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Post by Ms. English on May 30, 2023 7:51:06 GMT -5
Post your answers to the discussion question here. Make sure to read the responses of those posted before you and respond directly to them when appropriate before posting your own.
Klinkenborg describes the shortening of the night and lighting up of the night sky as an experiment we've been performing on ourselves. Think about your own life in these terms, about the amount of sleep you get and the amount of night light you experience. Do you think the modem experiment with light pollution has had effects on you?
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Post by audrey on Jul 10, 2023 11:40:33 GMT -5
On average I get about 8 hours of sleep each night. I don’t think the modem experiment with light pollution hasn't affected me tremendously even though I know it can affect a lot of other people. I know that light pollution can cause people to have unnatural sleep patterns which can lead to health problems and that not being able to see the stars at night can cause some people to have emotional and mental problems. I will say I do experience a little bit of night light, however, it doesn’t really affect me personally on the amount of sleep I get because in my neighborhood we are surrounded by a lot of trees that help block a lot of the light pollution (artificial light) coming from other houses, stores, and buildings. I always try to stay consistent with my sleep schedule, I would always try to go to bed at the same time every night and shut all of my blinds, and sometimes if I do still see an excessive amount of artificial light coming through my window I would put on a sleeping mask to help me fall asleep.
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brynn
New Member
Posts: 10
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Post by brynn on Jul 13, 2023 12:42:43 GMT -5
I don't really know how much the modern experiment with light effects me because I don't know what it was like to live when there wasn't this much light at night. I do know that it's really hard to see the stars from my backyard, even harder than it was a year ago because my parents put in some lights in the yard compared to when we camp the stars are way harder to see. As for my sleeping schedule, I don't find that artificial light effects it a lot, I keep my curtains closed and the only time the light bothers me is when our neighbor turns on their light in the room right across from my window. Technology is probably a contributor to less sleep in humans, I've heard it recommended that you shut off technology at least 30 minutes before you go to sleep which I don't do all the time, and when I don't I do find it harder to fall asleep, although I don't if that is considered light pollution, necessarily.
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Post by jirehm on Jul 18, 2023 15:23:41 GMT -5
For me to sleep it has to be completely dark in my room. On an average night, I get about 7 hours of sleep. Most of the time light pollution is not a problem for me, and when it is maybe my neighbors have their back porch light on to my driveway light being on. These factors can make it difficult for me to fall asleep but I use blackout curtains. Without the curtains, I could say light pollution would have had its bigger effects on me. Also if I lived in a more populated city where there are fewer trees to block the light; like new york where their motto is the city that never sleeps I would experience very little night light and lots of light pollution where blackout curtains might not even help me go to sleep. If I lived in new york I would probably not get a very good sleep probably like 2 hours at a time during the night.
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Post by audratate on Jul 19, 2023 19:04:13 GMT -5
No, I do not think that the amount of sleep I get has changed because of the lighting up of the sky. I do believe that the lighting up of the sky is effecting others, especially those in the major cities, where lights are on 24/7. I usually get a good 8 hours of sleep year long, my sleep schedule is based on the sunrise though. I usually wake up with the sun in the summer but in the winter, I have an alarm clock because of school. I live closer to the country, so there is not as much night light as there is in downtown Kalamazoo. I do agree with Klinkenborg and his idea of testing ourselves with the amount of sleep we get and the amount of light in the sky. We continue to increase the lights in the sky and I do believe that there are people losing sleep because of the brightness.
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Post by Andrew on Jul 26, 2023 11:42:57 GMT -5
I don't think that the modern experiment with light pollution has affected me. I try to block out as much light as I can when I sleep, though I do think that the modern experiment with light pollution affects many other people. Especially with those who live in very populated cities where day never really stops, and the lights never go off. Although I don't think that the experiment has really had an effect on me, if there was more exposure to light while I was sleeping then I could see how it might affect me. Also I do believe that there is probably a difference with sleep patterns and quality of sleep with those who live in the cities, than those who are very remote. This is because those who live in cities don't experience the true darkness of the night. When there are no effects from light pollution, those who live very remote can have a natural cycle of day and night.
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Post by meadowmeskil on Jul 26, 2023 20:31:20 GMT -5
I think that the modern experiment with light pollution has not really affected me. I always make sure that my room has no light when I am sleeping, but I am still able to fall asleep if there is some light. My blinds on my windows also block out a lot of the light that comes in from outside, and usually at night there's not really any light coming in, so the amount of light I am getting doesn't bother me or affect the amount of sleep that I get. I think that if you lived right in the middle of downtown Kalamazoo, you might be affected a little bit more, but Kalamazoo is not a large city with many lights. I think that if we lived in a bigger city especially closer to downtown such as Chicago, we would be able to see more light during the night, so we might be affected then.
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Post by Eloise on Jul 28, 2023 11:11:31 GMT -5
On average, I get about 8 hours of sleep every night during the school year. In my old room upstairs, I had 3 large windows with no blinds. When I was younger, I liked having that bit of light but now I can tell the difference in falling asleep with no light downstairs to upstairs where it seems dark but really there is still quite a bit of light. Although I do live in a city, I think that it would have more of an effect on me if Kalamazoo was a larger city, like Detroit or Chicago. I also believe that if I still slept upstairs without curtains it would have more of an effect on me than it does but in general, I do not think that the modem light experiment has had much effect on me other than that I cannot see as many stars in my backyard.
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Post by Hailey Lowry on Jul 28, 2023 14:42:05 GMT -5
The number of hours of sleep I get is usually between 7-8. It depends on how tired I am from my day. So if I have a long day, I will usually fall asleep early but If not I will stay up later. When I sleep, I have to have my room completely dark. I am not able to sleep with any lights on. For this reason, I have curtains to block out any potential light throughout the night. Whether it is a police car going by or my neighbor's porch light censoring something. The modem experiment with light pollution hasn't affected the number of hours of sleep I get because I don't live in the city. However, people that do live in very populated cities are affected by the modem experiment with light pollution. Big cities are always lit up either with the city lights or just cars within the city. If I was to live in a big city, I would need to have curtains to block out the light pollution.
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Post by Ari Johnson on Jul 29, 2023 15:02:38 GMT -5
I feel like light pollution definitely has an effect on me at night. I use my phone often before going to bed, which causes me to not be able to fall asleep as effectively as I would without getting on it. Even then, I still get around 8 hours of sleep every night regardless of the artificial light in my eyes before I close them. The light on the street never effects me however, due to my room being towards the back of my house. Street lights and cars passing by also have no effect as the only lights getting in the way of my sleep are the lights that I'm turning on myself such as my phone, my chrome book, and my LED lights on my ceiling. Light pollution also greatly effects me at my job when I work night shifts. Especially on the days where I have to get up early in the morning, and continue to go to work at night. These are the days when the effects of light pollution harm me the most and cause me to not sleep as well as I should be.
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Post by Jayde Hayworth on Jul 29, 2023 22:35:15 GMT -5
I do think that light pollution has had some effects on me; not only does it change my nighttime schedule, but also my daytime schedule. Unless I had a very tiring day, I would normally go to bed around nine or ten, but in the more recent years due to getting in the habit of watching television or being on my phone before I go to sleep, I stay up later which has effected my sleep schedule, more during school months. This also makes it so it's harder for me to fall asleep in the dark, which is why I have to sleep with my LED lights on, or some other type of light source. Due to this, I tend to sleep in more as well, necessarily taking away more of my day, especially when it comes to taking naps; I am able to take them more often as I have gotten used to sleeping normally in the broad light.
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Question 4
Jul 31, 2023 19:00:25 GMT -5
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Post by jesseruelas on Jul 31, 2023 19:00:25 GMT -5
I would say that in average I get around 8 hours of sleep every night. I feel like the amount of sleep that I get can be effected by the increase in light pollution because it can keep me awake and get rid of my tiredness. The amount of light in the sky for me is kind of a marker on when I should be going to bed and when I see that it is dark out I will go to bed. However, following the increase in light pollution i definitely have been getting less sleep and need to adjust my sleep schedule better. I use an alarm clock to wake up, but that doesn’t fix the fact that sometimes I just can’t sleep sometimes due to the lights that come from downtown Kalamazoo since I do live close to that.
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Post by emmagray on Jul 31, 2023 19:51:25 GMT -5
Before reading this essay, I never considered daylight savings time as an experiment, nor did I truly grasp its importiance. The impact of light pollution on my sleep schedule was also something I hadn't thought about. In the past, I would typically get around 8-9 hours of sleep each night. However, since getting a phone, I've noticed my sleep schedual has often been reduced by an hour or more. As for my sleeping habits, I used to keep my shades open to let in natural light from the streetlights, and now I find it challenging to sleep without them open. Clearly, the modern experiment of light pollution has altered my sleep schedule.
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Post by Leah Sparks on Jul 31, 2023 20:00:43 GMT -5
I would say that on average, I get around eight to ten hours of sleep each night. Sometimes during the summer, I get twelve hours. I think that light pollution doesn't really affect my sleep schedule. Sometimes the street lights will shine in through my windows, so I close my blinds to ensure that it will stay as dark as possible throughout the night so as to not disrupt my sleep. If I wake up and the light is showing through, it makes it more difficult for me to fall back asleep. I feel like light pollution has had more of an effect on my viewing of the night sky. The amount of stars I could see in the night sky has changed from when I was a child to now. When my family goes camping, travels to the Upper Peninsula, or stays at our friend's house in Pennsylvania, I can see so much more of the night sky than I can at home, because of how isolated the areas are. They are so far from big cities, that the only things left to light up the night are the stars and the moon in the sky.
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Post by cameronshaffer on Jul 31, 2023 22:50:36 GMT -5
I typically get around 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night. Light pollution doesn't seem to significantly affect my sleep quality, since my windows are surrounded by forest and I have blackout blinds that make my room very dark, only artificial light from my clock and computer would effect me. To maintain a consistent sleep schedule, I try to go to bed at the same time every night and use blackout blinds to create a dark sleeping environment. The only things left to impact me are from devices left on in my room. If I were to live in a city with intense light pollution like New York, where there are fewer trees to block the light, I realize that my sleep might suffer. In such cases, blackout curtains alone might not suffice. To further enhance my sleep, I would consider exploring "smart" blinds or curtains with light sensors or even getting a sleeping mask to maximize my sleep quality. These improvements can adjust the window coverings based on surrounding light levels, ensuring a dark room and potentially improving your sleep quality and if that doesn't work the mask provides an extra level of protection.
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