Zeitgeber

Recently Brandon asked what my Zeitgeber is. Since I just woke up, I thought it is a good time to write it down. :)

I think all living things have a biological rhythm that drives their bodies. Naturally many animals wake up with the sun and go to sleep when the sunsets. Of course, there are exceptions for night active animals. But if you think about it, their rhythm is just reversed.

The same thing applies to humans if you ask me. We tend to wake up when the sun goes up and lay down when the sunsets.

While I was doing paramedic nightshifts every Monday and Wednesday, that shifts really messed with my internal clock. Suddenly I wasn’t only awake when the sun was up, but also had to be up and concentrated at the night.

Messing with this times messes with our sleep and health. At least that is what I experienced and finally the reason why I moved out of the old Apartment.

Anyway, back to the Zeitgeber. Before I moved to the new Apartment there was Prime Day and I ordered a daytime alarm clock. Before that, I had a normal alarm clock that just would ring you out of the bad badly in the morning.

The daytime one gradually increases the light in my bedroom and starts bird noises when it is at full power.

It starts about half an hour before the alarm goes off and I found myself waking up even earlier as the light “told my brain” the sun is coming up. With this clock, I never wake up sleepy unless I haven’t had enough sleep.

With the help of this clock, I finally managed to set my day and night cycle the way I want it to be. So I can wake up easily at 5 am. Like it did today.