Journalist lives underground for 10 days, here’s what happened
In her quest to understand how factors like light exposure and meal timing impact our well-being, Lynne Peeples, a science journalist and author of The Inner Clock: Living in Sync With Our Circadian Rhythms, took a bold step. She spent 10 days living 50 feet underground in a Cold War-era nuclear missile silo in Arkansas, with no daylight and no knowledge of the time.
Peeples intentionally disconnected herself from any external cues that could inform her circadian rhythm, such as light and time. She also covered all the clocks in the bunker to ensure she wouldn’t have a sense of time. The bunker had dim red lighting, known to have minimal impact on our internal clocks.
At first, Peeples was amazed by how accurately her internal clock kept time. She documented her experience using voice recordings and timestamps, noting that for the first few days, she aligned closely with a 24-hour cycle. However, halfway through the experiment, her rhythm became misaligned, and she experienced symptoms of severe jet lag, including mood swings, clumsiness, and foggy thinking. She felt entirely out of sync, often sleeping when others were awake, and vice versa.
This experiment highlighted the importance of natural cues like sunlight for our circadian rhythm. Peeples emphasized that getting exposure to bright light in the morning, ideally within the first hour or two of waking, is crucial for maintaining a balanced internal clock. This, along with aligning your eating schedule and avoiding disruptions like excessive light at night, can significantly impact your overall health and immune system.