Anyone can adjust their circadian rhythm by just going to sleep earlier,
No, the circadian rhythm doesn’t work that way. Perhaps you don’t notice because your chronotype is earlier than your lifestyle required so you never had much trouble falling asleep even when going to bed relatively early, but people with later chronotypes if they go to bed earlier will just take more time to fall asleep.
Everyone has trouble falling asleep when they’re going to bed earlier than usual, at first. If you keep at it and are consistent about avoiding things like bright artificial lights, high general arousal, strong drugs like coffee and other adverse environmental cues later in the day, you’ll fall asleep and your “chronotype” will shift back as intended.
So how about some actual evidence for these claims?
I mean, the medical profession has terms like “advanced sleep phase disorder” and “delayed sleep phase disorder” and “non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder” and seems to take the view that “just go to bed later/earlier/regularly and it’ll sort itself out” is not a helpful response. Now, obviously, those are just doctors; what do they know? But it might be helpful to know how it is you know that they’re wrong.
Or, when you say “Anyone can …”, is it possible that you don’t actually mean anyone?
seems to take the view that “just go to bed later/earlier/regularly and it’ll sort itself out” is not a helpful response.
I don’t think this follows from what you said earlier. “Advanced sleep phase disorder” and “delayed sleep phase disorder” are indeed taken seriously as genuine problems, but they’re invariably ‘treated’ with lifestyle interventions, such as (in the ‘delayed’ case) avoiding bright/artificial light late in the day, and (conversely) letting sunlight into the bedroom some time before you’re scheduled to wake up. Sometimes these interventions are also aided by taking melatonin (or a comparable supplement), but come on, this is hardly a “medical treatment” in the usual sense!
No, the circadian rhythm doesn’t work that way. Perhaps you don’t notice because your chronotype is earlier than your lifestyle required so you never had much trouble falling asleep even when going to bed relatively early, but people with later chronotypes if they go to bed earlier will just take more time to fall asleep.
Everyone has trouble falling asleep when they’re going to bed earlier than usual, at first. If you keep at it and are consistent about avoiding things like bright artificial lights, high general arousal, strong drugs like coffee and other adverse environmental cues later in the day, you’ll fall asleep and your “chronotype” will shift back as intended.
So how about some actual evidence for these claims?
I mean, the medical profession has terms like “advanced sleep phase disorder” and “delayed sleep phase disorder” and “non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder” and seems to take the view that “just go to bed later/earlier/regularly and it’ll sort itself out” is not a helpful response. Now, obviously, those are just doctors; what do they know? But it might be helpful to know how it is you know that they’re wrong.
Or, when you say “Anyone can …”, is it possible that you don’t actually mean anyone?
I don’t think this follows from what you said earlier. “Advanced sleep phase disorder” and “delayed sleep phase disorder” are indeed taken seriously as genuine problems, but they’re invariably ‘treated’ with lifestyle interventions, such as (in the ‘delayed’ case) avoiding bright/artificial light late in the day, and (conversely) letting sunlight into the bedroom some time before you’re scheduled to wake up. Sometimes these interventions are also aided by taking melatonin (or a comparable supplement), but come on, this is hardly a “medical treatment” in the usual sense!