October is a dismal time of year. The clocks go back, which accelerates the onset of darker evenings and the “shorter days” inevitably lead to calls for the tradition of putting clocks forward or backward to stop.
Of course, the annual return to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) from British Summer Time (BST) doesn’t make the days any shorter, it merely shifts an hour of available daylight from the evening to the morning. For many, lighter evenings are a priority and little attention is given to the benefits of lighter mornings.
Arguments over clock changes tend to revolve around benefits for easier travel in lighter evenings. Nevertheless research suggests that holding onto lighter mornings might have hitherto unforeseen advantages. Light in the morning – more than any other time of day – leads to powerful brain-boosting effects, helping us to function as best we can, despite the approaching winter.
Morning awakening is a striking and important biological event – the tipping point of the day. A rapid burst of cortisol secretion kickstarts the day by synchronising widespread biological systems. This powerful hormone rapidly sweeps throughout the body where it is recognised by receptors on all body cells. These receptors generate the next stage in the biological chain reaction to ensure we are appropriately prepared and energised for the challenges of the day ahead. Smaller CARs mean we do not function optimally.
So on dark winter mornings it can be more difficult to mount a robust burst of cortisol in the morning. This is because both awakening and light are the stimuli for this crucial tipping point of the day. A lack of light in the morning can diminish the biological chain reaction and make many of us feel below par and not function at full throttle. Ironically this would be most marked for those that are in any way affected by the seasons. So those who complain most about the dark days are probably the most likely to benefit from light in the morning, rather than the evening.
