Astronauts have a bad time sleeping, apparently. Such a bad time that it affects their work. And as I am still doing this ridiculous getting up to work at 5am and collapsing asleep at any time from about 5:05am to midnight, I’m seeing some of these problems myself. If you have similar problems, this may help. If you haven’t, if you sleep like a lamb with an electric blanket, read it as a somewhat dull episode of Star Trek:

…cosmonaut Valentin Lebedev reported in his diary that he had a tendency to make mistakes on days following an unusually late bedtime; on one occasion he took fifty Earth-observation photographs through a closed porthole before realizing his error.

Four Things Astronauts Can Teach You About a Good Night’s Sleep – Barking Up the Wrong Tree

Writer Eric Barker is quoting there from a book called Bold Endeavors: Lessons from Polar and Space Exploration and says first that NASA took some notice – and, second, that the issues that cause these problems are now ones affecting us all. Astronauts no longer have sunrise and sunset, they don’t have day and night or at least they get a lot of them, an awful lot of them, as they whip around the planet. Quoting The Paleo Manifesto: Ancient Wisdom for Lifelong Health:

Today our bodies have become thoroughly confused by the artificial signals of modern life. Light is no longer a cyclical function of the sun, but of always-on indoor lights, TV screens, and computer monitors. Temperature no longer follows a dynamic cycle of cooling at night and warming during the day but sits at a static level set by the thermostat. Human chatter and social interaction used to follow a natural ebb and flow, but now we are more likely to live and sleep in isolation from real people, even while we have 24/7 access to artificial people (faces on TV, voices on the radio). Then, after utterly confusing our circadian rhythm, we try to take back control with stimulants (caffeine, nicotine) and depressants (alcohol, sleeping pills). Is it any wonder that a third of Americans are chronically sleep-deprived?

Barker himself suggests some solutions:

Maintain a consistent schedule, even on weekends. Keep in mind the “free-running” problem. Your body will push later if given the chance.
Take an hour to wind down before bed. Yes, you’re busy. But your time is not more precious than an astronaut’s. So take the time to wind down.

He has more in the full and deliciously link-replete article that will have you off reading in deep corners of the internet.