Welcome to the Simple Steps to Improved Health Challenge Day 6 Avoid Bright Lights Before Bed
Reminder to choose 1 of the first two actions to work on this week starting today or whatever day you want the week to start on for you. See Day 1 for more information about the challenge.
How Does Avoiding Bright Lights Improve Health
When you are exposed to light at night it decreases the melatonin hormone that helps with circadian rhythms. Melatonin helps your body know it’s time to fall asleep. When you have the light on, it tricks the body into thinking it is still day and can impact your ability to fall asleep quickly. The light can also impact your sleep cycles and you might wake early or in the middle of the night.
The concern with the light is that when you have poor sleep or sleep cycles, you are more at risk for diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. There are cycles in sleep that are the time your body repairs and removes damaged cells. This is important for how your body ages. You may not get to this cycle when exposed to light at night.
Additionally, an abnormal circadian rhythm can impact your mood and mental health. Some examples of this are jet lag, shift worker disorder, and seasonal affective disorder.
There are studies that indicate that blue light may have a larger effect on melatonin production and that is why there are so many products on your phone, computer, and tv to help block blue light.
Different light has a different impact. For example, sunlight has the biggest impact and is the reason you might get sleepy earlier in the winter than in the summer. Shorter light like blue light also has an impact. In one study exposure to an iPad for 4 hours resulted in melatonin production 1.5 hours later than normal. There is still an impact with your bedside table lamp. Updates to light bulbs to make them more energy efficient have also resulted in them producing more blue light. No, don’t change your light bulbs just block the light. Red lights have the smallest impact.
How to Take Action
Sleep in darkness if you can. Even the light on for the bathroom makes it through your eyelids when you are sleeping. It is still important to have that light on if there is potential for someone to get injured getting to the bathroom at night. You can use an eye mask if you need a light on. Another option is to have a red light to direct you to the bathroom.
Something that also helps is your exposure to sunlight. Since that provides the biggest impact, it is good to get outside to the sun during the day hours.
At night if you use electronics then consider blue light blocking glasses and consider having a timer to turn them off. It is good to keep them out of the bedroom so notifications don’t disturb your sleep. It also helps to have a timer if you need to sleep with a light or tv on to turn it off so the light doesn’t disturb sleep.
Go Do it Avoid Bright Light Before Bed
One thing that seems to be important and decreases the impact is a nighttime routine. Whether it is 3 hours before or 30 minutes before that you turn off the electronics and then do the process of getting ready for bed it helps. Your body will get used to the routine and know that it means time for sleep. Even if that involves having the bathroom light on, the tv on, or bedside table with a timer, having that normal routine helps to tell your brain that it is time to sleep.
You can start with something simple. 30 minutes before bed shut down all electronics, brush your teeth, use the bathroom, and get in bed. Maybe your routine is to take a shower, lay out your clothes, brush your teeth, use the bathroom, turn on the tv with no sound, and get in bed. Anyway, a routine will help to tell your brain and your body that you are headed to sleep.
If your current routine isn’t helping you fall asleep then consider making the changes such as blue light glasses or turning off electronics earlier to see if that helps.
Also, see the last post on Sleep for other tips to help you sleep well such as room temperature.
I hope this helps you to make some changes and get the sleep you need.
