Tag: expert tips

Here’s Why You’re Waking Up Early This Week

As the clocks went back this past weekend, many people are noticing an early start to their mornings. Naplabs, a leader in sleep wellness, has partnered with a top sleep expert to explain why the recent time change could be responsible for these pre-dawn awakenings and how to adjust.

According to sleep experts Naplab, the main reason for this shift is “the body’s natural circadian rhythm, which becomes temporarily out of sync during time changes.” The extra hour gained over the weekend has thrown internal body clocks slightly out of balance, causing people to wake up earlier as their bodies adjust.

“Whenever clocks change, it can take about a week for our internal clocks to readjust,” explains Naplab. “For some, the shift to waking up earlier is amplified by stress, screen exposure, and modern lifestyle demands.”

Here are five expert tips from our experts to help you adjust to the recent clock change and get back on track with restful sleep:

Ease into Evening Relaxation: Spend 30 minutes before bed winding down with a calming activity, like reading or meditating, to help your body recognise it’s time to sleep. This supports your circadian rhythm in adjusting to the new time.

Get Natural Morning Light: Expose yourself to natural light soon after waking to signal to your body that it’s morning. This helps reset your internal clock, particularly during the shorter autumn days.

Avoid Screens Before Bed: Limit screen exposure at least an hour before bedtime. The blue light from devices can suppress melatonin, the hormone that promotes sleep, making it harder to drift off.

Gradually Adjust Bedtime: Go to bed 10-15 minutes later each night if you find you’re waking up too early. This gradual shift will help your body adjust to the time change more smoothly than a drastic schedule alteration.

Stick to a Consistent Routine: Aim to wake up and go to bed at the same time each day, even on weekends. This consistency helps your internal clock stabilise, leading to more refreshing, uninterrupted sleep.

In addition to the recent time change, factors like exposure to evening light from screens and high-stress levels can contribute to early wakefulness. Naplabs recommends a few tips for resetting your sleep schedule, such as limiting evening screen time, using blackout curtains to prevent early light exposure, and practicing relaxation techniques before bed.

“The seasonal clock change provides a great opportunity to fine-tune our sleep habits. By making small adjustments, we can support a more balanced internal rhythm and enjoy the benefits of restorative sleep.”

Puzzle of plastics: why do some people recycle but others don’t?

Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast have been interviewing people across the region to try to crack the puzzle of why some people recycle and others don’t.

The experts carried out 18 in-depth interviews with people living in Northern Ireland during Autumn 2019.

The findings suggest that some of the reasons that people aren’t recycling plastics are being so busy they don’t get round to recycling, they aren’t clear on what can be recycled, and they can’t see the impact that their recycling could have on the environment. 

The study was part of a larger interdisciplinary grant ‘Advancing Creative Circular Economies for Plastics via Technological-Social Transitions (ACCEPT Transitions)’ led by Professor David Rooney from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Queen’s. The researchers are also involved in the ‘Clear on Plastics’ campaign, which is being run by the sustainability not-for-profit organisation WRAP.

Dr Emma Berry from the School of Psychology at Queen’s co-led the project alongside Professor Martin Dempster and Dr Debbie Roy. She explains: “In Northern Ireland, people recycle twice as much as they did 15 years ago and 10 per cent of this is plastic.

“For many people, recycling has become part of their everyday routine – we have the bins and collection service, so it’s much easier to do now. Most of us also know its ‘good’ for the environment, so we try to follow the guidelines on putting recyclable products in the right bins. However, while most people recycle, some households do not, so it’s important to understand why this might be.”

Following the research, the experts say there are three common barriers to recycling in Northern Ireland. Firstly, some people felt that with such busy lifestyles, family life, and competing priorities, recycling was often simply at the bottom of the daily agenda – it did not feature in their long list of important day-to-day tasks.

Secondly, people felt that with the enormous range of products and materials available in shops, it can also be tricky to know which products can be recycled and in which bin. Likewise, it is not always clear how to recycle some products if they are made up of multiple materials, such as a cardboard sleeve on a plastic yogurt pot, which need to be separated.

The final common barrier reported was that individuals feel that it’s often difficult to see the impact that small actions such as recycling at home or while out and about, can have on the environment, making small efforts feel pointless.

Dr Bronagh Millar from the Polymer Processing Centre at Queen’s was also involved in the project. She says: “Based on our findings, it’s understandable why many people find recycling baffling. The good news is that recycling does not have to be difficult and time consuming and small efforts do make a difference to our local environment and society.

“Taking small actions like recycling at home, not only helps reduce the amount of waste in local landfill and which gets washed up on beaches, but it is also helping our local economy because recycling supports the generation of local industries and jobs. Old and used packaging isn’t waste, it’s material that can be reformed and used to make more of the same packaging or something different.”

An interesting example of this is Cherry Pipes – a company that manufactures the land drainage pipes that are found in new housing developments, road construction, sports stadia and beyond all made from 100 per cent recycled plastic.

Recycling at home supports this business and the jobs created there and it will also continue to support economic growth as new businesses are formed and flourish in the sector.

Dr Millar adds: “Recycling at home is the best place to start and it’s where most waste comes from – in fact almost 90 per cent of all waste collected in 2019/2020 came from households!

“It’s easy to think that as one individual or family, your recycling won’t make a difference when you feel like loads of other people and companies are not recycling. But if every individual household just increased its recycling even a little bit, it would make a huge difference over time.”

Expert tips to make recycling easier at home:

  1. Place a second bin or a ‘bag for life’ beside your general waste bin (this not only makes recycling easier, but it helps remind you/others in your household to recycle).
  2. Use visual and automatic reminders to give you a nudge to recycle e.g., daily/weekly phone reminders and post-its/signs on or around your indoor bins.
  3. Likewise, create visual reminders of what goes where (visit www.recyclenow.com/local-recycling to find out what you can recycle in your area, or check out your local authority website.
  4. When you aren’t sure about whether certain packages can be recycled, look for the on-pack recycling label which is usually on the bottom or sides of packages and tells us what plastics most local authorities accept. As a rule of thumb, tins/cans, cardboard, and most hard plastics can be recycled.