I hope you have had a great week.

You may or may not be aware of the importance of sleep. Regardless of whether you are, I want to shed some light (ayyyy) on an important contributor to the quality of your sleep. So, if you are currently in the dark (ohhhhhhh) as to what light has to do with sleep, you better listen up.

When we are exposed to light at night, the intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) within the eye then signal the suprachiasmatic nucleus, essentially informing the brain that it needs to adjust its current state, since the presence of this light indicates that it is not night time.

The photopigment melanopsin, which is contained within these cells, is most sensitive to light with wavelengths of 460-480nm (This is the type of light is what you will hear referred to as “blue light”, and unfortunately, this tends to be emitted from all of the electronic devices and artificial lighting that we are exposed to in the evening time). Our current light exposure is in contrast to our ancestors, who would have used yellow/orange light primarily at night, in the form of fire. When we are exposed to this wavelength of light, melatonin secretion is suppressed, and hence, it is much more difficult to get to sleep. The suprachiasmatic nucleus also regulates the state of the nervous system and other hormones such as growth hormone and cortisol.

The good news (for some people) is that your genetics will determine how sensitive you are to the effects of light exposure. Therefore, while it may seem like you are doomed, this is not the case for everyone. The best thing you can do is run some trial and error with the recommendations we make, which will allow you to decipher how much light effects you as an individual. If you are already really struggling to sleep at night, then you obviously have more of a reason to be confirmed. Research highlights that those with greater sensitivity to blue-light tend to sleep later, therefore, for these individuals, blocking blue light may be a more effective (and potentially necessary) strategy.

Therefore, you can use the following strategies to minimise the effects of blue light on your sleep:

• Blue light blocking glasses.

• No electronics late at night.

• Filter your screens (e.g. Night Mode or f.lux)

• Light the fire or candles instead of having the lights on.

• Use blackout blinds ± a sleep mask.

Ideally, if you don’t want to spend money on glasses right away, what you should first do is assess how light affects your sleep by exposing yourself to a lot of light for a week and recording your sleep length, perceived sleep quality, how many times you woke, how long it took you to get to sleep and how rested you felt upon waking. You could then follow this with a week of blocking as much light as possible. If you notice a big difference, then glasses could be worth it.

I hope this enlightened you (okay, no more puns, sorry) on the importance of considering light exposure as a means of regulating your sleep. There is more to it, as you can also use light to your advantage, but we will explore that another time.

P.S. If you'd like to get more specific guidance from us, custom to your needs, we are currently taking on clients for coaching. If that is of interest to you, just click the button below!

Kind Regards,

Gary McGowan

Triage Method