How Blue Light Can Ruin Your Sleep

Blue light can have a damaging effect on your quality of sleep. However, we live in an increasingly digitalised world, in which we have a heavy reliance on technology. How can you improve your quality of sleep without cutting out your devices completely? This week, we take a look at the impact of blue light, and how switching it off just an hour before you go to bed can make all the difference.

What is blue light?

Blue light is the type of artificial light that is commonly used on devices such as smartphones, laptops and iPads. Not all colours of light have the same impact, blue light is beneficial during daylight hours as it boosts our attention span, focus, reaction times and mood. However, blue light seems to be the most disruptive at night, but why?

Why is blue light disruptive at night?

As human beings, light has had an extremely important role in our development as a species. We are oriented around the sun which was our major source of lighting before the introduction of technology. In recent years, our use of technology has rapidly increased, increasing our exposure to artificial light, specifically blue light. However, blue light can desynchronise the body with its typical circadian rhythm, which can damage the quality of sleep. Sleep is vital to your overall health, consistent high-quality sleep (or REM sleep) can actually reduce your likelihood of getting a range of illnesses, such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and a range of mental health problems.

Making the change

As technology has become an important part of our lives, in our communications with others, our careers, and in leisurely activities, turning away from it can be difficult. However, experts have found that extensive data reveals that your quality of sleep rapidly increases if you avoid technology one hour before bed. This is because it gives the brain the chance to switch off from the effect of blue light which causes the brain to be alert. Experts also recommend opting for low-lighting before bed for this reason.

A Harvard study found that blue light is particularly damaging, as their research revealed that 6.5 hours of exposure to blue light suppressed melatonin for twice as long as other shades of light, such as green light. Melatonin is our bodies’ sleep chemical, in order to get a good night’s sleep, we need melatonin. They also found that blue light shifted circadian rhythms twice as much as other shades of light, delaying circadian rhythms back for 3 hours.

Some phone companies are attempting to counteract this by introducing the option to “switch off” blue light, changing the shade of light to a yellow or green light that has a much less damaging effect on your sleep. However, even on night-mode functions on smartphones, a small amount of blue light is used. To improve your sleep, consider using blue-light glasses to block the blue light rays out, or to refrain from using technology 1 hour before bed.