Junk Light

Ever lay in your bed at night, so tired from the day but you want just a few minutes to "unwind". You grab your phone and scroll through Instagram, or just want to watch a few minutes of TV before drifting off. The next thing you know it's been an hour and you lost the sweet spot of sleepiness you had before you picked up the phone or turned on the TV. Junk light or blue light could be a contributor to why you aren't able to get to sleep and stay that way.

Blue light is not always a bad thing. You actually need some blue light. It helps you stay alert during the day and can treat jaundice in babies. Sunlight contains blue light as well as artificial lights like LEDs, computer, phone, TV screens and overhead lights in buildings. The problem now is the newer lights contain way more blue light than red or infrared light resulting in "junk light" that we aren't designed to handle.

A few hours before you typically go to bed your body releases melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that is used to help regulate your Circadian rhythms and sleep. Blue light blocks the release of melatonin and thus results in you not being sleepy when you should. It literally tricks your body into thinking it needs to be awake.

There are several ways you can help prevent this over exposure to blue light.

1- Stop using and watching anything with a screen several hours before bed.

2- Switch to "night mode" on your apple products. It makes the light from the screen warmer/ oranger.

3- Switch to red lights.

4-Wear blue light blocking glasses. The glasses I'm wearing in the photo are True Dark glasses. Dave Aspery, a renowned biohacker, wears these all the time to block out his exposure to "junk light". I wear them a couple of hours before I go to bed. You can literally feel your eyes and brain relax when you wear them. It's so weird and since I've been wearing them I can fall asleep much faster than before.

5- Go outside and be exposed to the sun without sunglasses on for 15-20 minutes a day to reset and dilute the artificial blue light exposures with more red and infrared light.

Give these a try and see how it impacts your sleep. My TrueDark glasses were about $60 and I got them for the whole family from the True Dark website and you can get more info from Dave Asprey here. There are other versions you can find on amazon too. You may look a little weird at night, but who cares when you sleep like a baby.