This is where I pretend I’m an otter.
by Mike
People seem to be curious about our blackout nights, so I thought I’d explain it a little more:
In an effort to live more effortlessly, to sync our bodies’ cycles with the natural daily rhythm, we’ve stopped using electricity at night. As night falls we light candles, we close the computers to read or talk. Instead of using the phone, we shout down the street. We don’t have a TV, sorry to be one of those people.
It’s not about saving money – Seattle has some of the cheapest electricity in the world. In fact, I’ll bet it’s more expensive to burn candles than flip on lights. Nor are we motivated by saving energy/the environment, though it’s a nice side effect. It’s health, it’s (pagan) spirituality, it’s simplification.
We start to light candles as the sun sets, a couple in the kitchen, if we’re still cooking, and one in the bathroom so we can be sure we’re peeing in the sink, not on the faucet. Around 9:30 or 10 we go to bed, and we’re usually asleep before 11pm. (click here to expand this blog post lol)
I’ve gotten a great sleep every night.
We fall asleep gently and wake slowly as the sun rises. We keep our blinds open so we get as much early light as possible. Early morning is rad, I’d always wanted to be in the habit of waking earlier, but fuck alarm clocks. Now we wake up around 6 or 6:30, without an alarm, totally refreshed. The morning is no longer pinched between sleep and work, it’s now a lazy couple hours that I can read or meditate or talk with Azure or satisfy my internet addiction, ordering too many books on Amazon before I’ve even earned the money to pay for them.
My internet addiction frustrates me, and this is a good way to hobble it. TV, the internet and phones (especially as they’re used now) separate people from presence, almost always unnecessarily, so I’m glad to be rid of them for the night. In fact, I’d dramatically smash my phone with a wine bottle, shirtless in the rain, at night, by candlelight, with long hair, if my clients didn’t need it (the phone) to contact me, but that’s another story.
Do we cheat? Occasionally, but don’t worry, we feel really guilty about it.
What does this have to do with travel? Deprogramming.
What we get from the new rhythm:
- Blog content.
- Better sleep.
- More quiet, focused time.
- Early mornings.
- A sense of superiority.
- A predictable nightly rhythm.
The negatives of not using electricity at night:
- We miss out on media-based cultural narratives (news, Lost, internet memes, the Mariners)… which isn’t itself so much a loss as the fact that these narratives connect people.
- Internet withdrawl.
- We aren’t physically able to stay up late with friends, though they seem to be falling asleep earlier too, because they’re old now.
- Sometimes it’s hard to cook by candlelight.
Tags: candlelight, candles, daily life, home, otters, rhythm
Published on May 17, 2010
at 12:40 pm.
6 comments
I wonder if, and how it might be different if, you keep this up during the winter. I also sleep with the blinds open and love getting up with the sun – it definitely makes for an easier wake up time. This does not work out so well in the winter when it doesn’t get light until 8am and gets dark at 3:30.
Yeah, good question. While we’re not sitting there in darkness (good candles can give off a ton of light) it’s also a lot of dark time with no mood-enhancing bulbs.
I wonder, though, whether artificial light is harmful to people in that it disrupts the body’s cycle – so maybe it would be more healthy to just go with the solar flow. I don’t know. I don’t intend to find out.
girl, and by girl, I mean mike -
this is awesome.
I just want to say in regard to your last comment relative to not being able to stay up with your friends, who are now going to sleep earlier too because they are old – and that is this – come on! 29 – 30. old is relative. old is a mindset. one that i hope you are not placing yourself in, and I hope you never do.
xoxoxo ac
Aliya – Feel free to call me girl.
About the old thing – I know, I know, we’re not old. But you have to write SOMETHING, right? And I’m running out of content, so I’m just going to start insulting friends from here on out. That’s how you get readers! or so I assume.
i love this idea!
i thought, though, having cooked by candlelight myself (before my current incarnation as a grad student), that you could do some food prep before it gets too dark. i don’t want to seem presumptuous, so if your schedule doesn’t permit, obviously it wouldn’t work.
have you made your own candles?
We haven’t yet! But we just discovered a store nearby that supplies candle-making accessories, so hopefully it will happen soon.
Obviously, if we had our shit together, we could do the prep work before it gets dark. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t. The high candles give a ton of light, though, and if we have three in the kitchen it’s usually enough.