m 71, have slept well all my life (or, I thought so). But had to be in the Cleveland Clinic for a surgical procedure (wonderfully resolved). While recuperating, I couldn’t sleep well. Regulations required that the hospital room that I slept in have the door open all night. The hall lights and sounds kept me from sleeping deeply. I mentioned this to a nurse. And, as nurses so often do, she solved my problem. She went to her floor office and came back and said, “Here, use this. We like to give these to our patients. This will solve your sleep problems here; and probably at home, too. Take it with you. Now, sleep tight!”
A cheap, 98-cent fabric sleep mask. “This is crazy. But, I’ll try it.”
Couldn’t believe it the next morning. I awakened entirely refreshed, mentally eager to start the day. Dreamed well (the REM thing). Thought I had just come back from a vacation in a national park (where I used to sleep at night in my tent, with not even any moon light.) Nerves got cleared there with that natural night darkness. I thought it was the delight of experiencing the deep woods. Nope. The magic of complete darkness.
Went home from the hospital (about two years ago), and have slept every night with a cheap fabric night mask. I feel, now, like I’m mentally in my fifties. No day-time grogginess. Just feel healthy. For a third of the day, I’m in the dark. In my waking hours, I see the light, all of it — especially the enlarging glimmer from Anavex Life Sciences Corp.
AI
