CircadianRhythms
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Our nights keep getting brighter
Our nights are getting brighter and they have been every year since 2012, according to a new study published today in Science Advances. Researchers led by Christopher Kyba at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences used satellite imagery to track changes in nighttime outdoor artificial lighting around the world and they found that between 2012 and 2016, the amount of lit area grew by 2.2 percent per year. The amount of brightness from continuously lit areas also increased by 2.2 percent per year. So not only is more area being illuminated at night, already lit areas are getting even brighter. "We're losing more and more of the night on a planetary scale," said the journal's editor, Kip Hodges.
Re-Timer could play with your brain, fool body clock to minimize jetlag
Jetlag and disrupted sleep patterns are conditions we're all too familiar with, right along with flashing lights that claim to remedy them. A new wearable device, tagged Re-Timer, also promises to be of help by mimicking sunlight and resetting the body clock. Reportedly the result of 25 years of sleep research at Australia's Flinders University, it's worn like a pair of glasses and emits soft green light, fooling the part of the brain that regulates your circadian rhythms. When used at different times of the day for specified durations, it claims to advance or delay the clock as desired -- countering the effects of frequent air travel and improving alertness levels. The rechargeable, portable device is safer and more effective than medication, according to its chief inventor Professor Leon Lack. If nothing else, the $260 visor is a bold fashion statement, although it may not be as cool as having robots convert your dreams into art.
