Friday 29 September 2017

Sleep And Light: What’s Their Connection?

Exposure to light stimulates alertness. It’s the reason why we sleep at night – preferably with the lights turned off. Light in itself has a big impact to sleep health and quality. Your mind and body stay stimulated in its presence. It is okay if you are not about to sleep yet, but if you are, you might have a hard time drifting off to dreamland in the presence of artificial lighting. And as we continue to enjoy fiddling with technology during bed time, the blue light these gadgets emit prove to be harmful to human health too aside from pushing your bedtime even further.

Establishing a healthy sleep environment is more crucial than ever now that sleep deprivation is a problem faced by many. If sleeping at night is not possible because of work obligations, you can still easily catch some shuteye during the day as long as you use dark shades or curtains to keep the daylight out. When sleeping at night, turn off all the lights if possible. If you or your partner aren’t comfortable sleeping in total darkness, using a nightlight can help you get through the night with your sense of sanity intact.

Workers who are exposed to sunlight or bright indoor lights during the morning hours sleep better at night and tend to feel less depressed and stressed than those who don’t get much morning light, according to a recent study.

Exposure to more light during the day and less light at night is critical for healthy sleep patterns because it helps to calibrate the body’s internal “circadian” clock, the study team writes in the journal Sleep Health.

The results suggest that in office environments, being exposed either to daylight or electric lights that are rich in short wave “blue” light may be important for the health of workers, said lead author Mariana Figueiro.

(Via: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-sleep-daylight-idUSKCN18E23E)

Researchers have also recently discovered the correlation between light exposure during specific hours in the day and its effect on overall sleep quality. Constant sleep deprivation leads to a poor immune system, metabolic disorders, mood swings, and even makes you more prone to accidents since your mind and body are not in tip-top shape.

A well-lit room is a beautiful thing…except when it’s time to get some sleep. A new study shows that too much light at night can negatively affect a person’s immunity and endocrine systems, as well as other health issues.

Scientists often recommend sleeping in complete darkness to better enhance the quality of sleep. Staying true to the circadian rhythms that are innate within the body is also known to treat insomnia and other sleep problems, showing the importance of light during the day and darkness during the night.

Now, a study from Ohio State University shows that exposure to light at night, in addition to promoting sleeplessness, can disrupt the naturally occurring systems in the body, including immune and endocrine function.

(Via: http://vitalupdates.com/light-pollution-may-be-disrupting-how-your-body-functions/)

Light pollution isn’t something you should take lightly. It disrupts your body’s normal circadian rhythm or sleep-wake cycle. In a lab study done on mice, health issues were also seen on the offsprings of test subjects who did not have the normal light-day and dark-night set-up.

You need to remember that you need to prepare your body for sleep. You just don’t turn yourself on and off like a light switch. Your body will have a hard time drifting off to sleep when the light is still on in the bedroom. It is not actually just turning off the light right before sleep but even the dimming of the lights roughly an hour before bedtime. Make sure to hide your smart gadgets too, so you won’t be tempted to play with it until sleepiness takes over, which will probably take a longer time. If you are scared of sleeping in the dark, wearing an eye mask will do just as long as you don’t see any light and your body perceives it is sleeping time already.

Sleep And Light: What’s Their Connection? is available on snoring.mouthpiece.report



source https://snoring.mouthpiece.report/snorerx/sleep-and-light-whats-their-connection

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