Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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I realize even mentioning the idea of reducing exposure to electricity might get me exiled to the woo woo ghetto. I'm not looking to discuss the health side of this, just whether people have tried it, and if they felt that it had any impact on their sleep quality.

I bring this up because I have found that I sleep better during power outages, it could just be the silence (already sleep in a dark dark room), in which case I guess it would just make more sense to wear ear plugs instead of powering everything except the fridge down, but maybe I'm sensitive to electricity itself. Curious to know others experiences with this.

Edit: I feel like I should also add, it seems like it might be more than just sound because there is a lot of snoring in this house, and that, obviously, isn't tied to electricity.

edited Jan 26 2012 at 11:08

asked Jan 26 2012 at 7:10

Happy Now
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If you do this, please be aware of your fire alarms. Most are battery, but some are hard wired to your electrical system with battery backup. Check to make sure they'll function either way. Otherwise sounds awesome...I love the humless-ness of power failures. :) – January Jan 26 2012 at 8:01

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I cannot stress how much I love this idea. – Stephen-Aegis Jan 26 2012 at 12:02

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This question made me laugh out loud. Heh. You guys. – tonysolo Jan 26 2012 at 16:02

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Upvote for using "Woo-Woo Ghetto" – Senneth Jan 26 2012 at 18:04

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Great question! But then, I live in the woo woo ghetto, you all are free to join me when you are ready. I'm planning to build an electricity-free house in the near future (and a studio w/ power elsewhere on the property). – Dunnie Jan 27 2012 at 1:58

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graciel · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-26 12:44:30Z UTC

When I went to Cornell the dormitory I was in as a freshman (Dickson Hall, for you Cornellians out there) had a "light switch" right by the door of the room that was not a light switch, but a switch that controlled all of the outlets in the room. So when that was off there was no electricity in the room.

You could probably wire the bedrooms in your house this way if you wanted to go to the trouble to do it. In the addition I put on this house ten years ago I have a lot of switched outlets that makes it easy to cut off the power without digging behind furniture to unplug things.

As an aside, we are currently putting my uncle's farm on the market, and the house there was built in 1900 by my great grandfather. My great aunt had the house wired for electricity in the 1930's and in the upstairs bedooms there is only a ceiling light in each room. A hanging light. If you want to plug anything in in those bedrooms, you have to screw in an adapter in the light socket that has a plug in on it. No one had need for anything in a bedroom in the 1930's except a ceiling light. The downstairs rooms have very few outlets as well.

I was born in 1957 and thinking back, the amount of stuff that we had plugged in in the house was very small. There was an electric kitchen light, if the toaster was used it was plugged in, or a portable mixer, there was ceiling lights in the kitchen and floor lamps in the living room, the kitchen radio (radio was still pretty important) and later on a black and white TV. That's just the way we lived then.

If you pull the breaker to your whole house, you need to realize that the larger breakers that control your entire house are expensive and can fail if you use them as switches a lot. An electrician told me don't turn the big ones on and off more than you need to just because of this.

Domer88 · Answer 2 · 2012-01-26 17:23:04Z UTC

Be careful. Breakers are not meant to be used as switches. They are protective devices, and too-frequent switching could cause them to fail prematurely.

It's better to wire your room outlets to a wall switch, as another commenter recommended.

miked · Answer 3 · 2012-01-27 04:26:57Z UTC

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It has to be the noise that's the issue and not the electricity. Thought experiment time: Lets say you had a house with nothing plugged into the walls, so nothing was using any electricity. There would be no current flowing in the wires no matter if the circuit breaker was on or off. Granted the POTENTIAL of the wires would be oscillating between +170V and -170V (RMS is 120V which is what is reported. But since nothing is drawing current, there is no flow or radiation or anything.

I sleep better too when there's a power outage, but I attribute that to the silence and darkness. If you want to improve your sleep, just turn everything off. Flipping the circuit breaker is overkill.

Plus, even if there was radiation of some kind, it's going to be at 60Hz which is going to be a wave that's 5,000,000m (5,000km, 3,000mi) long! That is way too big to interact with anything on the human scale, you're clearly in the near field limit with waves that big.

Edit - I originally had the wave as 5km, I wasn't thinking, it's 5,000km: 60Hz*5,000,000m = 300,000,000m/s = C = speed of light.

edited Jan 27 2012 at 4:26

answered Jan 27 2012 at 0:14

miked
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	I've heard of people grouping things into power strips and unplugging those at night to conserve energy. Perhaps that would help with this too. So if someone were 5km and 1cm tall, would they have to worry? – Happy Now Jan 27 2012 at 1:31
	You get the idea about being 5km tall. Radiation can interact with something when the size of the object can "see" both the high and low point of the wave at the same time. You see the colors of light that you see because those wave can interact with the molecules in your eyes. You don't see UV light or Xrays because they're too small, and you don't see radio waves because they're too big. For a wave that's 5,000kM (see edit) long, your entire body is seeing the same field at the same time. (Simple explanation - real physicists don't flame me.) – miked Jan 27 2012 at 4:24
	One more comment - next time you're in a parking lot, go measure the radio antennas you see. I bet they're all the same size (about 30 inches), that's the size of antenna that will interact with FM radio waves (AM is a different, longer story). The other thing you need to think about is field strength. A cell phone is a couple of milliwatts and it radiates in all directions, a microwave oven is a couple of kilowatts and it's focused in a tiny box. That's a difference of 1 million times! That's why a cellphone is safe and I wouldn't stick my head in a microwave oven. – miked Jan 27 2012 at 4:46
	So, we can be fairly certain it isn't radiation, but what about the sound of the outlets themselves? youtube.com/watch?v=ck1IGfJiR2w – Happy Now Jan 27 2012 at 12:14
	The sample of the 60hz hum on the wikipedia page is even easier to hear en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_hum – Happy Now Jan 27 2012 at 12:21

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Deb · Answer 4 · 2012-01-26 12:33:24Z UTC

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Both my husband and I have been thinking about this also. We both get the feeling that it is the electrical current from the house buzzing in our heads at night. Interesting idea to shut the power off to the house to see if that is what it is. It could also be from the high power lines outside.

answered Jan 26 2012 at 12:33

Deb
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	Ah man, I didn't even think about outside. We have a transformer right out in front of the house on a pole, and some high tension power lines about a block away (when it rains they make some spooky sounds). – Happy Now Jan 26 2012 at 19:48
	See my post below, any supposed radiation is going to have a wavelength of 3 miles long, that basically means that as long as you're within 3 miles (give or take a bit) of any power, it's all the same, i.e. all distances less than 3 miles are equivalent with regards to interaction with the radiation, as you'll be in the near field limit. – miked Jan 27 2012 at 0:15

dsohei · Answer 5 · 2012-01-27 00:41:41Z UTC

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i find it much easier to sleep and meditate when there's a power outage in the city. something really is going on.

answered Jan 27 2012 at 0:41

dsohei
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Eric · Answer 6 · 2012-01-26 07:23:16Z UTC

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It may be the buzz of transformers or air moving from your heater. Perhaps unplug all of your DC chargers?

answered Jan 26 2012 at 7:23

Eric
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coprophagous · Answer 7 · 2012-01-26 14:21:19Z UTC

interesting idea because the wires in one house are live with AC current meaning they are pulsating with current just like the overhead wires outside the home. this scenario sets up minute magnetic field flux en-caging the home occupant. turning off the breakers would isolate the wires from these magnetic disturbances.

Caleb the Hobbit · Answer 8 · 2012-01-26 17:32:01Z UTC

Could the sleep quality issue be because of emitted waves? I read somewhere not to sleep to close to microwaves, cell phones, and even alarm clocks because of the waves they give off when powered on. Personally I don't like the hums and sceeches either (and hear them all-too-clearly), but I found my sleep improved by staying away from such items.

raydawg · Answer 9 · 2012-01-27 11:10:28Z UTC

Far too much trouble and there's too many things that I want to give power to. DVR, server, heating/cooling system, freezer, fridge, etc.

I had more problems from light coming in through the windows from street lights/neighbor's flood lights, etc. Installing blackout curtains over the blinds, and covering anything glowing with black electrical tape, and putting a couple of books in front of the alarm clocks took care of the issue.

Plus having had several multi-hour power outages almost every year, I've installed a UPS (with the alarm disabled) in almost every room and hooked it up to the alarm clock and lamp, so at least I can read a bit before sleeping. The light in the lamp is a yellow one, so it's not going to interfere with sleep - infact within 30 mins of reading, I tend to get sleepy.

Besides, it's an annoying thing to have to go into the basement and flip the breakers off at night and on in the morning.

I suspect you maybe were a bit high on the hyperbole with the subject of this post in order to get attention. :) Again, it's not a historical re-enactment.

Alex · Answer 10 · 2012-01-26 23:53:54Z UTC

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My bedroom is set up with a switch that shuts off all the circuits in the room. To be honest, I really don't notice any difference with the power off, but that might be because the wiring in there is the type that's wrapped in grounded metal shielding, so there's probably not much EMF even with the power on.

answered Jan 26 2012 at 23:53

Alex
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thats an intersting room set up you have there. i wonder how that came to be? – coprophagous Jan 27 2012 at 0:53

Custom-built house. – Alex Jan 27 2012 at 12:51

Has anyone experimented with turning off breakers in their homes at night?

10 Answers