Close the blinds during sleep to protect your health
Even moderate light exposure during sleep harms heart health and increases insulin resistance
“"The results from this study demonstrate that just a single night of exposure to moderate room lighting during sleep can impair glucose and cardiovascular regulation, which are risk factors for heart disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome," said senior study author Dr. Phyllis Zee, chief of sleep medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine physician. "It's important for people to avoid or minimize the amount of light exposure during sleep."
Investigators found insulin resistance occurred the morning after people slept in a light room. Insulin resistance is when cells in your muscles, fat and liver don't respond well to insulin and can't use glucose from your blood for energy. To make up for it, your pancreas makes more insulin. Over time, your blood sugar goes up.
An earlier study published in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at a large population of healthy people who had exposure to light during sleep. They were more overweight and obese, Zee said.”
My Takeaways From This Article
Our bodies are sensitive and receptive to the light as it determines our light and sleep schedules. Research indicates that light signals for higher rates of activation throughout the body associated with awake states and vice versa for darkness. Therefore the quality of sleep can be coincident with the amount of light in your room.
Every little light according to this article counts. Perhaps some of us may enjoy the moonlit night but maybe closing them if you have been noticing subpar sleep and tiredness in the morning. Additionally light exposure before sleep can prevent sleep onset as our minds are sort of ‘tricked’ to thinking it's still day.
Good sleep is important to regulating our hormones and resting our body therefore if light exposure prevents such from happening it can lead to conditions such as insulin resistance and fatigue. Over time this can turn more chronic and lead to more unfavorable diseases.
Full article is here!
What are some ways to minimize light exposure in your bedroom before you go to sleep?
#Sleep #Health #SleepHabits
@sunnyWriting4806
What are some ways to minimize light exposure in your bedroom before you go to sleep?
Some ways to minimize light exposure that I'm thinking of trying are closing my blinds and also making sure that my hallway light is turned off before going to sleep. I also might try a sleep mask since I do have a night light in my room for my cats. I do now wonder if the night lights are effecting their sleep as well so maybe getting rid of the night lights all together wouldn't be a bad idea, especially since they can still see extraordinary well in low light, as long as I'm not sleeping in complete darkness.
@liana2277
That's great that you've been finding ways to optimize sleeping environments for you and your cats! So cute~ I agree with you cats have an extraordinary sense of vision at night and perhaps experimenting with the night lights can be a fruitful venture. Although not all night lights are bad! As long as they aren't bright and blue colored, dim/warm-colored lights can be used as they put less strain on your eyes/brain and do not signal the same "i'm awake" as blue light does.
Thank you for sharing Sunny 🤍 and I love that you added it with your takeaways.
It's true that our body is sensitive and receptive to light which affect our circadian rhythm.
I usually sleep without light and using blackout window blinds. However, there are nights that I just want feel like I'm sleeping under the moonlight, and on those nights I keep the blinds rolled up 😀 Not the ideal, but it's nice!
@ouiCherie
Of course!
I love moonlit nights and honestly if they don't seem to affect your sleeping quality and hours I'd say it's fine to enjoy them! Everyone's body can adapt to certain conditions differently so as long as you're getting healthy sleep <3
@sunnyWriting4806
This is a very informative post, thank you for sharing! I had no idea that light has such a huge impact on our sleep quality. Some ways I can minimize light exposure are by limiting the usage of my phone and other devices before bedtime and putting them away from my bed.
@globalBraid3744
Totally! And phones are the number one culprit in causing poor quality sleep, especially when they're right next to you going off on notifications throughout the night. It's best to have it on sleep mode and also to put it away from you when you get your shut-eye.
@sunnyWriting4806 I think getting black-out curtains can be a great way to reduce sunlight coming into our bedrooms. Turning off our phones, computers, and TVs can be so important too because blue light can interrupt our sleep! I am guilty of keeping the TV on when I sleep but I like to have some background noise on!
@fruityPond7887
Haha, I totally get you some people really do enjoy that ambiance and background noise. And it's totally okay! Just as long as you're able to get rid of the light source. Perhaps playing that background noise through a device that doesn't emit any light or very dimly!
Thanks for sharing!
@sunnyWriting4806 That is true! It probably messes with my sleep more than I realize 😮
@sunnyWriting4806 I usually try to turn off all the light sources and prevent looking at my phone before sleeping. I find it really improves my quality of sleep!
@comfortableNight4463
That's great! And yea definitely I agree with you on that, phones are one of the biggest issues for the modern sleep problem.
