Psychology: Sleep Chronotherapy

As a college student it might be difficult to go to sleep early around 10 P.M because you might have to stay up late doing homework or you might not be able to sleep due to over thinking about "how well you might do on a test, or "things that you need to get done." This is how my roommate and I feel sometimes and end up going to sleep late. We sometimes have to intake sleeping pills so we can get to rest if not that we will have to struggle in going to sleep late and waking up early at a 8:00 A.M class. 

If you can manage your time to get work done then you won't have a problem going to sleep. I found out helpful ways to go to sleep on time at night. What can come first depression or insomnia? Should we target insomnia in the treat of depression? 

According to McMahann and Terman ,"they conclude that Chronotherapy may be a way of preventing insomnia" .Chronology delivers enhanced light exposure upon scheduled awakening, and instructs reduced short-wavelength light exposure in the evening and darkness in the bedroom during sleep. chronotherapy directly provides the synchronizer, enhanced for rapid response by anchoring treatment time to the patient’s underlying circadian rhythm.

For example, if your unable to fall asleep until 2:30 AM, but requiring 7:00 AM wake-up to meet the daily school schedule. After less than five hours of sleep, the circadian cycle is deep into its nighttime mode, even if the sun has risen outdoors. Apart from the obvious problem of sleep deprivation, light exposure at this point further delays the inner clock, or prevents it from shifting earlier.

They also suggest that there is a psychiatritss diagnosis that indicates insomnia that is a symptom of depression. This can imply that depression can cause a disruption of the normal sleep process. It is important to encourage people regularize wake-up times, resist daytime napping, and avoid nighttime TV/ computer time. 

There has been researchers that have done scientific research with patients that were to sleep, when they actually fell asleep, how often they became alert in the middle of the night , and when they finally woke up. But we can wonder what is actually happening when patients started following the new rules?

We try to make up sleeping on the weekends but we are going against the therapy principle of regular sleep schedules. In another article named the Brian Meets LED’S: Everything Old Is New Again by Mcmahan and Terman, "suggest that an LED manufacturer is now selling a lamp that “keeps people pumping up by pumping up the blue light” “ You have to start to start thinking of light as a drug”. 

There is specialized ganglia in the retina in the eye that contain melanopsin that is sensitive to light in the blue part of the visual spectrum. Recent research shows that it can influence on mood, energy level, and wake-up cycle. There are specific times of day when you can stimulate melanopsin with enhanced blue exposure- often in the night and in the morning to help you sleep on time and help you wake up on time.

So if one day your are on a deadline of feeling drowsy, why not run out and buy one of those blue light-gadgets and start treating your sleeping?