Sun in the morning, dark at night: how light at home helps you sleep and walk more

Your steps start in the bedroom

Qozgal counts your steps during the day, but how far you walk is largely decided at night. After a bad night you have less energy, your mood dips and it is easy to push the walk to tomorrow. Sleep runs on an internal clock, and the body sets that clock mostly by light. A bright morning tells you the day has begun, darkness in the evening says it is time to rest. In a typical flat these signals get mixed up: in summer the sun hits the window long before the alarm, in winter we get up in the dark, and at night a street lamp, a shop sign or car headlights in the yard light up the bedroom

In this article we go through what research says about light before and during sleep, how sleep and movement pull each other along, and how to set up the light in every room without a renovation. At the end you will find a simple one-week plan and a tip for readers in western Kazakhstan: where to order blinds made to the size of your windows in Aktau, Aktobe, Uralsk and the Mangystau region

How light runs your body clock

Everyone has an internal clock, the circadian rhythm. It decides when you feel sleepy, when your body temperature shifts and when melatonin, the darkness hormone, is released. The main cue for this clock is the light that reaches your eyes. Morning light moves the rhythm earlier, so sleep comes on time in the evening. Bright light late in the evening does the opposite and pushes it later. In a study by Wright and colleagues people spent a week camping with natural light only, and their internal clocks moved about two hours earlier: the biological night started at sunset and ended shortly after sunrise. A review by Blume and co-authors comes to the same point: the clock needs daylight and darkness at night in equal measure

And it is not only about the phone in your hand. Light gets in through a gap between curtains, from a street lamp, an advertising screen or a floodlight on the next building. In an experiment by Mason and colleagues young healthy people slept just one night with an overhead light of about 100 lux left on. During that night their heart rate was higher and heart rate variability lower, and the next morning their insulin resistance was stronger than after a night in the dark. In a large study by Park and co-authors of 43 thousand women, sleeping with a light or TV on in the room was linked to a 17% higher risk of gaining 5 kg or more over the following years. Check your bedroom against a few simple signs

• In summer you wake before the alarm because the sun shines right on your face
• From the bed you can see a street lamp, a sign or bright windows of the house opposite
• You fall asleep with the TV or a night light on, or in the glow of your phone
• On winter mornings the room is dark and getting up is really hard
• In the afternoon the sun heats the room and by night the bedroom feels stuffy
• Your curtains do not reach the edges of the window and bright strips stay at the sides

Sleep and movement pull each other along

The link works both ways. A review by Kline brings together evidence that regular activity helps you fall asleep faster and sleep deeper, while short sleep drains your energy and your wish to move. In a study by Dzierzewski and colleagues 79 middle-aged and older adults kept a daily diary for 18 weeks: on days with more exercise they rated their sleep as better, and good sleep in turn predicted more exercise afterwards. So if your Qozgal streak broke after a sleepless night, that is not laziness, it is a normal reaction of the body. We wrote more about how walks help you sleep in our article on walking and sleep

How to set up the light in each room

You do not need a renovation for this. What matters is being able to control the light: let it in when you need it and cover the window when it gets in the way. A bedroom needs darkness at night, a living room and a work spot need soft light without glare on the screen, a kitchen and a kids room need daylight during the day. Heat is a separate story. A review by Okamoto-Mizuno shows that in a hot room people wake up more often and spend less time in deep sleep. In summer in Mangystau and Aktobe the sun heats rooms facing south and west all day long, and if you shade them from direct rays during the day, the bedroom is usually less stuffy by night. We covered how to walk in that kind of weather in our article on walking in the heat

Good sleep starts in the morning: light through the window, steps outside and a dark bedroom at night

A one-week plan: light, sleep and steps

There is no need to change everything at once. Try living by a simple plan for a week and watch in Qozgal how your steps change after good and bad nights. Write down when you went to bed and how you slept, then compare it with the next day's steps: that makes it easier to see what works for you personally and what you can leave as it is

1. Day 1: in the evening, sit in the bedroom with the lights off and see where light gets in: a street lamp, gaps at the edges of the window, little lights on devices
2. Day 2: remove or cover the small lights, put your phone face down and away from the bed
3. Day 3: let the light in as soon as you wake up and go out for a 10-15 minute walk, even if only to the shop or the bus stop
4. Day 4: an hour before bed switch off the overhead light and keep a soft lamp on
5. Day 5: during the day keep the bedroom windows shaded from direct sun so the room does not overheat
6. Days 6 and 7: compare your steps in Qozgal and your sleep notes with last week. If light from the street still bothers you, think about blinds made to the size of your windows

Where to order blinds in Aktau, Aktobe, Uralsk and Mangystau

If the week made it clear that your windows need proper cover, take a look at ATLANT. They make blinds to order, sized to your windows: roller blinds, day-night blinds, Duet, MGS for wide openings and cassette systems. Measuring and installation are free, the fitter brings fabric samples and names the exact price on the spot. Prices from their list: roller blinds from 5 000 ₸, day-night from 7 000 ₸, cassette systems from 8 000 ₸, MGS from 10 000 ₸, Duet from 12 000 ₸. What to choose for sleep is laid out in detail on their page about bedroom blinds

• Blinds in Aktau: a shop with fabric samples in the 6th microdistrict
• Blinds in Aktobe: a separate number for orders and free measuring
• Blinds in Uralsk: its own number, measuring and installation are free here too
• Blinds in the Mangystau region, including Zhanaozen and Beyneu: it is best to check the visit terms by phone

While you wait for the measuring visit, make good use of the daylight. We have walking routes for these cities: Aktau, Aktobe and Uralsk. A morning walk along the embankment or through a park gives you both steps and the bright light that helps you fall asleep on time in the evening. And the free Qozgal app will count your steps and show how they change once your bedroom is truly dark

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