Blue Light and its effects on Sleep

It's 2am, and you have just completed all your work for the day. Your body aches for the feeling of sinking into your soft comforter. With this thought in mind, you finally put away your laptop and climb into bed, hoping to savour the last few hours before daybreak in slumber. You close your eyes and wait for the weariness to overcome you… but no matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to drift off to sleep.

You are not alone! One in seven adults report having long-term insomnia - and this number has been projected to increase, result of the pervasiveness of technology creeping into every nook and cranny of our lives. From emails and work documents to social and lifestyle media, technology is unavoidable - which means we can almost never escape the blue light that our phones and laptops emit.

Studies have shown that blue light contributes to sleeplessness in two ways:

1. Exposure to blue light suppresses our production of melatonin, also known as the sleep hormone. We are naturally wired to react to sunlight, and because the blue light from our devices simulates sunlight, our bodies are tricked into producing less melatonin.

2. The second way in which blue light interferes with our sleep is the disruption of our circadian rhythm, which dictates our bodily schedules, inclusive of our sleep cycles. When our bodies produce less melatonin at night, our circadian rhythm is disrupted. Our eating cycles, sleeping cycles, and hormone production cycles that keep our body functioning… all of them get disrupted too because of our messed-up circadian rhythm! As a result, we are unable to sleep when night falls, and end up feeling tired at odd timings during the day despite having shut-eye the night before.

So, how exactly can we counter this?

Avoiding blue light before bed is best, but most times, the hectic nature of our life doesn’t allow us to log off from our devices until bedtime. To make things worse, we continue to worry about everything under the sun, from bills to undone work, right till the moment our heads hit the pillow. How then can we quell our worries?

Well, since we’re always told to talk out our problems, why not write them down? Go to sleep with a clear mind after penning your thoughts down in a sleep journal, so that you can look forward to a fresh new day the next morning. Some things we can pen down include a checklist of goals to achieve, reminders to ensure that bills are paid on time, any thoughts weighing down your heart…… the list goes on! Sleep journals can help you to keep your life in check. All you need is a pen and you’re set!

Click here: To shop for our Sleep Journals!

Sweet Dreams!