EARTH HOUR
Addressing Global and Personal Warming
If God or angels or extraterrestrials were monitoring us from above, the most profound change they would have witnessed on this planet since its creation is the pernicious illumination of our nights. Thousands of satellite images of the Earth taken over recent decades attest to the fact that the planet is growing dramatically brighter year by year.
So much of our use of light at night (LAN) is gratuitous. The International Dark Sky Association, an interdisciplinary organization concerned with global light pollution, offers compelling evidence that we are seriously overexposed to LAN, which is an unnecessary energy and economic burden, detrimental to wildlife, and a factor in global warming. A number of studies have linked excessive LAN to an increased risk for cancer. I believe that overexposure to light at night is the most critical overlooked environmental factor in our sleeplessness.
Readily witnessed in cities and our homes, excessive LAN may be the most obvious symptom of global warming. And also of personal warming. If global warming is the result of our collective mismanagement of energy, personal warming is its expression in our individual lives.
Our personal relationship with light is much like our relationship with food. Most of us are overfed but simultaneously undernourished. Likewise, we are overexposed to light, getting about one-third more exposure per day than our pre-industrial ancestors did. And most of this exposure is to poor quality artificial and poorly timed light — what one of my patients called junk light. I believe that like junk food, junk light is an important factor in chronic inflammation — our personal warming. Major sleep disorders are, in fact, associated with our personal inability to cool adequately at night.
Participate in Earth Hour
In a call for symbolic action on climate change, hundreds of millions of people around the world will turn off their lights for one hour on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 8:30 pm local time. Earth Hour (www.EarthHour.org) is a global initiative sponsored by World Wildlife Fund in which individuals, schools, organizations, businesses and governments are encouraged to turn off their lights for one hour as a vote in favor of action on climate change.
In 2009, hundreds of millions of people in more than 4,000 cities in 87 countries on seven continents participated. In the U.S., 80 million Americans, 318 cities and eight states officially turned off their lights for Earth Hour. They were joined by iconic landmarks from around the world including the Golden Gate Bridge, the Las Vegas Strip, the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens, St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament in London, the Eiffel Tower, Beijing’s Birds Nest and Water Cube, Sydney’s Opera House and Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.
Beyond its intention to raise consciousness about global warming, Earth Hour can also be an important step in raising consciousness about personal warming — about chronic inflammation and the impact of excessive LAN on our sleep. Earth Hour is not just about turning lights off to save energy–its about turning night and darkness back on.
And night is the best sleep medicine. When exposed to dim light or darkness, our pineal gland begins to convert serotonin into melatonin, that mysterious sleep supportive neurohormone. Darkness also encourages us to introvert–to draw our attention from the buzzing illuminated world of waking to the mysterious, restful and quieting world of sleep.
Suggestions for Savoring Night
Because it offers a kind of bittersweet sustenance, I think of dusk and night as dark chocolate time. During Earth Hour, sit in a darkened space with family, friends or on your own and just savor it. Try to get reacquainted with the experience of night you had as a child–maybe on a camping trip. If weather permits, consider spending the hour in a natural setting, particularly if you can see the night sky. (Turning our lights down affords us a much better view of the heavens.) Be mindful of the fact that you are part of a wave of millions of people paying homage to night. And, of course, take notice of how you sleep that night. I think you’ll find that, like chocolate, even a little bit of darkness can go a long way.
Consider making this kind of practice part of your nightly routine. In Healing Night I provide a detailed description just such a practice called dusk simulation. Moving from an annual Earth Hour to nightly dusk simulation would have a profoundly positive effect on both global and personal warming. It would support both the planet and its people in obtaining the nightly rest they so deserve.