Why experts think we should all be showering in the dark

© shower in the morning or shower at night it’s one of the great daily routine debates.

- Lydia Spencer-Elliott, The Independent

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Chat to those who stand in the former camp and they'll say the AM spritz under the shower head leaves them energised, alert and ready for the morning. Meanwhile, the PM apologists enthuse over sliding under their duvets sans the dirt of the day. Elsewhere, the greedy among us do both — and have the soaring water bills to show for it.

Inthe UK, over half (42 per cent) of usoptto shower in the morning, with the most popular times sitting at 745am and 7.54am. But as the number of us struggling to sleep skyrockets, with many people turning to magnesium or melatonin supplements for help, could it be that we'd be better off taking a soothing shower in the evening instead?

If you're already half asleep after dinner, this could sound counterintuitive. Why wake yourself up with bright lights and blasting water when you could simply roll into bed? Well, the internet has the answer to this: dark showers, which are exactly what they sound like. Rather than turning the big light on, which is so stark and oppressive to the eyes that the chronically online have taken to calling it “homophobic”, young people are opting to turn the lights off completely when they shower after 5pm.