The harmful effects of blue light on your natural sleep cycle

Can you remember a time when you’re laying down in bed or in a dim room staring at your smartphone screen or your laptop? Perhaps you have an email to forward or read one final blog before you retire to bed?

The light that is emitted from your phone or your computer is known as ‘blue light’ and it’s harmful at night. Let’s see why.

Our body has a biological timer that makes it active in the daylight and sleepy at darkness. This circadian rhythm keeps us wide awake and alert and depends excessively on external light. Our natural clock relies upon the release of melatonin, a hormone released in the brain that improves our sleep. In the day, the hormone levels are meager, while at night they are elevated and help you plunge to sleep. On the other hand, if you are exposed to blue light for long hours at night by staring at your phone or computer, your melatonin levels will stay low. This could disrupt your circadian rhythm, puzzling your brain and keeping you awake for longer.

Sadly, it’s not only about it impacting one’s sleep. Immoderate exposure to blue light has now been linked to weight gain, heart conditions, depression and even some forms of cancer. Melatonin has anti-cancer properties, and low levels of it at night can increase the risk of cancer. Nevertheless, it’s not just grown-ups who are affected. Children seem to be hugely impacted by blue light too. Children and infants who stare at their favorite cartoon on your mobile phone are bare to a colossal amount of blue light. This can penetrate their eyes, and weaken the back of the eye i.e. retina. It leads to a condition called macular degeneration, which is a primary cause of visual impairment in adult life. It can also accelerate the growth of cataracts.

So what can you do to counteract the damaging consequences of blue light on your health?

Some easy steps are enough. Blue light glasses are beneficial here as they don’t allow part of the blue spectrum through. You may also want to make sure you spend plenty of time out in normal daylight. Most importantly, stop using your phone or laptop for at least 3 hours before you head to bed. But, if you really have to look over your emails, consider picking up a pair of blue light blocking glasses. They will filter out the blue light; allowing your brain to raise the levels of melatonin and helping you fall asleep more punctually.

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Created on Jun 27th 2018 04:50. Viewed 480 times.

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