Re:A call to improve London's lighting at night
by samatman on Friday March 19, 2021 @03:02PM
(#26517128)
For one thing, we find a controlled fire soothing and attractive.
Wild animals very much do not. It's likely that our mucus membranes have also adjusted to the presence of more smoke: this doesn't prevent cancer, which is a post-reproductive problem for the most part, but it does keep smoke inhalation from being immediately debilitating.
Does it mean that fire doesn't fool our circadian rhythm into thinking it's still daytime? Sure, why wouldn't it? We've had a very long time to adjust, and getting appropriate amounts of sleep increases fitness in an obvious way.
We haven't had more than a hundred years of adjusting to bright blue-wavelength light after dark, however. So it could affect our circadian rhythm, and as studies show, it does.
Wild animals very much do not. It's likely that our mucus membranes have also adjusted to the presence of more smoke: this doesn't prevent cancer, which is a post-reproductive problem for the most part, but it does keep smoke inhalation from being immediately debilitating.
Does it mean that fire doesn't fool our circadian rhythm into thinking it's still daytime? Sure, why wouldn't it? We've had a very long time to adjust, and getting appropriate amounts of sleep increases fitness in an obvious way.
We haven't had more than a hundred years of adjusting to bright blue-wavelength light after dark, however. So it could affect our circadian rhythm, and as studies show, it does.