We’ve been hearing a lot more about blue light and I want to talk about, first of all, what is blue light?
We get expose to blue light from the sun, from technology including TV, computers, laptops, tablets, phones, also from fluorescent lights, and LED lights.
The challenge with our exposure to blue light is that our pineal gland about 2 hours before we go to sleep releases a hormone called melatonin. Melatonin helps to get us into our sleeping state.The blue light alerts our body that it is still daytime. Our body has a natural circadian rhythm according to our light exposure and the blue light can suppress our release of melatonin, which are one of the hormones that are released due to our bodies natural, circadian rhythm.
Circadian rhythm are our bodies natural 24 hour a day cycles and blue light can impact our release of melatonin. When this happens it can be affecting our sleep. Now sleep is so important for our overall health. When we are sleeping well, this helps us to prevent chronic disease in our future because our body is doing so much cleaning and rejuvenating factors in our body during our sleeping hours. And if we aren’t getting quality sleep at night this leaves us most susceptible to health issues in the future. This is why we need to make sleep a priority and part of making sleep a priority is to either stop using technology 2 hours before bed to allow our body to make that melatonin to help get us into deep sleep. The other thing we can do is wear blue blocking glasses and what the blue blocking glasses help to do is they help to stop our exposure to blue light before we go to sleep.
References:
If you’re interested in trying out blue blockers for your sleep health, and to ensure better wake-ups the next day, my recommended blue light blocking glasses are definitely Swannies, by Swanwick. They’re the most scientifically-validated on the market, and have been seen in Harvard Business Review and the Journal of Applied Psychology.
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