Could Going to Bed Earlier Be an Environmental Decision?
Could Going to Bed Earlier Be an Environmental Decision?
Perhaps one of tomorrow's best green decisions is simply turning everything off tonight.
When we talk about living more sustainably, sleep is probably not the first subject that comes to mind.
We think about solar panels, electric cars, recycling, insulation, heat pumps, public transport and reducing plastic. We rarely think about going to bed.
Yet perhaps we should.
I am not suggesting that going to bed an hour earlier is going to solve climate change. The direct energy savings are likely to be comparatively modest, particularly in a modern house using efficient LED lighting.
But an earlier bedtime raises a much more interesting question.
What happens environmentally when our waking day becomes longer and longer?
The longer we remain awake, the longer we tend to keep lights, televisions, computers, games consoles, kitchen appliances and heating running. We may snack, shop online, watch another programme, scroll through another hundred social media posts or order something we probably didn't need.
Perhaps sleep deserves a small place in the Going Green discussion after all.
We Have Gradually Created a 24-Hour Lifestyle
For most of human history, darkness had a fairly significant influence on what people did.
Of course, candles, fires and oil lamps allowed people to remain awake after sunset, but extending the day required effort and expense.
Electricity changed everything.
Today we can make midnight look remarkably similar to midday.
We have:
LED lighting throughout the house;
enormous televisions;
computers and multiple monitors;
tablets and smartphones;
streaming services that never close;
online shops open every hour of every day;
social media designed to provide a never-ending stream of content;
kitchens full of electrical appliances;
heating and cooling systems capable of keeping occupied rooms comfortable long after everyone might once have gone to bed.
None of these things is individually disastrous.
The problem is that together they make it incredibly easy to stretch the day.
"I'll just watch one more episode."
"I'll just check my emails."
"I'll just have a quick look at the news."
And suddenly it is midnight.
What Is Actually Using Energy While We Stay Awake?
It is important not to exaggerate this.
A single modern LED lamp running for another hour uses very little electricity. Switching a television off an hour earlier will not suddenly halve your electricity bill.
But an occupied house generally uses more energy than a sleeping house.
Think about what might be operating during that final hour of the evening.
Perhaps there are lights in the lounge, kitchen and hallway.
The television is running.
A desktop computer has been left on.
Someone is using a games console.
The kettle goes on for another drink.
The microwave heats a snack.
Phones and tablets are charging.
The heating is maintaining 20 or 21 degrees C because people are still sitting downstairs.
None of these loads is enormous in isolation.
But environmentally, the principle is straightforward:
an hour during which much of the house is switched off will normally consume less energy than an hour during which people are actively using it.
Repeated over hundreds of evenings, even relatively small differences become worth considering.
Heating May Matter More Than the Lights
In Britain, this is probably where the argument becomes more interesting.
Lighting has become extremely efficient.
Heating a house remains energy intensive.
Imagine somebody normally stays downstairs until midnight.
The living room is kept comfortably warm until then.
If that person instead goes to bed at 10.30 or 11.00, the heating schedule might be able to reduce the temperature earlier.
That does not mean deliberately making bedrooms uncomfortably cold.
It means questioning whether we really need to keep several downstairs rooms at full daytime temperature simply because somebody is watching television for another hour.
In a well-controlled house, the heating system might automatically move into its lower overnight setting earlier.
During winter, that could matter considerably more than switching off a couple of LED bulbs.
The One-Hour Household Experiment
This could make an interesting personal Going Green experiment.
For one week, record roughly what is still operating during the final hour before you go to bed.
You might find:
television;
satellite or streaming box;
computer;
monitor;
amplifier;
games console;
four or five lights;
heating;
kettle;
kitchen appliances;
chargers.
Then try moving bedtime forward by perhaps 30 minutes or an hour for another week.
Don't obsess over precision.
Simply look at whether your evening electricity consumption changes.
Anyone with a smart meter, home energy monitor, solar inverter or battery monitoring system may be able to see the difference quite clearly.
The result may be surprisingly small.
That is perfectly acceptable.
Going Green ought to be based upon reality rather than finding dramatic environmental claims where none exist.
But energy use is only part of the story.
Sleep May Change the Way We Consume
This is where I think the subject becomes much more interesting.
A great deal of modern consumption takes place late in the evening.
We browse online shops.
We see advertisements.
We watch influencers promoting products.
We order food.
We make impulse purchases.
We upgrade things.
We discover products we didn't know existed an hour earlier.
The internet has created something environmentally unusual: an enormous global shopping centre that never closes.
Once, if you wanted to buy something at 11.30 at night, the chances were that the shop was shut.
Today you can buy a television, pair of shoes, garden furniture, electronic gadget or inflatable dinosaur at three o'clock in the morning without leaving your bed.
Every purchase potentially involves raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, warehousing and transport.
Perhaps one of the most environmentally effective things we occasionally do is simply stop consuming.
And sleeping is remarkably good at preventing online shopping.
Our Phones Have Become Bedtime Machines
There is another irony.
We frequently say we are too busy to get enough sleep.
Then many of us spend the final part of the day scrolling through a device.
Five minutes becomes twenty.
Twenty minutes becomes an hour.
The phone follows us into the bedroom.
We check messages.
We read the news.
We watch short videos.
Then, somehow, we find ourselves looking at something completely unrelated at 12.17 in the morning.
Technology is extremely good at capturing attention.
That doesn't make phones bad. They are extraordinarily useful devices.
But perhaps the environmentally sensible device is sometimes the one that has been put down.
Going Green Should Also Be About Living Better
There is a danger that environmentalism becomes associated entirely with sacrifice.
Use less.
Travel less.
Buy less.
Turn the heating down.
Stop doing things you enjoy.
That isn't a particularly attractive vision.
Perhaps sustainability becomes easier to understand when some environmental decisions improve our lives rather than diminish them.
Adequate sleep is a good example.
Most adults need somewhere around seven to nine hours, although individual requirements vary.
Good sleep supports concentration, memory, mood and general wellbeing.
Rather than asking:
"What am I giving up by going to bed earlier?"
perhaps the better question is:
"What do I gain tomorrow?"
An extra hour of sleep may be worth considerably more than another hour of television.
There Is Also a Connection With Health
A healthier lifestyle can itself be part of sustainable living.
The connection shouldn't be exaggerated, but sustainability is ultimately about creating ways of living that can continue over the long term.
That applies to people as well as resources.
Walking more.
Eating sensibly.
Getting outdoors.
Maintaining social connections.
Managing stress.
And sleeping properly.
These things do not require us to buy a new piece of green technology.
In fact, they often require the opposite.
They ask us to stop.
A Green Lifestyle Doesn't Always Require Buying Something
This connects with a much wider theme.
We have become accustomed to solving problems by purchasing products.
Want to become greener?
Buy an electric car.
Install solar panels.
Buy an efficient boiler.
Buy a heat pump.
Purchase smart controls.
Replace your appliances.
Some of these technologies can be excellent investments.
But environmentalism cannot simply become another form of shopping.
Sometimes the greener choice is:
keeping something longer;
repairing something;
walking;
using less water;
turning the thermostat down slightly;
switching something off;
cooking what is already in the fridge;
not buying something;
or apparently, going to sleep.
The cheapest kilowatt-hour is still the one you never needed to use.
But What About People Who Work Late?
Clearly, not everyone can simply decide to go to bed at 10.30.
Millions of people work shifts.
Parents may have young children.
Carers may have responsibilities during the night.
Some people naturally function better later in the day.
Others have jobs, study or family commitments that make early nights unrealistic.
This is not about declaring that everybody should be asleep by a particular time.
Nor should someone reduce heating to an unsafe or uncomfortable level simply in pursuit of lower energy consumption.
The useful question is much simpler:
How much of our late-night activity is necessary, and how much has simply become habit?
Try a Digital Sunset
One practical experiment might be to create your own digital sunset.
Perhaps 30 or 60 minutes before bed:
Stop work.
Turn the main computer off.
Put the phone on charge somewhere away from the bed.
Switch the television off.
Reduce unnecessary lighting.
Allow the heating to move towards its overnight setting.
Read, talk, listen to music or simply relax.
Go to bed when you begin feeling tired rather than defeating the feeling with another screen.
This isn't really an energy-saving programme.
It is a lifestyle experiment.
You may discover that you sleep better.
You may not.
You may discover that your electricity use falls slightly.
You may discover that the biggest benefit is simply having a quieter final hour of the day.
The Greenest Hour May Be the One You Sleep Through
There is something slightly amusing about including bedtime in a Going Green series.
Yet perhaps that is precisely why it is worth considering.
Environmental responsibility does not have to consist entirely of enormous decisions.
We will still need renewable energy.
We will still need better insulated homes.
We will still need cleaner transport, more efficient technology and changes in the way energy is produced.
But millions of small lifestyle decisions also influence how much energy and how many resources society consumes.
Going to bed earlier will not save the planet.
It might, however, reduce your energy consumption a little.
It might reduce unnecessary late-night consumption.
It might improve your sleep.
It might leave you feeling rather better the following morning.
And unlike many supposed environmental improvements, it costs absolutely nothing.
So perhaps tonight, instead of searching the internet for another green product to buy, there is a much simpler experiment to try.
Turn off the television.
Turn off the computer.
Put down the phone.
Switch off the lights.
And go to bed.
Perhaps one of tomorrow's best green decisions really is simply turning everything off tonight.
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