Does darkness make you sleepy?

Most people sleep when it’s dark, of course, but have you ever considered which factor influences the other? Do you get sleepy at the same time every day simply because of how long you’ve been awake or is the fact that it’s dark actually going to make you more tired?

For instance, say that you work the late shift. You drive home in the morning and try to sleep all day. If you were just sleeping because you were tired, you would logically expect to not feel fatigued when it got dark out. But could that still happen?

The darkness does impact your body

The truth is that darkness itself impacts your body and the chemical processes that are happening within it. Most importantly, your body knows that it is time for rest and creates melatonin to help you sleep. This happens when you’re not exposed to light, and it’s the reason that being exposed to a lot of light in the middle of the night can cause you to feel more awake. You still haven’t gotten enough sleep, but your body is just reacting to the changing light levels.

This is very important to understand when considering drowsy driving accidents. People may know that they have to drive at night and decide to drink coffee or take a nap earlier in the day to try to combat this fatigue. But that doesn’t always work, because simply driving in the dark means that your body is going to start creating more melatonin and getting ready to go to sleep. This makes it more likely that you will nod off and cause a car crash.

Of course, this could also happen to all the drivers that you share the road with. If one of them falls asleep at the wheel and seriously injures you, you need to know how to seek financial compensation.