Here's why you should change your sleep schedule during the winter

Naturally, most people enjoy staying in bed longer when the weather is cold. Now, a new research recommends sleeping earlier and longer when there’s less light.

Seasonal changes in sleep

Experts at the Clinic for Sleep and Chronomedicine, St. Hedwig Hospital in Berlin, Germany set out to investigate the long-term effects brought on changes in the seasons. This they did by recruiting 188 people with neuropsychiatric sleep disturbances – such as insomnia, hyperinsomnia or nightmares – who were living in the city with low levels of light.

What the scientists discovered was that although the participants were used to light pollution and limited exposure to natural light, their total sleep time was about an hour longer in the winter and the summer.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep – a stage of sleep associated with dreaming and memory consolidation, according to the Sleep Foundation – also increased by 30 minutes longer in these two seasons, the research found. The average adult needs about two hours of REM sleep each night, the Sleep Foundation recommends. In the study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, the researchers wrote:

Seasonal changes in sleep architecture may have implications for recommendations regarding sleep routines.

Implications

For most people, the time they wake up is determined by external factors such as school or work, regardless of how dark or clear it may be outside. With these new findings pointing to improvement in sleep quality during darker months, society may benefit from a change in work/school schedules that would allow for later start. Study author Dr Dieter Kunz at St Hedwig Hospital said:

In general, societies need to adjust sleep habits including length and timing to season, or adjust school and working schedules to seasonal sleep needs

Read more:

⋙ This is why you should never go to sleep after midnight

⋙ Your sleeping habits have a lot to say about your health

⋙ True-crime series could increase your risk of this scary sleep condition, research shows

Sources used:

Daily Mail: Why you should go to bed an hour EARLIER in winter, according to scientists

Sleep Foundation: What is REM Sleep and How Much Do You Need?