After opening the front door, the hand automatically feels for the light switch in the hallway. Nothing. It stays dim. So carefully continue towards the living room. Nothing. No light, no phone, no television. The electricity is gone . But the question of whether there are still batteries for the flashlight in the kitchen drawer – where are they anyway? – lying down suddenly becomes meaningless and small when you look through the window: It has never been so dark! No billboards, no street lamps, no bright office towers that always put a hazy bell of light over everything. Only the moon and the stars, which can shine unmolested against each other.
Table of Contents
Artificial light disrupts the internal clock
Sudden blackout across the neighborhood is the only time we still experience true darkness. First we get angry about it, then it gets adventurous and we move on to the comfortable part. Because life in the dark has a special appeal. Just as the desire for more light and fresh wind awakens in spring, so does the need to “wrap up” and preserve in the run-up to Christmas. For centuries, people have been telling stories by candlelight or an open fire. In the solemn dim light, they review the year, spend a lot of time with their loved ones and try to stop the hustle and bustle. It can’t be a coincidence that “Silent Night, Holy Night” is the world’s most popular and well-known Christmas carol.
We need the dark. Our bodies have been programmed to alternate night and day for thousands of years because our earth rotates and revolves around the sun. This rhythm is reflected in “clock” genes that each of our cells possess. A US study has found that if volunteers are deprived of artificial light for several weeks, they return to an age-old sleep pattern . First they lie awake in bed for two hours, sleep four hours, are awake again for two hours and sleep again for four hours. And: When you are awake, your brain seems to meditate in the dark. A “fear-free wakefulness” , as the authors of the study call it. But today we only experience this half-awake floating if we want it specifically.
In 1844, the first electric lighting was installed on the Place de la Concorde in Paris. In 1879 Thomas Alva Edison invented the light bulb, in 1886 alternating current came along – and gave us the power to expand at will with the tap of a finger every day . Decoupled from nature.
A bell of light is placed over every city
Admittedly, the brightness makes dark alleys and underpasses, countless basement stairs and many dark parks and car parks much safer. Hardly anyone needs to be afraid of the dark anymore. We even expose ourselves to it in doses by watching scary films, going on the ghost train and enjoying the short adrenaline rush and the tingling under the skin – until someone turns on the light again.
The problem is the opposite, switching off. A small town with 30,000 inhabitants brightens the night sky within a radius of 25 kilometers . Around the world, “light bells” line up almost seamlessly, satellite images show. If the Three Wise Men had to follow the Star of Bethlehem today, they would probably never get to the baby Jesus. A fifth of humanity can no longer see the Milky Way, and only one in 100 people worldwide can look up at an “unblemished” sky in the evening.
This has consequences : deciduous trees that grow near street lamps lose their leaves too late and suffer more from frost damage. Migratory birds lose their orientation due to the constant lighting. Your journey to the south often ends at the glass facades of office towers that are bright as day. Researchers are now calling this the “Towerkill phenomenon” . Songbirds like the chaffinch start singing up to 90 minutes earlier in the morning because the nocturnal light pollution completely upsets their rhythm of life. This is proven by studies by the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen near Munich. Experts estimate that an average of 150 insects die from a street lamp in a single summer night. Doesn’t sound like much. But aloneGermany’s streets have about seven million light sources . And there are constantly more.
Our internal clock
And we? How prone to failure is our internal clock ? If we fly from Frankfurt to New York, Melbourne or Phuket, we overcome jet lag relatively quickly. Turning night into day with friends from time to time is also not a problem. But that is not how it remains. Even today, 20 percent of those in employment have to work outside of “normal” hours – and in doing so, permanently change their body’s pacemaker. This increases their risk of developing obesity, diabetes, sleep disorders or cardiovascular diseases. The World Health Organization has even classified shift work as “probably carcinogenic” since 2007 .
There are two possible explanations for this. On the one hand, chronobiologists such as Prof. Till Roenneberg from the University of Munich assume that shift work means constant physiological stress for the body – which means that the organism is increasingly unable to defend itself against diseases . Other researchers like Richard Stevens from the University of Connecticut in the USsuspect that artificial light at night massively disrupts the production of melatonin, the “hormone of darkness”. It is the pointer of the internal clock and an important free radical scavenger: melatonin prevents aggressive oxygen compounds from causing cell damage in the body. If it is missing, there are more defects in the genetic material, body cells age faster and the risk of tumors increases.
Yellow light makes the stars twinkle again
It has not yet been scientifically proven which of the models is correct. Perhaps both of them will explain together why we need the darkness . Nobody doubts anymore that it is important. Save the night!, it must be called. There are more than enough ways and means. The city of Augsburg is already setting a good example: in the “model city for environmentally friendly lighting” all the street lamps have been converted to high-pressure sodium lamps, which no longer shine white but yellow. That attracts fewer insects, shrinks the nocturnal bell of light over the city, reduces electricity consumption by a whopping 20 percent and saves 250,000 euros a yeara. Hobby astronomers in Augsburg can also see their “favorites” in the starry sky again because they can filter out the yellow light with their telescopes.
What works on a large scale shouldn’t be a problem on a small scale. And you don’t have to wait until the next power outage. Ask yourself a few simple questions : Do I always need artificial light? Do I have to illuminate every detail? Are halogen spotlights and uplighters really cozier than candles? Just. Give it a try. It’s very simple: Lights out!
Nocturnal Professions
Sylvana Kolm, night porter from HamburgOf course, Sylvana Kolm also has a charming smile ready at three in the morning. For almost a year now, the 23-year-old hotel manager has been working at reception on night duty at the posh “The George” in Hamburg – exclusively. “I chose it that way. I like that night becomes day.”She is there for hotel guests five times a week from 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. , making her feel wide awake and in top form. “My normal rhythm has been turned upside down, but I still have a regular life. Above all, I make sure I get enough sleep.” When Sylvana Kolm comes home from work, she usually goes to bed at midday until she gets up around 7 p.m. “I sleep like a log and I’m really rested afterwards.” That’s why shift-related sags aren’t an issue. “I’ve got enough to do.” She checks the waiter’s bills, compiles departure lists and information for the breakfast service. “Of course, there are also the questions and wishes of the guests.”
Only when the night is particularly quiet or the sleep account is not quite full does time trickle down very slowly and tiredness creeps in. “But then, when in doubt, a coffee or a chat with the security colleague helps.” Sylvana Kolm says she can imagine working this shift for another two or three years. Then she would like to experience something new and would like to experience the day again.
Jasmin Leuxner, radio presenter from MunichShe sounds fresh and wide awake. Also at half past two in the night. When “BAYERN 3” radio presenter Jasmin Leuxner sits in front of the microphone between midnight and five o’clock, chatting with the listeners and playing music, she sends a good mood along with it. “I keep everyone awake who works at night,” says the Munich native.She has been presenting the night show for two years . A layer that she loves, not only because of the quiet atmosphere, but above all because of the direct connection to the listeners. She calls or emails some of them almost every night. “Like that cold winter night when it came to men’s tights. During the show, the listeners collected lots of fun tips about keeping warm.” That keeps them awake. And singing along to music loudly, especially between three and four o’clock when fatigue sets in.
But at the latest when the early shift with the team of “early turners” is in the studio, she doesn’t feel anything anymore. “They bring life to the place,” says the 30-year-old. When she gets home at 5:30 a.m., she quickly takes her dog out and then goes to bed. “I sleep until noon and then have time for myself. Wonderful.” The night shift suits her biorhythm, because: “I’m clearly a night owl .”
nurse and baker
Diana Mosert, nurse from MunichFour nights a month belong to the neurosurgical department at the Klinikum Rechts der Isar in Munich . Diana Mosert has been working here as a nurse for nine years. Early, late and night shifts. “I have to get used to it again and again, but I still like the night work,” says the 29-year-old. “I can then work much more concentrated.”During the day there is constant hustle and bustle due to visits, examinations, visitors or the distribution of food. “Sometimes I feel like I’m frayed. At night, on the other hand, I know exactly what I have achieved and what I still have to do. Any change of an infusion, any storage or monitoring of a patient, the preparation of the medication is my sole responsibility.” In order to survive the deadlock that approaches between two and three in the morning, Diana Mosert wanders around. “It helps to keep moving. I walk up and down the aisle, opening the windows to let cool air in.” Until the end of duty at 6:30 am.
About an hour and a half later, the nurse goes to bed and sleeps until early afternoon. “Unfortunately only superficially and rather restlessly. That’s a big difference to sleeping at night.” She likes the fact that the afternoon and evening belong to her. “But I feel that I’ve become more sensitive,” says Diana Mosert. “Just three or four years ago, it was easier for me to switch from day to night and back again.”
Ute Kaulitz, baker from Münster“I love my craft, but the twisted sleep-wake rhythm still bothers me, even after almost 30 years,” says Ute Kaulitz. The 44-year-old from Münster, who works in the ecological whole-food bakery “Cibaria” , has been working night shifts since she was 15 and has “if not made friends” with the working hours at least.At two o’clock in the morning the master baker comes into the bakery. “Then I need a coffee first before I start.” After that, it all happens in quick succession, more than 100 different types of bread and rolls, croissants, cakes and pastries have to be ready on time. “I don’t have time to dawdle, so I don’t know any phases of tiredness,” says Ute Kaulitz. Because the adrenaline fuels all systems. Because at five o’clock the first courier drivers come to pick up the deliveries for the surrounding organic shops and weekly markets.
Since the summer, the baker has even been working four nights a week instead of three , “and I notice that it’s wearing me out”. Her sleep is always fragmented, and the single mother hardly manages more than five hours at a time. A quick round of afternoon naps, then she gets up to spend time with her 13-year-old daughter. “When she goes to bed in the evening, I also lie down until the alarm clock rings at one o’clock.” Ute Kaulitz balances things out with strength training, which she goes to twice a week. “And because I enjoy working in a team. That makes up for a lot.”
Things to know about the night
We are beings of darkness
Researchers are finding out more and more about how day and night, light and darkness affect complex processes in our body. For example, all cells are clocked according to a fixed rhythm with their own mini-clocks and are often linked to one another. Body temperature, blood pressure, hormone levels, digestion, and even immune system activity have set highs and lows.
Sleep also follows a fixed pattern : every 90 minutes, the deep sleep phases alternate with lighter dream sleep phases. All of this is coordinated by a “master clock” in the brain, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), a network of nerves at about the level of the bridge of the nose. It reacts extremely sensitively to light-dark changes. These are perceived by special, only recently discovered cells in the eyes and forwarded to the SCN. The master clock itself is closely linked to the pineal gland, which works at full speed as soon as it gets dark and then produces melatonin. Daylight or artificial light, however, stops the melatonin release – and thus important repair processes in the body. A long-term disorder, some researchers believe, can make you ill. In those affected, for example, this increasesRisk of immune disorders, mood swings and poor concentration .
- 44% of all Germans under the age of 30 have never seen the Milky Way at night. The reason: Light pollution in this country is increasing by around six percent every year.
- The light of a small town of 30,000 people illuminates the night sky 25 kilometers away.
- 20% of workers in industrialized countries are already working shifts outside of normal hours. Ascending trend.
Into the darkness
“Dear people, let me tell you…” There are night watchman tours
in more and more cities, e.g. in Aachen (nachtwaechter-aachen.de, Tel. 02 41/16 54 11), Berlin (baerentouren.de, Tel. 0 30/46 06 37 88), Dresden (dresdentour.de, Tel. 03 51/4 11 65 75), Hamburg (nachtwaechter-hamburg.de, Tel. 0 40/36 62 69) or in Munich (weisser-stadtvogel. de, Tel. 0 89/2 03 24 53 60).
stargazing .
This works best in planetariums with a dome diameter of more than 18 meters, for example in Berlin (sdtb.de, Tel. 0 30/4 21 84 50, entry from 7 euros), Bochum (planetariumbochum.de, Tel. 02 34/ 51 60 60, entry from 7.50 euros), Hamburg (planetarium-hamburg.de, Tel. 0 40/42 88 65 20, entry from 8.50 euros) or Stuttgart (planetarium-stuttgart.de, Tel. 07 11 /1 62 92 15, admission from 6 euros).
Earth Hour 2012
For the fifth time, on March 31, 2012, the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) is calling on people all over the world to turn off their lights between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. (local time). This is intended to set an example against global climate change. 134 countries took part in 2011. Goose bumps feeling! Information on earthhour.org or wwf.de
Night hikes for a good cause.
Anyone who is good on their feet can do that on July 7, 2012 in Sheffield, UK. For more than 30 years, money has been collected for church development projects on the almost 28-kilometer “Sheffield Night Hike”. More info at sheffieldnighthike.org.uk
