A troubled internal clock means lack of alertness during the day, insomnia during the night. A situation too many of us are familiar with.
Scientists of the University of Colorado in Boulder carried out a field study that found people fell asleep about two hours earlier than usual when they were denied access to their gadgets and electrical lighting and packed off to the mountains with a tent.
Just a weekend in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado was enough to reset people’s internal clocks and to reverse the use of artificial light to push bedtime late into the night. A spell outdoors, the researchers conclude, could be just the thing for victims of social jet-lag who find themselves yawning all day long.