Are you sick of going to bed late and waking up tired? Then grab your hiking boots and a tent. A new study suggests that a couple days of camping in the great outdoors can reset your circadian clock and help you get more sleep.
The circadian clock is an internal clock that tells your body when it’s time to go to sleep and when it’s time to wake up. Scientists track this clock by measuring the amount of melatonin circulating in a person’s blood at any given time.
Previous research by integrative physiology professor Kenneth Wright of the University of Colorado at Boulder found that people can reset their circadian clocks by taking a six-day summer camping trip in the Rocky Mountains.
That study, published in 2013, showed that by the end of the trip, the camper’s bodies started to release melatonin around sunset, and stopped releasing it around sunrise — an average of two hours earlier than when they were tested at home. Additionally, during the camping trip, the study participants didn’t get up for an entire hour after their bodies stopped releasing melatonin, making it easier for them to wake up in the morning.