I Can’t Sleep - Sunsets | Relaxing Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: September 17, 2019

Relax with calm bedtime reading about sunsets to ease insomnia and restless nights. This soothing episode explores the science and beauty of sunsets, from the scattering of light that paints the sky with vivid colors to the cultural and artistic meanings sunsets have inspired across history. Benjamin’s gentle cadence turns each detail into a peaceful journey, helping your mind slow down and unwind. With no whispering or hypnosis—just calm, fact-filled storytelling—you’ll find stress fading and sleep arriving naturally. Press play, breathe deeply, and drift into rest. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Sunset, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Sunset. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch.

I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause. With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, and become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's podcast is from a Wikipedia article titled Sunset. Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily

disappearance of the sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from the equator, the equinox sun sets exactly due west in both spring and fall. As viewed from the middle latitudes, the local summer sun sets to the northwest for the northern hemisphere. but to the southwest for the southern hemisphere. The time of sunset is defined in astronomy as the moment when the upper limb of the sun disappears below the horizon. Near the horizon atmospheric refraction causes sunlight rays to be distorted to such an extent that geometrically the solar disk is already about one diameter below the horizon when a sunset is observed. Sunset is distinct from twilight, which is divided into three states,

The first being civil twilight, which begins once the sun has disappeared below the horizon, and continues until it descends to six degrees below the horizon. The second phase is nautical twilight between six and twelve degrees below the horizon. And the third is astronomical twilight, which is the period when the sun is between 12 and 18 degrees below the horizon. Dusk is at the very end of astronomical twilight, and is the darkest moment of twilight just before night. Night occurs when the sun reaches 18 degrees below the horizon

and no longer illuminates the sky. Locations further north than the Arctic Circle and further south than the Antarctic Circle experience no full sunset or sunrise on at least one day of the year, when the polar day or the polar night persists continuously for 24 hours. Sunset creates unique atmospheric conditions such as the often intends orange and red colors of the sun and the surrounding sky. The time of sunset varies throughout the year and is determined by the viewer's position on Earth,

specified by longitude and latitude and elevation. Small daily changes and noticeable semi-annual changes in the timing of sunsets are driven by the axial tilt of Earth, daily rotation of the earth, the planet's movement in its annual elliptical orbit around the sun, and the Earth and moons paired revolutions around each other. During winter and spring, the days get longer and sunsets occur later every day until the day of the latest sunset, which occurs after the summer solstice. In the northern hemisphere, the latest sunset occurs late in June or in early July, but not on the summer solstice of June 21st. This state depends on the viewer's latitude, connected with the Earth's slower movement

around the aphelian around July 4th. Likewise, the earliest sunset does not occur on the winter solstice, but rather about two weeks earlier, again depending on the viewer's latitude. In the northern hemisphere, it occurs in early December or late November. influenced by the Earth's faster movement near its perihelion, which occurs around January 3rd. Likewise, the same phenomenon exists in the southern hemisphere, but with respective dates reversed, with the earliest sunsets occurring sometime before June 21st in winter, and latest sunsets occurring sometime after December 21st in summer,

again depending on one's southern latitude. For a few weeks surrounding both solstices, both sun-referrales, both sun-reliates. and sunset gets slightly later each day. Even on the equator, sunrise and sunset shift several minutes back and forth through the year, along with solar noon. These effects are plotted by an anolema, neglecting atmospheric refraction in the sun's non-zero size, whenever and wherever sunset occurs,

it is always in the northwest quadrant from the March equinox to the September equinox. and in the southwest quadrant from the September equinox to the March equinox. Sunsets occur almost exactly due west on the equinoxes for all viewers on Earth. Exact calculations of the azimuths of sunset on other dates are complex, but they can be estimated with reasonable accuracy by using the NLMA. As sunrise and sunset are calculated from the leading and trailing edges of the sun respectively, and not the center. The duration of a daytime is slightly longer than nighttime by about 10 minutes, as seen from temperate latitudes. Further, because the light from the sun is refracted as it passes

through the Earth's atmosphere, the sun is still visible after it is geometrically below the horizon. Refraction also affects the apparent shape of the sun when it is very close to the horizon. It makes things appear higher in the sky than they really are. Light from the bottom edge of the sun's disk is refracted more than light from the top, since refraction increases as the angle of elevation decreases. This raises the apparent position of the bottom edge more than the top, reducing the apparent height of the solar disk. Its width is unaltered, so the disc appears wider than it is high.

In reality, the sun is almost exactly spherical. The sun also appears larger on the horizon, an optical illusion, similar to the moon illusion. Locations north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Antarctic Circle experience no sunset or sunrise at least one day of the year, when the polar day or the polar night persists continuously for 24 hours. As a ray of white sunlight travels through the atmosphere to an observer, some of the colors are scattered out of the beam by air molecules and airborne particles, changing the final color of the beam the viewer sees. Because the shorter wavelength components such as blue and green scatter more strongly,

these colors are preferentially removed from the beam. At sunrise and sunset, when the path through the atmosphere is longer, the blue and green components are removed almost completely, leaving the longer wavelength orange and red hues we see at those times. The remaining reddened sunlight can then be scattered by cloud droplets and other relatively large particles to light up the horizon red and orange. The removal of the shorter wavelengths of light is due to rarely scattering by molecules and particles much smaller than the wavelength of visible light, less than 50 nanometers in diameter.

The scattering by cloud droplets and other particles with diameters comparable to, or larger than the sun's wavelengths, is due to me scattering and is not strongly wavelength dependent. Me scattering is responsible for the light scattered by clouds and also for the daytime halo of white light around the sun, forward scattering of white light. sunset colors are typically more brilliant than sunrise colors because the evening air contains more particles than morning air. Sometimes just before sunrise or after sunset, a green flash can be seen. Ash from the volcanic eruptions trapped within the troposphere tends to mute sunset and sunrise colors, while volcanic ejected that is instead lofted into the stratosphere as thin clouds of tiny sulfuric acid droplets, can yield beautiful post-sense sunset colors called afterglows and pre-sunrise glows. A number of eruptions, including those of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 and Krakatoa in 1883,

have produced sufficiently high stratospheric sulfuric acid clouds to yield remarkable sunset afterglows and pre-sunrise glows around the world. The high-altitude clouds serve to reflect strongly reddened sunlight, still striking the stratosphere after sunset down to the surface. Some of the most varied colors at sunset can be found in the opposite or eastern sky after the sun has set during twilight. Depending on weather conditions and the types of clouds present, these colors have a wide spectrum and can produce unusual results. In some languages, points of the compass bear names etymologically derived from words for sunrise and sunset. The English word Orient and Occident, meaning east and west, respectively, are descended from Latin words meaning sunrise and sunset. The word levant, related, e.g. to French, silavert, meaning lift or rise, and also to English, and also to English.

Elevate is also used to describe the East. In Polish, the word for East, the Skud, is derived from the morphine, this meaning up, and could signifying move, from the verd, Kujik, meaning walk, move. Due to the act of the sun coming up from behind the horizon. The Polish word for West, Zakud, is seen. similar but with the word zah at the start meaning behind from the act of the sun going behind the horizon in russian the word west zapad is derived from the word zah meaning behind and pod signifying fall from the verb padat due to the act of the sun falling behind the horizon in hebrew the word for east derives from the word for rising and the word for west derives from the word from the word for setting. The 16th century astronomer Nikolaus Copernicus was the first to present to the world,

a detailed and eventually widely accepted mathematical model supporting the premise that the Earth is moving and the sun actually stays still, despite the impression from our point of view of a moving sun. Sunsets on other planets appear different because of differences in the distance of the planet from the sun and non-existent or different. frame atmospheric compositions. On Mars, the setting sun appears about two-thirds of size it appears on Earth, because of its greater distance from the Sun. But some Martian sunsets last significantly longer and appear far redder than it is typical on Earth. The colors of

the Martian sunset differ from those on Earth. Mars has a thin atmosphere, lacking oxygen and nitrogen, so the light scattering is not dominated by a raleigh-scattering process. Instead, the air is full of red dust, blown into the atmosphere by high winds, so its sky color is mainly determined by a me-scattering process. One study also reported that Martian dust high in the atmosphere can reflect sunlight up to two hours after the sun is set, casting a diffuse glow across the surface of Mars. One study also reported. reported that Martian dust high on the atmosphere can reflect sunlight up to two hours after the sun has said, causing a diffused glow across the surface of Mars.