Do you have a night light?

Do you fall asleep watching television?

Do you use the computer at night once you have turned off the lights?

Do you read in bed at night using an electronic book reading device?

Do you turn on the lights at night when you get up to go to the bathroom?

Do you do shift work that results in working during the night when you should be sleeping?

Do you have a bright light digital alarm clock that lights up the room?

A report published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that some of the increase in obesity observed over the past several decades could be due to increased exposure to light at night and shift work, which disrupts the release of melatonin, a hormone produced by the pineal gland in the brain in response to darkness.

Light at night is an environmental factor that may be contributing to the obesity epidemic in ways that people don't expect. This was one of the observations made in the study by coauthor and Ohio State University professor of neuroscience and psychology Randy Nelson.

He believes that societal obesity is correlated with a number of factors including the extent of light exposure at night.

The study concludes that exposure to light at night disrupts melatonin signaling, which could lead to changes in food intake and activity and altered metabolism.

Many of the hormones that we produce at night are directly affected by light exposure.

These hormones change when we are exposed to artificial light.

Our bodies were created to work closely with the light of the sun.

Just as sundown and an absence of light affects certain hormones, sunrise and the presence of light affects other hormones.

This is a factor that many people do not take into consideration when trying to understand their weight gain or inability to lose weight.

Good hygiene is anything that helps you to have a healthy life.

Think of them as good habits to follow.

Sleep hygiene can be defined as the controlling of all behavioural and environmental factors that precede sleep and may interfere with sleep.

Sleep Hygiene Tips:

1.Once you turn off the lights at night avoid turning them back on.

2.Avoid using any bright light source at night such as a flashlight, bright night light, turning on the lights, bright alarm clock, television with lights turned off, computer with lights turned off, etc.,

3.Make your bedroom quiet, dark, and a little bit cool.

An easy way to remember this: it should remind you of a cave. While this may not sound romantic, it seems to work for bats. Bats are champion sleepers. They get about 16 hours of sleep each day. Maybe it's because they sleep in dark, cool caves.

4.Develop sleep rituals.

It is important to give your body cues that it is time to slow down and sleep.

Listen to relaxing music, read something soothing for 15 minutes, have a cup of caffeine free tea, do relaxation exercises and then turn off the lights and go to bed at the same time each night.