“A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.” – Irish Proverb
The evidence for the health benefits of adequate, restful sleep is overwhelming. Decades of research has shown that sleeping between 7 and 9 hours per night can relieve stress, reduce the risk of many chronic diseases, improve memory and cognitive function, and may even help with weight loss. (1) As many of us know by now, getting adequate, high-quality sleep is one of the most important, yet under-appreciated steps you can take to improve your overall health and wellbeing.
Yet for all we know about the benefits of sleep, there are millions of Americans who are still suffering from disordered sleep and insomnia. 35% of Americans report getting less than 7 hours of sleep per night, and 63% of Americans say their sleep needs are not being met during the week. (2, 3) The negative effects of sleep deprivation are serious: sleep durations that are consistently shorter than 7 hours in a 24-hour period are associated with cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk factors, depression, automobile and workplace accidents, learning and memory problems, and an overall increase in mortality. (4) Some may argue that poor sleep can even undo the benefits of a healthy diet and exercise routine. (5, 6)
Could using electronics at night ruin your sleep and increase your risk of death and disease?
So what’s causing this epidemic of sleep disruption in our country? Many experts feel that our excessive use of communications technology (e.g. cell phones, laptops, television, etc.) is driving this significant level of sleep deprivation. If this is the case, it’s no wonder so many Americans struggle with poor sleep, since 95% have reported using some type of electronics at least a few nights a week within the hour before bed. (7) Checking email, watching your favorite late-night comedian, or responding to a text message in bed seems harmless enough, but the sleep disruption caused by these light emitting devices is significant and potentially harmful to your health.
Research has demonstrated that nighttime light exposure suppresses the production of melatonin, the major hormone secreted by the pineal gland that controls sleep and wake cycles. (8) Therefore, a reduction in melatonin at night is associated with subjective levels of sleeplessness. (9, 10) But melatonin suppression has far worse consequences than simply poor sleep outcomes: it has also been shown to increase the risk of cancer, impair immune system function, and possibly lead to cardiometabolic consequences such as type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, and heart disease. (11, 12, 13) With serious consequences like these, preventing melatonin suppression should be a top priority in anyone’s healthy lifestyle.
Blue light and melatonin suppression
It is well established that short-wavelength or “blue” light is the most melatonin-suppressive; this is the type of light typically emitted by devices such as televisions, computer screens, and cellphones. (14, 15) To produce white light, these electronic devices must emit light at short wavelengths, close to the peak sensitivity of melatonin suppression. (16) This means that products such as tablets, smartphones, and other devices with self-luminous electronic displays are major sources for suppressing melatonin at night, thereby reducing sleep duration and disrupting sleep. (Figure credit: Wood et al, 2013)
Along with blue light emitted from electronic devices, research has shown that being exposed to normal levels of room lighting can have similar negative effects on melatonin. One study showed that one hour of moderately bright light exposure (1000 lux) was sufficient to suppress nocturnal melatonin to daytime levels. (17) Since melatonin suppression is intensity dependent, researchers suggest that lower intensities can have similar suppression effects at longer durations; for example, two hours at 500 lux would have a similar effect as one hour at 1000 lux. (For examples of lux values, check out this helpful chart.) This means that typical room light alone can have a similar suppressing effect on melatonin secretion as the light from backlit screens. (18)
How to prevent melatonin disruption (without tossing your iPhone)
Since it is predominantly the blue wavelength that is most affective in melatonin suppression, it stands to reason that blocking this wavelength of light should be enough to significantly reduce, or even eliminate the melatonin-suppressing effects of nighttime light exposure. (19) In fact, blocking blue light has been shown in several studies to be extremely effective in reducing the melatonin-suppressing effects of intense and/or blue light. (20, 21)
There are a few possible solutions for reducing your exposure to blue light at night. One that is commonly used in the ancestral health community is a program called f.lux, a program that makes the color of your computer’s display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day. This program can be installed on computers, iPads, and iPhones, and may have a significant effect on your melatonin secretion when using these devices at night. The best part about this program is that it turns on automatically in response to the daylight in your particular time zone, so there’s no need to remember any adjustments to the screen.
A better option, in my opinion, is to use amber-lensed goggles once the sun has gone down. These blue-blocking lenses are highly effective in reducing the effects of blue light exposure, and in most cases completely eliminate the short-wavelength radiation necessary for nocturnal melatonin suppression. (22, 23, 24) These goggles have been shown to improve sleep quality as well as mood, simply by blocking blue light and simulating physiologic darkness.
The main reason I recommend using these goggles is because normal room light alone is enough to suppress melatonin at night, and unless you’re shutting off all the lights in your house when the sun sets, you’re still at risk for disrupting your melatonin-driven circadian rhythms. (25) While f.lux is a useful tool for your backlit devices, it’s nearly impossible to address all sources of melatonin-suppressing light in today’s world of modern technology and late-night work and entertainment habits. Amber-colored goggles are one of the only tools available to completely eliminate all blue light exposure at night, without ‘going off the grid’ and powering down your entire house after 7 PM.
There are two excellent (and cheap!) options for amber-lensed goggles on Amazon.com. The cheapest and most popular option is the Uvex brand, but if you wear eyeglasses you’ll need to get a wraparound pair like the Solar Shield brand. I’ve had many patients swear by these goggles, and if you can get over the dorkiness factor, you may find they make a big difference in your sleep quality, and perhaps even your general health and wellbeing as well!
Have you ever used amber-lensed goggles, or f.lux, to improve your sleep quality? Share your experience in the comments below.
Note: I may earn a small commission if you use the links in this article to purchase any products or programs I mentioned. I only recommend products I would use myself or that I use with patients in my practice. Your purchase helps support this site and my ongoing research.
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{ 108 comments… read them below or add one }
Great article–it should be noted that in order to install f.lux on your iPhone or iPad, you will need to jailbreak the device.
I’ve had a good experience with the Uvex googles — they’re comfortable enough and you get used to the whole world being orange while you’re wearing them. In fact it gets to be kind of soothing.
An iPad filter can be found at lowbluelights.com for $25.
The three things that I’ve found have worked best for my sleep are wearing amber-colored glasses as soon as the sun sets, a hot Epsom salt bath followed by an ice cold shower rinse and then I top it all off by eating a combo of high fat raw cheese and dates one hour before bedtime.
Rip Van Winkle in da house!
I referenced your name in my post below. Looking up the catsuit gave me quite the belly as The Big Bang Theory is one of my favorite shows and I like the Norman Cousins theory of laughter and illness.
Maybe this is a silly question but does light exposure to our skin suppress melatonin as well? Say you’re trying to avoid some type of artificial light at night so you wear an eye mask. Is the eye mask sufficient or would the skin need to be shielded as well?
Skin exposure to light can have a mild effect on melatonin production according to a study that was done at Boston University (I think).
I usually wear a PVC catsuit while watching T.V. at night… it works really well.
No, I don’t think artificial light is likely to *significantly* suppress melatonin via its effects on the skin. The orange goggles are sufficient.
Robb Wolf mentioned on a podcast that exposure to light has been shown to affect the circadian rhythms of profoundly blind people. The mechanism was something carried on the surface of red blood cells from what I recall. I think it might have been in this episode but sadly the link to the transcript is broken and I’ve not got time to listen to it to check:
http://robbwolf.com/2011/01/04/the-paleo-solution-episode-61/
Robb didn’t get into quite how much light it would take, though he advises sleeping in a pitch dark room – and from personal experience, and to my surprise, it works really well.
I’n still waiting to try the Uvex glasses since Amazon’s courier lost my first order somewhere over the Atlantic!
Blind people are still affected by light exposure because there are receptors in the eye that have nothing to do with vision, but are acted on by light to entrain circadian rhythms. I think it has more to do with this than with light hitting the skin, but I could be wrong.
Makes sense to me Chris. Though I’m sure there was some mention of someone without retinas still being affected by light. Just thought it was interesting to note but now that the PDF transcript has been fixed – it wasn’t that episode in which Robb mentioned it after all (to save anyone the trouble of looking or listening).
But getting into the detail here of course. Ultimately sleeping in a pitch black room I find works really well – whatever the mechanism
Hi Kaitlyn, Excellent question! Turns out that only your eyes need to be in the dark in order for your body to produce melatonin. I have been following the research closely by Drs David Blask, George Brainard, Richard Stevens and others… and attended their lectures. Dr David Blask also clarified that you do NOT need to be asleep… just in the dark–pitch black, for a healthy body to produce melatonin. Although, Dr Brainard emphasized that dim red or dim amber night lights positioned close to the flock outlets would minimally affect the circadian, and would be a sensible solution for a late night, safe trip to the bathroom. They both emphasized that the circadian wants bright sunny blue sky days, and dark-dark nights.
I’m not so sure about exposing skin to light. Only our eyes have melanopsin. Some studies say you can suppress melatonin by using the skin but another could not repeat the effects. Perhaps some light slipped through the sides of the eye mask in the study. It doesn’t take much light to decrease melatonin levels. Personally, I find that eye masks fall off during sleep.
A cheap way to black out your room is taping cardboard over your windows and taping black duct tape on the hinge side of your doors.
I find f.lux helps a lot but I also use (on a PC):
http://www.pangobright.com/
Which turns down the overall brightness of the monitor – and lets you put it back up again to where you like it during the day (or when developing images on a calibrated monitor in my case) all with a couple of mouse clicks.
Hey, that app is awesome – thanks for the link! Took a little close reading to avoid all the ads, but it installed easily and it couldn’t be much simpler to use. My monitor isn’t easy to dim – this makes it much easier.
Stunning program. Thank you SO much for this!
I installed it, and my very skin sighed with relief.
But everytime I clicked on something, it flashed, which was even worse than the too-bright screen to begin with. I’m sure there’s a way to fix it, some setting I’ve got set poorly, but I’m not clever enough to figure it out and my googlefu is failing me. Have you heard of anything like that?
Sorry JMH – that is a small problem with Pangobright.
To get techy: I’m guessing what the app does is to create a dark layer “on top” of everything else (at the front) which allows the clicks from the mouse through to other programs. When some other program displays something new, that new things is sent to the “top” (front) and so isn’t hidden by the dark layer. But then Pangobright immediately notices that something is in front of it and gets back “on top”.
This is by way of saying that I doubt it’s changeable for Pangobright. It would need an entirely different program to achieve the dimming of the screen. I’d love to find one which would avoid that problem!
For me it’s not a big issue since I tend to use it only last thing as I wind down for the evening.
@Angel and Jeremy Nelms – glad it’s useful!
Yeah, I figured it’s arguing with some other program for control over the brightness and occasionally loses. I figure if I was a bit more of an educated sys-admin I could figure out what, and how to revoke its permissions, but alas I’m just tech smart enough to be frustrated. *grin* At least I know it’s not just me, then. Thanks though.
However, it is not ideal because there still remains high blue in the emitted spectrum. One inexpensive solution is to use a cheap red plastic transparent clipboard– and pop it onto the screen.
Chris, I am curious do you wear these amber-lensed goggles yourself?
Yes, but not every night. If I notice that my sleep is starting to get funky, I’ll wear them. (Or if I have to use the computer after it gets dark for any significant length of time.)
I have amber sunglasses … maybe I’ll try wearing those tonight (around the house of course, not while driving!).
Great article, Chris!
According to the book, “Great Sleep! Reduced Cancer!: A Scientific Approach to Great Sleep and Reduced Cancer Risk,” by Richard L. Hansler (http://amzn.com/1419690388), there is no need to put the glasses on right after sundown. The best way to use the glasses is to put them on 9 to 10 hours before you usually wake up. And do that consistently — without changing your wake/sleep times by more than a few minutes on any day. If you are getting 8 hours of sleep every night, then you only need to wear the glasses for an hour before bed.
Furthermore, Hansler says the research on melatonin indicates that a consistent “rhythm” is key (that’s why they call it a “circadian rhythm”!) After all, humans evolved for millions of years with circadian rhythms that were unable to change by more than 5 minutes each day.
So, the glasses are most effective when they are used in a routine each evening that the body can get used to. So, it really doesn’t make sense to use the glasses after sundown unless you were going to do it every single night. Far easier to just put the glasses on a hour or two before bedtime, and wake up at the same time each day.
The book is a useful one to read as he explains how the glasses can be used to combat Jet Lag or late night shift work by putting them on at specific intervals to readjust the circadian rhythm. Highly recommend it for anyone interested in this.
Another option: LowBlueLights.com. I have several pair of their blue blocking glasses and light bulbs.
Chris, this is not about artificial light wrecking sleep but is about sleep wrecking no less. Maybe you could address it in an article at some point. As the parent of a 3 year old and a new baby, I wonder now more than ever…what are the long term effects of sleep deprivation for an entire year for each child on the parent? I am breastfeeding a year as I did with my first. Of course in the beginning the sleep is short and totally fragmented. As time goes on, however, even when the baby sleeps well, my body wakes me up in no uncertain terms, which will continue until weaning. Nobody can do anything to help me get a full night of sleep, and this time around I can’t even nap during the day since I have a toddler. It seems that sleep is such a necessity, yet parents, especially nursing mothers, are robbed of it relentlessly. I know, I know, the baby needs to be with the mother. I appreciate that, I really do. I just always wonder why, if, as adults, we need continuous sleep so badly (and boy do I ever!), is it taken away from us for literally years of our life? My mom always said mother nature got it wrong in that regard. In the meantime, I sure hope no negative studies of a single cup of coffee ever come to pass.
Katherine,
Richard Hansler addresses this in his e book Great Sleep!Reduced Cancer! They sell a nursery kit on the website http://www.lowbluelights.com. The idea is that both the mother and the baby should not be exposed to blue light during the night. Melatonin suppression may even be playing a role in postpartum depression. I was surprised to read that babies do not produce their own melatonin but get it in the breast milk. Think of the implications of that! My babies are all grown up but I have been using the glasses and lightbulbs while training puppy and I believe it has helped me get back to sleep.
That is a really good question, Katherine. More lost sleep one of the primary things keeping me from wanting kid #2. DD is 4 now and I’m still recovering from the sleep deprivation; her first year put my body over the edge. If I had to do it all over again I would have quit night nursing much sooner (8 or 9 mos. vs. the 13 or 14 mos. we ended at). DD nursed for 3.5 years total which I’m happy for but the night nursing was bad for both of us in hindsight. It was disruptive to my sleep and hers as well.
We ended up cosleeping and my wife could nurse while still asleep or at least with much less disruption to everybody’s sleep. Seems more natural, too.
Yes, co-sleeping rocks! I’ve been nursing for more than four years now and I don’t feel sleep deprived at all. My second child was born 16 months ago and is still feeding at night. When there is an exceptional night where I have to get up to comfort him, I can really feel the difference! Nursing while half-asleep is definitely so much easier. For me, Attachment Parenting (co-sleeping and extended breastfeeding) is similar to Paleo in that it looks at our life from an evolutionary point of view. Here’s an interesting article one year ago about how it is to have several chunks of sleep at night inside of an uninterrupted 8-hour sleep: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783
I purchased some glasses about a month or so ago. I love them. I do wear them daily because while I have never had issues falling asleep (or even staying) my sleep can get pretty screwy if I’m not careful. I’m high strung – not like I used to be thanks to Primal. I put them on and I can feel my eyes relax – I take them and they start to “tighten” up again. And within an hour I’m feeling pretty sleepy.
Another option is changing the colour of your artificial lights. This is now possible (yet still costly) with new LED lighting. However, costs are dropping significantly every year.
http://www.meethue.com/en-US
disclaimer: I work for philips lighting, but not for the division that makes this product>
Even CFL come in differing brightness temperatures, some are very blue for daytime use and others are more redish for evening and night use, need different lamps though as you definitively don’t want to handle them much.
Not exactly. The “warmest” CFL that most people come across in a typical store is ~3500ºK — which is way too blue for melatonin production.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Incand-3500-5500-color-temp-comparison.png
In order to allow melatonin production, you would need a lightbulb’s temperature to be as warm as fire (<2000ºK). Only specialty "low-blue" bulbs achieve that.
I have f.lux on my computer, and while I’m sure it helps somewhat, even if I have the brightness turned all the way down I sleep poorly if I use my computer within an hour of bedtime. I have a pair of the UVEX glasses, and with those I can continue working on my computer with no ill effects on my sleep. The UVEX glasses are very good and quite cheap ($9).
The effects of those glasses on melatonin suppression is remarkable– they completely block the effect.
I’ve noticed the same thing when I use the Solar Shield brand. I was up until 1 AM doing work the other night and fell asleep nearly immediately when I finally got to bed, thanks to the goggles. Normally I’d be tossing and turning and totally amped up from all the light exposure. (Now if I can just find a way to get all my work done at a more reasonable hour…)
Yeah, such a remarkably effective, cheap and non-invasive (if you don’t mind looking a little strange) tool!
The lense quality of those things has to be terribl for $9. Cheap sunglasses hurt my eyes and I think I’ve read have negative effects with long term use. Although I think that had something to do with tricking your eyes into letting too much light in…. anyways one more thing to worry about. Damaging vision by looking through cheap lenses for hours each day.
I installed f.lux, but usually when I am working late, I’m handling color sensitive materials on the computer, so I usually just turn it off. The moral of this story is: don’t work on digital art late at night.
Hey Chris!
Great article, definitely will “share” it on fb. In regards to melatonin production, bluelight and goggles: is blue light entering through the eye the major factor in melatonin? I like the idea of having those amber lenses (and already use f.lux) but I’m curious about blue light hitting the skin…does that have an effect, if any?
Thanks,
Ty
I looked into it a bit further this afternoon, and light hitting the skin does, in fact, impact melatonin as David suggested. I am getting the full-text of a study that showed that transdermal light applied at the knee suppresses melatonin.
Thanks very much for looking into that more Chris – really interesting area!
All credit to Robb W though – I just soak up the information from his podcasts (and yours!).
The study was likely flawed as it was never reproduced by anyone, ever.
The original study: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/279/5349/396.abstract
If the skin was that sensitive, the study should have been easily replicated. But, to this day, nobody has been able to do it.
More likely the pulsing light behind the knee triggered another melatonin suppressor that had nothing to do with light. For instance, melatonin can be suppressed by sound (i.e. your alarm clock), but light just happens to be a stronger influence than your other senses. For all we know, the pulsing light had a slight static charge or infrared heat pulse that affected melatonin.
And, besides, there is far more evidence out there to suggest that light on skin does NOT suppress melatonin:
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/12234041_Bright_light_exposure_of_a_large_skin_area_does_not_affect_melatonin_or_bilirubin_levels_in_humans
Here’s yet another study that was unable to reproduce the so-called skin effect that Campbell and Murphy supposedly discovered.
http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1081/CBI-100102116?journalCode=cbi
It seems pretty clear that the Campbell and Murphy study was flawed, since it can’t be reproduced by anybody.
Thanks Dan – also very interesting! It seems it’s just down to the eyes – unless Robb W had some other source I don’t know of.
Dan sent me a study suggesting that light stimulation on the skin is sufficient to suppress melatonin. I haven’t read the full-text yet, and maybe Dan can weigh in here, but I suspect the effect is considerably less than bright light on the retina.
Slightly confused – I assumed that Dan was only referencing studies which showed that melatonin production was not affected by light on the skin.
Since you know Robb W well Chris – I wonder if you have time to ask him what it was that I have a fuzzy memory of him talking about?
For what it’s worth, I agree that intuitively the retina is what mainly drives this. I’m just curious to know what the evidence is for the effect of light on skin.
Thanks for taking the time!
Here’s the study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9430592. The abstract suggests that light pulses applied to the knee region cause a phase shift in the circadian rhythm.
That’s the Campbell and Murphy study I was referring to, that nobody has been able to reproduce. I believe they used a biliblanket under the knees and supposedly suppressed melatonin.
What I’m saying is that the Campbell and Murphy study is likely flawed since nobody else on the planet has been able to reproduce it.
If skin was that sensitive to melatonin, the results should have been easy to reproduce. No such luck however. It was a fluke.
My sense is that melatonin in the Campbell and Murphy study was suppressed by an exogenous factor — such as heat, sound, static charge, etc. and the researchers just wrongly assumed that it was the biliblanket.
And even if Campbell and Murphy discovered something (high doubtful, since it can’t be reproduced) the study is pretty useless for real world applications since nobody sleeps with a biliblanket under their kneecaps.
I was just thinking back to watching movies set in older times when wearing full pajamas at night was common. I wonder if this was the reason why. Is fabric covering the skin enough to block the light?
I have f.lux installed on my computer and find it pleasant to use but I don’t know whether it makes any difference for my sleep.
I wear Adidas Supernova sunglasses when biking. Do you think they would be useful for eliminating exposure to blue light?
http://www.adidas.com/Eyewear/content/en/products/10197/hardcase#tab_lenses
I’ve been using f.lux, a nearly completely dark bedroom, electronic candles with timers and red light bulbs for quite a while now and got great results with those.
I recently added the amber glasses and they made a noticeable difference as well as tv watching was one issue that all of the other items did not address. Now I’ll find myself getting sleepy and yawning while watching tv. On the nights I forget to wear the amber glasses I’ll be wide awake until I turn off the tv.
A completely dark bedroom was a big help but I found that cracking the window shade just a few inches allowed enough natural light in in the morning to help wake me up. Otherwise I had a tendency to just keep sleeping.
The electronic candles are great. They give off a warm yellow/orange/red glow and allow me to turn off all of the regular lights in my house at night. Most are set to come on automatically at 6pm each night and turn off at 11pm when I head to bed. I keep an additional one in the bedroom that runs from 11pm till 4am in case I need to get up during the night. Completely dark is wonderful but can be a pain for shins and toes if you need to get up.
I wear polarized transitions. Are these helpful?
I use the uvex glasses. They work great, however, I have to lift them from my eyes a lot to get a clear view of what I’m doing while cooking. Some things, like food doneness are hard to decipher.
I use Gunnars lenses and love them but I don’t remember to use them all the time. Seems easier to just get off the computer at a set time every night.
LOL… One night I was adjusting the TV color, contrast, etc while wearing my Uvex glasses. Ummmmm, didn’t look too good the next day.
I don’t recommend that.
I did buy a pair of nice looking frames from my eye doctor (that fit me almost three years ago with Ortho-K lenses I wear while sleeping/take out next morning and can see all day!) with the blue-blocking lenses in them and use those, especially when out after dark and don’t want to look like a complete dork with the Uvex glasses. Though I did go to Costco one night and wore them. I was kind of disappointed that no one looked at me strangely The other frames do fit/feel better than the Uvex pair. I hope they are as effective. The optician seemed to think they would be, but I have my doubts. I figure they are better than nothing.
Well written post, Chris, that needs to be shared. I’ll do just that!
Chris, usually I take a shower at night before bed. It would be hard to wear those glasses in the shower. Maybe I should take the shower earlier perhaps at 7pm so wearing the glasses is not needed at that time? How do you handle this?
Dimmer switch in bathroom helps a lot with this. I usually shower late at night, and I would get no sleep if I did it in standard bathroom lighting. Put dimmers on all bathroom (overhead/vanity) light switches and this will help some. I keep it almost fully dark in there–just enough light to find the soap and the towel afterward.
Chris,
So what’s a parent of a baby/toddler to do?
This is half-written in jest.
Hope all is well!
Be REALLY grateful they will grow out of this. I have a 21 year old with autism who still keeps baby/toddler unpredictable hours, so….there are people out there who never get to move out of that stage of life. I’m replying half in jest, too, but sometimes a new perspective is uplifting. If you have a healthy kid, hold on tight with gratitude to the platitude “this, too, shall pass.”
We don’t have a tv but a projector. Since the light is emitted onto the wall does it affect us too?
If you can see it, it’s light and you’re contacting it.
Interestingly, I find that using the Internet within an hour before bed, even with F.lux installed, the brightness turned all the way down, and orange goggles on, still disrupts my sleep–it takes longer to fall asleep, I wake up more easily and more often, and feel more groggy when I get up.
I suspect that there is something uniquely stimulating, and thus sleep-disrupting, about using the Internet. The instant access to an endless supply of information, the surrogate social interaction, the visual and cognitive stimulation…all of this is highly discordant with the evolutionary environment, or even with the post-agricultural human environment prior to the 21st century.
My sleep is of the highest quality when I strictly avoid using the computer at all after sundown. Reading a book, meditating, or playing/listening to music in low light (preferably candlelight) seems to work the best for improving my sleep, mood, and everything else.
For what it’s worth, I’ve noticed the same effect Brendan. I guess it shows that there’s rarely one “fix” for anything – life and our bodies are too complex for that.
But of course everyone still looks for what “the” problem is!
I was wondering if you guys think regular blue-light blocking polarized sunglasses would be similarly effective as the Uvex brand – they block UV and blue it states, but also some percentage of the rest of the visible spectrum. Do you guys think normal sunglasses would block too much in a dark environment, such that a cheap blue-blocking only pair would be better for doing things at night?
Hi Chris – thanks so much for this article. I have had lots of trouble sleeping and so far the best remedies are limiting stress and not working after a certain point each night. The modern work life unfortunately seems to be a slow death by sitting and computer brain drain. I’ve tried f.lux but unfortunately it violates my work’s Internet security policy! I’m going to try the amber glasses because part of my daily de-stress routine involves TV episodes of Modern Family. A good laugh never hurt anyone.
I do have a question for you though – when I have the opportunity to expose myself to sunlight should I not wear sunglasses in order to maximize exposure? Or is the potential damage to my eyes not worth the risk?
I live in MN and during the winter I’ve avoided wearing sunglasses to maximize natural sunlight exposure unless it puts me at risk for a car accident. (Which is rare – seems the gray winter days are unending this year!)
Sarah,
Sunglasses won’t make a difference in terms of vitamin D production, because it’s light hitting skin that matters. You should abstain from sunglasses for the first 20min or so however because your body’s natural sunblock chemicals are light-activated from your eyes. Putting them on after 20min will mean max skin and eye protection and continued vit D creation. I believe i read this in the book ‘survival of the sickest’.
Thanks for the information! I’m more concerned about the melatonin production than vitamin d. Since the vitamin d production to your point is done through light hitting skin – I have to supplement or hit the electric beach in the winter since the only skin I ever have exposed in the winter here is my nose. I doubt that will do much to help produce vitamin d! My trip to FL in the next month will help. It’s my understanding the melatonin production is stimulated through the light exposure in the eyes. That is why I’m questioning if I should always avoid sunglasses in the winter months to maximize the light exposure. But maybe it doesn’t matter? It would be a trade-off with melatonin production and crows feet around my eyes from squinting. : )
I found some cheap orange glasses in the UK:
http://www.thesafetysupplycompany.co.uk/p/8487765/JSP—Stealth-Safety-Spectacle—Orange-Hard-Coated-Lens—ENF—JS-ASA–.html
I have ordered a pair and will try to remember to come back here to say if I would recommend them for this purpose.
These glasses arrived last week. They’re reasonably comfortable and do the job just fine.
By the way, UVEX also makes a cheap pair of wraparound low-blue glasses that fits over prescription frames:
http://amzn.com/B003OBZ64M
I just installed f.lux on my laptop. Now my screen is orangey. But I’m going to try it. I hate any light in the room. My husband says I am a vampire. He likes to have light. I usually go to be before him and I try to make the room very dark. When he was away for a week, I was in heaving with a completely dark room. Maybe I should get a sleeping mask.
I am so lucky that I sleep well, and always have, regardless of whether I use devices before bedtime or not.
My question is though, my room is never dark due to street lights outside shining in my window all night. Could this ambient street light be affecting my melatonin production during sleep, and should I do something about?
I guess in nature we would sleep in absolute darkness (except perhaps for fire light).
If this is the case (even though we’re not necessarily aware of it, and still sleep well) would an eye ‘patch’ such as you get on airplanes, or blackout curtains, be a good idea?
Fire light does not affect melatonin production since the color temperature of firelight is less than (i.e. warmer) than sunrise. Oil lamp, candle and fire light are all warm (low blue) light (~1800ºK). Sunrise starts at 2000ºK and quickly increases by the minute to higher (bluer) color temperatures. So, melatonin is affected by color temperature and intensity. Your eyelids are purposefully thin so that you don’t miss the blue light at sunrise when your eyes are closed.
If you close your eyelids and can notice a significant difference in the amount of light when either you cover your eyes or you don’t, then it probably is affecting your melatonin. But, if it’s only a slight difference, then it probably won’t make that much of a difference. But, generally speaking, it depends on the color temperature and intensity of the light entering the room.
And just to clarify, color temperature in degrees Kelvin increases as your light becomes more blue and decreases in degrees Kelvin as it becomes more amber. Fire light is very “warm” (low blue) so it has a lower color temperature. Sunlight is “cooler” (high blue) so it has a higher color temperature in degrees Kelvin. It’s confusing, and somewhat backwards.
To illustrate this, see this chart:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Incand-3500-5500-color-temp-comparison.png
The reason why electric lightbulbs suppress melatonin is because the “warmest” tungsten lightbulb you can get at Home Depot starts at 2,700ºK. Even a 60W bulb has too much blue light and is not low enough on the color temperature scale:
http://i-cdn.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/re-nest/4_14_2008-colortemp.png
A light bulb would need to be around 1,800ºK in order to replicate fire light — which does not suppress melatonin. And again, sunrise starts at 2,000ºK and quickly increases from there.
Lowbluelights.com sells lights that are very low color temperature and do not suppress melatonin — they are perfect for a nursery when mothers need to nurse and babies need to keep their melatonin flowing on a particular rhythm. It basically just simulates fire light. You know, the same light people have been using for millions of years up until electric lights were mass produced.
Incidentally, the only intense blue light that our ancestors were exposed to at night would have been a full moon. And it’s no wonder that full moons were always associated with mischief and weird behavior. Perhaps it was from everyone’s melatonin being disrupted!
Any suggestions for those of us that work the graveyard shift? I work a 12.5 hour day with a crazy to explain schedule basically 4.5 days one week and 3.5 days the next and due to kids schedules I switch back to a “normal” schedule on my days off.
There is an entire chapter dedicated to a graveyard shift protocol for using the low-blue glasses in the book, “Great Sleep! Reduced Cancer!: A Scientific Approach to Great Sleep and Reduced Cancer Risk,” by Richard L. Hansler (http://amzn.com/1419690388).
The book is very cheap (less than $5) and it will walk you through the steps of using the glasses at the right time to create a circadian rhythm. Well worth the price.
Thanks Dan – very interesting looking book. I’ve just grabbed a copy to read on my old (non-backlit) Kindle.
Hi Jenn,
It is important for you to know that in 2007, the World Health Organization degreed shift work as a probable carcinogen due to circadian disruption by artificial light at night disrupting their ability to produce melatonin.
I believe that all businesses and institutions who employ shift workers ought to notify their employees of the health risks, pay them more because of these risks, and educate their shift-worker employees how to minimize their risks and train their circadian to produce melatonin naturally. Not to do so, would be similar to hiring employees to work with asbestos without adequate warnings and training. btw, Belgium employers have already begun monetary compensation for their cancer victims when linked to shift-work.
Fascinating. As a midwife, I am faced with unpredictable sleep disturbances, without any rhyme or reason whatsoever. I just do the best I can. I wonder now if this had to do with my nurslings’ poor sleep. Perhaps since my melatonin levels were deranged, theirs were too.
Yes! I love F.lux! I have it on my computer, but had no idea I could install it on my iPhone and iPad. I’ve never tried the goggles, but that could be fun too. Thanks for the tips!
‘movie mode’ on my tv seems to lower the ‘blueness’.
Or… One can simply take 1mg of melatonin and be 100x ahead of the game. And not look like an imbecile wearing sunglasses indoors.
Think about it.
100x times ahead of the game? Oral melatonin dosing can be highly variable from one person to the next and the timing is crucial as taking it at the wrong time can reset the internal clock and promote insomnia when you want to sleep.
The glasses are just a return to pre-electric lighting as far as the body is concerned. Far safer and cheaper.
Is there any way to adjust the focus on the Uvex orange safety glasses? I can’t focus on things close, like my phone or a smaller font on the computer.
As long as you have a dimmer and your light isn’t LED, dimming it will make it more ‘orange’.
How about ski glasses, can you use those?
How about the light receptors on our skin?
Artifical light on skin after sundown messes with melatonin too. Is it best to cover up after sundown too? As well as the glasses??
Last night I gave myself 2 hours in a room with a lamp plugged into a dimmer, dimmed so it looked orange, and a tv on movie picutre mode (not dynamic or standard), and all other little led’s covered in socks. I found myself randomly looking away from the tv to rest my eyes. At the end of it, I felt like I had taken a strong sleeping pill.
Hi Chris, have you looked into the effect that sodium fluoride (which is in tap water amongst many other things) has on circadian rhythms and on the pineal gland/the production of melatonin? If so, I would be very interested to hear what you think about it.
Chris,
Just wanted to say thank you for the good information on the talk you gave with the Village Green Network yesterday. Very informative and helpful.
I’ve been using f.lux for about 2 years and it makes a humongous difference , especially if you work on your computer at night. There was one night I turned it off because my computer was running slow and I nearly was blinded at the light my computer was emitting! I just purchased the amber-lenses . I know they’ll be of great help.
What about red blocking glasses for day use to help establish circadian rhythm?
Special glasses wouldn’t really do much. Warm light doesn’t technically trigger melatonin production — in reality it just doesn’t block it from being produced. So, you can have a bonfire on a sunny beach, but the bonfire won’t make you sleepy because even a small amount of cool sunlight is all you need to prevent melatonin during the day. The temperature of daylight is already perfect as it is — at least from an evolutionary standpoint — so there’s not really any need to toy with the light from the sun.
http://i-cdn.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/re-nest/4_14_2008-colortemp.png
There are special lights that people can use to establish circadian rhythm. The lights have some risks to the eyes (i.e. UV damage) but they can be very beneficial in places where sunlight is difficult to obtain at different times of the year. But, for most people, simply getting some sunlight into your house early in the morning is all you need to establish circadian rhythm.
I bought this motion sensor night light at Walmart after reading Lights Out: Sugar, Sleep and Survival by Wiley several months ago. — http://www.amazon.com/GE-50723-Motion-Sensing-Auto-On-Nightlight/dp/B00032ATWO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365309047&sr=8-1&keywords=motion+sensor+night+light — The light is a dim white light, but my room remains dark until I wave my hand and the light goes on in the bathroom for me to take a bio-break. Wiley seems to have some controversy because of her interview with Lynn Sherr on ABC, but her book seemed to make sense. She said taking melatonin shrinks the pineal gland. I believe Robb Wolf recommended sleeping at a temperature no higher than 70 degrees. I like to use the sleep/eye mask that is contoured so the fabric doesn’t touch my eyes; it feels kind of spongey and I found them at TJ Max, but looks similar to this one on Amazon without the nose piece — (http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Essentials-Dreams-Contoured-Earplugs/dp/B000CCI4YU/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1365310129&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=eye+sleep+mask) — I also covered the light on my smoke alarm with several layers of blue paint tape (so it doesn’t get tacky) and I bought a spring rod shower curtain (inexpensive at Big Lots) to place black out curtains (from Bed, Bath and Beyond) in my window as I have a vertical window treatment outside the window opening. My TV has to be shut completely down at the surge protector because of the red sensor light and it is behind armoire doors. Additionally, I started wearing ear plugs so I can listen to my breathing to try to shut off my brain (mostly singing songs, not stressful stuff). Like J.W. Simpkins comment above, I am starting the epsom salt baths too (inexpensive at Big Lots). By the way, his suggestion on the cat suit gave me a belly laugh. Besides the sexy ones, there were some that looked like the men from the Big Bang Theory sitcom show would wear. With tv showing most of the shows on the computer including the news, I don’t have to put my tv on at night; I just watch them during the early evening or on the weekends.Thanx for the discussion and other book recommendations. I am ordering the Uvex goggles for not only me, but my children who are not sleeping well. My college child is overwhelmed with homework and stays on the computer until late.
In your article, the word “f.lux” was a link to this website
http://stereopsis.com/flux/ where you can download the program
for free. I wanted to check in first and make sure this is the legit
website for that download. Would you please provide some links
that you know are safe? Thank you.
I have f.lux on my computer – but the lowest setting 3400K – isn’t that still too high?? Wouldn’t around 2000K be better?? Is there a program out there which can go lower? Or would manually lowering the blue light on your monitor be the solution?
f.lux on the Mac can get down to 2300ºK. They call it “candle” setting, but in reality a candle is actually around 1800ºK. Anything below 2000ºK would be ideal — but f.lux cannot make your monitor that warm.
f.lux is really intended to mimic your ambient light, whatever that may be (halogen, tungsten, etc). The idea is to have your monitor mimic the effect of reading a book under your lights. Keep in mind that even if your monitor were 1800ºK and your lights were 3600ºK, your melatonin will still be suppressed by the 3600ºK lightbulbs.
In any case, lowbluelights.com sells plastic monitor filters that will filter out all blue wavelengths. You just press them down on top of your iPad, iPhone or computer monitor. They even sell them for your TV.
However, in my opinion, nothing beats the glasses — since they filter out all blue light for you.
Thanks Dan! Nice that it can go down to 2300K on the Mac.. That would be ok I guess.. And then no lightbulbs… Does anybody know another program that can go that low on a PC?
I have a pair of glasses but they are just too annoying for me. So I would rather make my surrounding light dimmed. On my monitor I can go into the settings and adjust red/green/blue – I guess I could just turn the blue all the way down??
Audrey is correct. There is really nothing you can do to any monitor to get it below 2000ºK. Keep in mind that the morning is sunrise is around 2000ºK, so you really need to be warmer than 2000ºK to encourage melatonin production
If you think about it, we evolved to wake at sunrise (i.e. when light becomes cooler than 2000ºK) — which causes our bodies to suppress melatonin and increase cortisol as part of our circadian rhythm. So, sitting in a dark room with a 2300ºK monitor won’t do you very much good in the long run — it would be like trying to get ready for sleep while staring at an early morning/dawn sun. It’s certainly better than sitting in a room with 3600ºK lamps, but your melatonin will still be suppressed.
If you don’t like the glasses, your best bet are the low-blue monitor filters from lowbluelights.com. Not much more you can do beyond that.
Hi Nik, There is nothing you can do at night via computer settings or software that will eliminate enough of the blue wavelengths emitted from your computer monitor and still allow the user a maximum natural melatonin production. Using a filter over your screen (assuming an especially dark room) or wearing the glasses that filter out all the blue are the best options other than NOT using the computer at night. Personally, I am trying my best to reduce computer use at night, and starting my day earlier. In the morning, the blue light emitted from the computer is actually an advantage, and helps wake me up!
Thanks Dan & Audrey
I think I will give the screen filter a try! I am curious to test this for a period of time – I have always wondered why I have problems falling asleep and often wake up feeling beat up – I eat pretty healthy, exercise, meditate and have very little daily stress – so I’m thinking maybe this will have an effect – and if it doesn’t I guess tried most anyway:)
Low-blue lighting/filters are a great start for encouraging melatonin production and stopping evening cortisol. And you may notice that playing with low-blue lighting alone is all you need to reset your body.
However, if you find that low-blue lighting isn’t enough to get your evening cortisol down you should consider trying HeartMath® (specifically their “Heart Lock” technique with any of their heart monitoring devices) while listening to relaxing music right before bed. After a few weeks of that pre-bedtime routine, your evening cortisol should normalize, if you are generally healthy. I believe Kresser recommends the “Rest Assured” sleep CDs — which is another natural approach to reducing evening cortisol. Good luck!
When I feel sleepy, I get ready for bed (turn of lights, clean teeth etc). By the time I’m in bed I’m wide awake – very alert. I then can’t sleep for hours, and my room is very dark. Even if I keep the yellow tinted glasses on the whole time, it makes no difference. I wondered weather the walking around getting ready for bed, maybe even using the noisy electric touchbrush, is giving off other hormones telling me to wake up… As an experiment, one night I just went straight to bed without “getting ready for bed”, not even changing my clothes, and I found that I fell asleep really quickly. Maybe light is just one part of the puzzle…
I know I’m very sensitive to light – I get headaches & sore eyes if I sit in artificial light in the daytime, & I’ve gone to some trouble to make sure I get natural daylight or blue light… I’ve been aware of the desirability of darkness at night for sleep, & have used f.lux on my computer for some time now, as well as using only a flashlight if I get up in the night. But I didn’t know about the amber goggles -I’ll definitely check them out. Maybe it will help me sleep through the night properly.
Check out this great book by T. S. Wiley “Lights Out” she goes into great depth about the importance of sleep, and the how and why lack of sleep (especially in complete darkness) can be detrimental to your health.
Hi Teresa,
Look at my comment above. I mentioned the same book. Quite the ‘lifestyle’ change!
Hi!,
I have what you call Insomnia quite frequently and so I ‘ve discovered that Polaroid Sunglasses are ideal for my sleep at night. I’m not sayimg this will work for everyone but, It’s a real good way of limiting the light in your bedroom at night. Put your sunglasses on 1 hour before going to bed.
Thanks for reading about my idea, hope this helps.
I started wearing blue blocking glasses a few months ago and it did the trick for my insomnia. I immediately had trouble sleeping after installing energy saving LED lights around the house. The blue blocks made all the difference. At first I used a pair of darkened blue block sunglasses I happened to already have. I’ve since bought the pair Chris recommends on Amazon and they’re great. …A very economical solution to my sleepless nights.
I do a lot of late night design work on the computer and find that ever since I used f.lux I definitely sleep better. I need my room to be dark when I sleep so I dimmed and blacked out my cable box and router lights with Dimmys which work wonderfully.
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