HELLO DARKNESS.MY OLD FRIEND

With the evenings drawing in, could embracing the darkness be good for you?

- IAN TAYLOR

It's that time again. The clocks have gone back and many of us are reaching for the SAD lamps, vitamin D supplements and carb-heavy one-pots to get us through the long, dark nights of winter.

But maybe there's another way to approach the change of season. What if we embrace the darkness?

At the right times and in the right quantities, darkness helps our bodies rest and heal, optimises our cognition and mental health, and lowers our risks of various illnesses.

That's because our circadian rhythms, or body clocks, are triggered not just by light, but also the lack of it.

"To optimise your sleep you want to keep it as dark as possible with as few distractions as possible," says Prof Victoria Revell, who researches circadian physiology at the Surrey Sleep Research Centre. "We know there are health implications to having constantly interrupted sleep. It's associated with things like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and increased cancer risk."