Artificial Light at Night and Why You Can’t Sleep

Healthy sleep is incredibly important to overall wellbeing. It serves as the foundation for much of the rest of our health and wellness. One bad night of sleep can take days to recover from. Not only can it make you less than pleasant to be around, but poor sleep affects metabolism, can make it harder to lose weight, increases cortisol levels, and increases the risk of heart disease.

There are myriad reasons for poor sleep and usually there is not just one cause for a bad night (or a month of bad nights). Medical causes like obstructive sleep apnea should always be considered, but for many people poor sleep hygiene is a root cause of sleepless nights.

The most effective long term treatment for insomnia?

A type of therapy called cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.

This is more effective for chronic insomnia than any sleep medication. It’s also a lot more work than popping a pill, but long term improvements in sleep hygiene can greatly improve your sleep amount and sleep quality. There are several important components of sleep hygiene, but for now we will just focus on one.

Most of us know that screens before bed are detrimental to sleep. They emit a greater proportion of blue light wavelengths, which interfere with natural melatonin production. Melatonin is your body’s sleep hormone, and while it is available as an over the counter sleep supplement, should generally be used only occasionally to avoid decreasing your body’s own melatonin production or reliance on higher and higher doses for the same efficacy. Most phones and computers now have a night mode (Night Shift or Night Light depending on the manufacturer), which decreases the blue wave light, and this can be helpful but doesn’t completely resolve the issue with sleep disruption. Most newer TVs have a similar option, but these can be harder to find because it can change the appearance of your movie/show and make the image seem too orange.

While turning on these settings can help, light from screens can still interfere with sleep and decrease melatonin levels. In fact, any artificial light at night can send signals to your brain that it is daytime and suppress melatonin production. So even if you completely avoid screens before bed, if you have bright lights on in your house they could be contributing to late nights and difficulty falling asleep. The solution? Candlelight at night is a great option. But for those of us who don’t want to live like we’re in the 1800s or contend with the risk of open flames, there are other options.

Once the sun has set, keep inside lights low. Turn off unnecessary indoor lighting. Avoid screens completely if possible, or at least turn on built in blue blocking modes. Purchase light bulbs that have warmer tones. These are often labeled as amber bulbs, or even red light bulbs (though overt red bulbs are a little too dystopian for my taste). Wifi connected LED bulbs also have the option of changing colors in many cases, and you can dim them and choose a warmer color tone. For those who committed to their sleep journey and want to look awesome doing it, there are glasses with blue blocking lenses. My husband’s pair that fits over his regular frames make him look like he is always ready for welding or a lab experiment, but there are more stylish options available.

Now, once you are asleep you want to stay that way so make sure that your room is dark as well. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere this probably means having blackout window coverings in your bedroom. Keeping your bedroom as dark as possible will help prevent disturbed sleep throughout the night.

If you struggle with insomnia and can’t ever seem to fall asleep in a reasonable time frame or if you wake up frequently throughout the night, then I encourage you to try these strategies. This in combination with maintaining good sleep hygiene practices can greatly improve sleep quantity and quality. If you have children who struggle with sleep or winding down in the evenings lower, warmer lighting can be helpful to them as well.

Next post we’ll address other components of good sleep hygiene practices.