What does artificial light do to your sleep pattern?

One of the problems that plague modern man is sleep problems. Every third person has insomnia. This data is worrying, since sleep is important for our functioning. People with insomnia often suffer from concentration problems and are more susceptible to illness.

Many psychological, biochemical and behavioral processes in our body depend on our sleep cycle. It is also important to find a healthy balance between daylight and darkness to regulate your biological clock. The importance of sleep is known to fewer and fewer people, and this leads to unpleasant physical disorders.

Different types of light have different effects

Today it is hard to imagine living without light. Not only because without light we cannot perform many basic activities, but also because it is important for the functioning of the body. We must add a caveat to this. It is true that we need light, but it is also important when we need it. We only receive light through cells in the retina. From the retina, the stimuli are translated to the nervous system, which responds to what kind of light it receives.

The distinction is based on the wavelength of the light. Sunlight or natural light has a blue, powerful, short wavelength, which is especially important in the morning. It tells our body that it is time to wake up and fills you with enthusiasm and motivation. In the evening, this type of light has adverse effects. This is also the light that we receive from tablets and mobile phones. During the day this does not disturb, but in the evening it confuses your biological rhythm. Yellow-red light, such as from a candle or flame, has very little influence.

Sleep, then and now.

The advent of electricity, towards the end of the 19th century, is more or less responsible for the sleep problems that one in three people have today. Before electricity, there was a dark 12-hour night and a light day. Of those 12 hours, people slept 9 and the other three were lit by candles. Electricity makes it much brighter at night, because of artificial lighting and electronic devices. And that is how the lack of darkness is at the root of this problem.

Nowadays, people spend 90% of their time indoors. This gives us too little exposure to natural light and too much artificial light. Often, we also have a television, computer or mobile phone in front of us, even when we are not using it. The eyes give the signals to the brain that it is not night, and this disrupts the natural psychological process from day to night. This makes it harder to fall asleep, and therefore you sleep worse.

Artificial light disrupts the internal biological clock

The circadian rhythm is a biological rhythm that is standard in almost all living beings. A normal circadian rhythm between dark and light is essential for the internal biological clock, which helps our body function. Sleep rhythm disorders and simply staying awake affect many processes in the body, such as metabolism, immune system, cell repair and hormone production. At night, the body calms down, your internal temperature and metabolism decrease and your melatonin production increases. Artificial light around bedtime can hinder all of these processes. Turning on a light lowers the melatonin level, which makes you hungry.

What can we do to wake up in the morning feeling satisfied and rested?

We recommend avoiding devices that emit blue light within a few hours of going to bed. Put your tablet and mobile phone away at least three hours before resting. Make sure your bedroom is quiet, cover light sources such as mobile phone or television, or better yet, don't have these devices in your bedroom at all. If you need light sources in the evening, use yellow or red light and use natural light as much as possible. During the day, it is also nice to enjoy enough natural light to help you sleep better in the evening. Healthy sleep is healthy living.

So don't use your TV in your bedroom, but only put it in the living room on a nice TV cabinet . You will not only create peace in the bedroom but also the perfect look of your living room.