Courtesy of Lauren Jeffries.
- I write about sleep for work and have talked to countless experts about how to get the best rest.
- Though many experts suggest total darkness, I tried the viral Dutch method for a week.
- Leaving my blinds open felt odd at first, but I woke up feeling ready to take on the day.
A few weeks ago, I woke to yet another bleary morning, turning my alarm off in frustration and asking myself, “Why am I still exhausted?”
I mentally checked off the sleep hygiene tips I’d learnt from previous experts I’d spoken to (after all, I do write about sleep for a living). Eight hours of sleep? Check. Keeping a consistent bed and wake time? Check. Avoiding caffeine and alcohol? Check, check.
I couldn’t understand why I was waking up foggy and tired, and why this feeling seemed to last well into late morning. What was I doing wrong? Wracking my brain, I went down a Google rabbit hole and found a sleep hack I’d never tried before: the Dutch method.
If I’m to believe what I read on the internet (and I sometimes do), those living in the Netherlands apparently swear by the simple trick of sleeping with their curtains open.
The advice goes against everything I’d previously learned about sleep (the darker the better is usually the rule), but I thought I’d give it a go. What was there to lose?
My first night trying the Dutch method
The first night of my experiment, I spent a while staring out of my bedroom window, watching the trees, illuminated by a streetlight, blowing in the wind. Eventually, I fell asleep, but admittedly, it did take longer than usual.
However, when my alarm sounded at 6.45 a.m. the next morning, I was wide awake. My room was flooded with light, and I actually felt refreshed. My mood was boosted, and that energy lasted all day. Did I just crack the code to surviving early mornings? Time would tell.
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The rest of my week was just as enlightening
I continued my experiment for a week, and my energy only improved. On my days off, when I didn’t have a set wake-up time, I took the experiment a step further. Recently, I’ve been oversleeping, which has made my grogginess worse, so I decided not to set an alarm at all and see whether the Dutch Method would really allow me to wake up naturally.
Sure enough, around eight hours after I went to bed, I woke up with a feeling that is rare in busy adulthood: satisfyingly well rested.
Even more surprisingly, I started falling asleep faster at night. It felt like a miracle, but why was it so effective? I called upon a trusted source of mine to find out.
The science behind the Dutch method
Chatting with Dr. Lindsay Browning, a renowned neuroscientist with a doctorate in insomnia, I learned there is real science behind this newly-trendy hack.
“Even through closed eyelids, you can sense changes in light,” Browning, a sleep expert at Trouble Sleeping, told me. Which means your body can detect the rising sun, even when you’re sleeping.
“This can mean that you are pulled from a deeper part of sleep to a lighter part of sleep before waking up,” she adds, explaining that this reduces sleep inertia — the scientific word for grogginess.
But why was it easier to fall asleep at night? “Bright light in the morning can help to anchor our circadian rhythm,” Browning says. This is our internal body clock that controls when we feel awake and sleepy. When circadian rhythm is well regulated by natural light, falling asleep, sleeping through the night and waking with energy all become easier.
Now, there are a few important caveats to mention. If you don’t want to wake up until later in the day, then this method isn’t for you. Also, as we move into summer with lighter evenings and even earlier sunrises, the natural light might not fit your schedule.
But if you’re someone who naturally rises with the sun at this time of year, I highly recommend you give this sleep trick a go. I’ve learned that darkness is overrated, and I’m letting the light in from now on.
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