For first timers who want to give camping a go, Ganley notes that tent companies have started selling second-hand tents to help tackle the industry’s waste problem. You might even be able to borrow a tent from the library. “The cost of entry into this sort of pastime isn’t necessarily expensive,” he says.
When he’s not in the lab, Wright, too, is an avid backcountry camper. “Being outdoors, I do get in sync with that natural environment right away,” he says. But he adds that there are ways to bring the outdoors inside to make our days brighter, and our nights dimmer. Matching the spectrum of lightbulbs to the time of day – bluer in the day, redder in the evening – is one way to do this, he says. “That way we can try to get closer to what the natural environment is but still go about our modern lifestyles.”
It’s probably time for me to dig out my dusty camping gear, or, at the very least, turn the lights down at home a couple of hours earlier. It remains to be seen if it improves my sleep, but my brain will no doubt appreciate some respite from the night-time glow of bulbs and screens and gadgets. And if a chorus of birds can lull me awake, all the better.
