I love to sleep and I love to run, but in winter, when it gets light for only about five minutes a day, the two conflict. I’m going to start training for the Manchester marathon soon and, apart from club training nights, mornings are the best time to run for me. What’s more, a morning run banishes my often low moods better than anything else, and sets me up for the day.
But being jerked out of sleep by my iPhone alarm was not getting me out of bed, and when I did awake properly, I was often grumpy, groggy and in no mood to do what banishes grumpy grogginess better than anything, which is to get my running gear on and get out of the door.
According to the journal Chronobiology International, this inability to get going in the morning makes me a late chronotype suffering from social jetlag. Apparently, being startled out of deep sleep by an alarm not only increases levels of cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress, but also puts your hormones out of whack, resulting in low moods and inertia. Ideally, you would be soothed out of your sleep gradually, passing from deeper into shallower states of sleep, eventually waking refreshed and ready, with your hormones in balance.
This, particularly in winter, is what light can do. I had heard about light therapy used to treat seasonal affective disorder (known as Sad) before, but dawn simulation was new to me. So when I read about Lumie’s Bodyclock, I was intrigued. Dawn simulation alarm clocks come highly recommended – by the British swimming team, British Rowing, and British Cycling, no less.
But would it get me out of bed and into my running shoes? I unboxed it, plugged it in, read through the instruction booklet, read it again and went to sleep. The clock employs a straightforward technique: half an hour before you want to wake up, the Bodyclock lamp starts to glow, becoming steadily brighter until your chosen wake-up time, when your body should be flooded with the soothing light of a perfectly simulated dawn.
The next morning, I felt myself drift slowly out of sleep until, after half an hour, the alarm sounded. By that time, the room was filled with a soft but bright light, and my cat had done a runner because I had chosen the dawn chorus alarm sound. I woke as if rocked into wakefulness, rather than being slammed into it. I didn’t feel groggy; I didn’t feel dopey. I just felt smoothly and peacefully awake. I got out of bed, put on my running kit, ran to the park to watch the morning mist rise off the lake, and felt excessively superior.
It wasn’t a one-off: I use the Bodyclock every day now, and morning runs are a lot easier. I wake more alert and happier. And, according to research, I may wake a bit brainier too: not only does dawn simulation seem to increase athletic performance, but it enhances cognitive performance too, as well as lightening your moods.
I may still be a late chronotype, but I am getting better at mornings, and at morning runs. If only there was no snooze button.
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