"The Plague of Light in our Bedrooms" via BBC news
TL;DR - the amount of light getting in to our rooms when we're sleeping is affecting our
lives.
The study from this article suggests that the amount of light that we're getting in our rooms (from streetlamps/phones/clocks/cars) is having enough of an effect on our bodies that it is causing obesity.
They also found that women who had enough light in their rooms to "see across it" had larger waistlines.
Now, without wanting to overtly offend anyone
TL;DR - the amount of light getting in to our rooms when we're sleeping is affecting our
lives.
The study from this article suggests that the amount of light that we're getting in our rooms (from streetlamps/phones/clocks/cars) is having enough of an effect on our bodies that it is causing obesity.
They also found that women who had enough light in their rooms to "see across it" had larger waistlines.
Now, without wanting to overtly offend anyone
...surely the excess calories consumed in people's diets is the
cause of obesity? Don't get me wrong. I was officially classed as obese just two
years ago. I celebrated when I got into the overweight category for BMI. By all
means, I'm no model here - but this just sounds like another study trying to
explain away something fairly simple whilst taking accountability away from the
individual.
Yes, maybe the excess light does
have some effect on people - sensitive bodies can react that way. MAYBE it's a
contributing factor, maybe it exacerbates the problem by making people tired so
that their choices are worse in terms of how much they eat/what they eat - but I
think this is again taking the focus away from the real issue. Overeating and
food-choice.
Furthermore - some of the reasons that people
can't sleep is often that they have overindulged, that they don't have a decent
exercise routine or that they're stressed (cortisol levels are known to disrupt
weight loss and even play a role in weight gain) but this feeds back into the
problem!
The article reads like one of my old excuses - "oh,
I'm not fat, I'm just big boned" (yeah I used that one), or "this is my body's
biological set point", or, "oh, I'm not getting larger, those
trousers/underwear/top [insert choice of clothing into this space] got shrunk in
the wash"....
Hands up those of you who often
feel that you're "so busy you can't really find the time to cook?". How many
people out there eat after they're full up just to clear their plates? (thanks
nan and grandad for that one. I'm sure the people starving across the world
really benefitted from my poor eating habits that I took into my adult life!!).
How many of you are actually accountable for your own eating? I'm not. I still
use my friends - both in real life and online, my husband and my cat (j/k - he's
a tubby little thing on his own!) to regulate my eating habits. But I do
acknowledge that the food choices I make either increase, maintain or help
decrease my waist line.
This article, I'm sure, has some truth to it but personally I'd like to move the focus to studies on how
to help people regulate their portion sizes, take responsiblity for what they're
eating, move more and stay healthy.
cause of obesity? Don't get me wrong. I was officially classed as obese just two
years ago. I celebrated when I got into the overweight category for BMI. By all
means, I'm no model here - but this just sounds like another study trying to
explain away something fairly simple whilst taking accountability away from the
individual.
Yes, maybe the excess light does
have some effect on people - sensitive bodies can react that way. MAYBE it's a
contributing factor, maybe it exacerbates the problem by making people tired so
that their choices are worse in terms of how much they eat/what they eat - but I
think this is again taking the focus away from the real issue. Overeating and
food-choice.
Furthermore - some of the reasons that people
can't sleep is often that they have overindulged, that they don't have a decent
exercise routine or that they're stressed (cortisol levels are known to disrupt
weight loss and even play a role in weight gain) but this feeds back into the
problem!
The article reads like one of my old excuses - "oh,
I'm not fat, I'm just big boned" (yeah I used that one), or "this is my body's
biological set point", or, "oh, I'm not getting larger, those
trousers/underwear/top [insert choice of clothing into this space] got shrunk in
the wash"....
Hands up those of you who often
feel that you're "so busy you can't really find the time to cook?". How many
people out there eat after they're full up just to clear their plates? (thanks
nan and grandad for that one. I'm sure the people starving across the world
really benefitted from my poor eating habits that I took into my adult life!!).
How many of you are actually accountable for your own eating? I'm not. I still
use my friends - both in real life and online, my husband and my cat (j/k - he's
a tubby little thing on his own!) to regulate my eating habits. But I do
acknowledge that the food choices I make either increase, maintain or help
decrease my waist line.
This article, I'm sure, has some truth to it but personally I'd like to move the focus to studies on how
to help people regulate their portion sizes, take responsiblity for what they're
eating, move more and stay healthy.
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