Blocking Blue Light at Night: 6 Easy Steps To Improve Your Sleep
In human body there is a hormone called melatonin which is responsible for sleep cycle. This hormone is very important because it determines the way your body behaves in terms of sleep, no matter if it's actually day or night time. But another very important feature of melatonin is that it can have an impact on our health, and in particular helps preventing cancer.
When it's time to go sleep, the body starts to produce melatonin, which in turn helps a person to fall asleep and have a good rest at night. The recent studies have found that the surrounding light influences the production of melatonin. Light intensity and its wavelength have the most impact on this process. Bright light, from 50 and up to 1000 lux, can inhibit the melatonin production. That is the reason why it is so important to sleep in the dark. Still, the wavelength is equally important. The wavelength determines the color of light. The most common colors of the bright sunlight are blue, white and green. Unlike red and yellowish-orange colors, blue light prevents our bodies from producing melatonin. This negatively affects sleep and have other negative effects for a human body. The worst thing is that artificial light sources and various electronic devices like smart phones, tablet PCs, computer displays and TVs also produce blue light.
It is very important to bear in mind the wavelength of different light sourced that are created with the help of modern LED lights to diminish the blue light hazard. Luckily, there are many ways to block blue light at night. The ways may differ depending on your everyday life and special tastes. If you want to sleep well, have a good rest at night, and help your body prevent cancer, don't ignore these easy steps.
6 Easy Steps To Improve Your Sleep:
- The first and the most obvious step is to switch off the lights after sunset. Well, this is not always possible, but try at least dim the lights to minimize the blue light exposure.
- Do not watch TV one hour before sleep. Don't read something on your cell phone or iPad, and don't play games using your PC, phone or Playstation at least one hour before sleep. Two hours and more would be even better.
- Use dimmed light bulbs with yellow, amber or red light after sunset in case if you still need some light. There are salt lamps o the market today that are equipped with low-wattage bulbs. They don't emit blue light and thus don't inhibit melatonin production. Such lamps can become a perfect lighting solution in terms of healthy sleep.
- If you cannot refuse from using your PC, smart phone or iPad in the evening, you can install some apps that can block blue light that emits the screen of your device. Look for apps like f.lux, Twilight, Night Shift: Blue Light Filter, Night Light or others. Such software can adjust the screen of your device so that it won't produce the hazardous light at night. Usually these apps can be programmed by user to automatically change the color temperature of a display depending on the time of day or your personal preferences.
- There are special low blue light LED bulbs available on the market now. These bulbs don't produce any blue wavelengths of light, so they don't restrain melatonin production. Look for low blue light LED bulbs in online stores, they are cheap and effective, and can be used with the standard sockets.
- There is another clever idea to block blue light at night, probably the easiest one. You can use amber colored glasses that are specially designed to block blue light. People who used such glasses have noticed the significant improvement in sleep quality as well as overall health. This simple, cheap and effective solution is definitely worth trying.
