Why Blue Light at Night Is Wrecking Your Sleep
Other than a cup of coffee right before bed, few things are more disruptive to sleep than bright blue or white light in the evening. It can affect your body in several ways, and over time, that disruption may contribute to the aging process.
Blue light is everywhere. We get normal amounts from the sun during the day, but we also get large, unbalanced doses from light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, used in energy-efficient bulbs and the screens on TVs, computers, tablets, and smartphones.
Blue light has a short wavelength, which means it produces more energy than longer-wavelength light frequencies, such as red light. Most people have heard at least some version of this by now, but many still underestimate how much of a problem it can become when the goal is better sleep, better metabolism, and better long-term health.
The data is convincing, and reducing the impact of blue light is easier than most people think.
Blue light is not all bad. Exposure to blue light during the day helps wake you up, makes you more alert, and can even improve mood. White-light and blue-light emitting goggles and panels are used to help treat issues such as seasonal affective disorder, jet lag, and premenstrual syndrome.¹
The problem is timing and dose.
Newer artificial lights, such as LEDs and compact fluorescent light bulbs, do not contain most of the infrared, violet, and red light found in sunlight. Instead, they increase the intensity of blue light to a level that our eyes, brains, and bodies have not evolved to handle, especially after dark.
This is sometimes called “junk light” because, in this view, it can be unhealthy and aging in a way that resembles the effect of junk food. You are exposed to junk light throughout the day and often late into the night, especially when you are on your phone, working at your computer, or watching TV. All of that blue light exposure can interfere with sleep.²
Blue light shifts your circadian rhythm in part by suppressing melatonin, the hormone that helps tell your brain when it is time to sleep. When blue light is present at night, it can trick the body into acting as if it is still daytime.
Normally, the pineal gland, a pea-sized gland in the brain, begins releasing melatonin a couple of hours before bed. But blue light can interfere with this process by stimulating a type of light sensor in the retina called intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, or ipRGCs.
These sensors send light information to the circadian clock, helping the body determine when it is time to sleep and wake. This system uses more than melatonin alone, but melatonin is one of the major signals affected by evening light exposure.³
When those light sensors are stimulated by blue light at night, falling asleep becomes harder.
A 2014 study found that people who read from a light-emitting device before bed took longer to fall asleep, slept less deeply, and were more alert than people who read a printed book.⁴ This is one of the clearest practical examples of why screen use before bed can become a problem.
The issue is not only sleep timing. The amount of blue light you are exposed to at night has also been connected to faster aging processes.
The mitochondria in your eyes have to produce more energy than normal to process blue light. When the mitochondria in the eyes are overtaxed, the rest of the body’s mitochondria may be affected as well. This can contribute to metabolic stress and inflammation throughout the body, increasing the risk of premature decline in health.
Blue light at night can also affect glucose regulation.
One study found that adults exposed to blue light while eating in the evening had higher glucose levels, slower metabolisms, and more insulin resistance compared with adults who ate in dim light.⁵ In simple terms, the wrong light at the wrong time may make it harder for the body to regulate blood sugar properly.
That is why evening lighting matters. Using old-school low-watt incandescent bulbs or a dimmer switch to keep light intensity down is a simple way to reduce nighttime light stress. It is also much cheaper than dealing with metabolic disease later.
Artificial light at night may also be connected to cancer risk. People exposed to higher levels of outdoor blue light at night have been found to have a higher risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer compared with people who had less exposure.⁶ Other studies have found that a disrupted circadian clock can increase cancer risk by affecting the body’s response to DNA damage.⁷
Blue light exposure has also been linked to obesity and metabolic disorders, both of which are major risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
The eyes may be especially vulnerable. Blue light can contribute to macular degeneration, which involves damage to the retina and can lead to vision loss.⁸ More than 11 million people over the age of sixty have some form of macular degeneration, making this a significant issue.⁹
The practical takeaway is not that blue light is evil. The sun contains blue light, and blue light during the day can be helpful. The problem is excess blue light at night, especially from screens and artificial lighting that does not match the natural light-dark cycle the body expects.
The body was designed to experience bright natural light during the day and darkness at night. Modern life has reversed much of that pattern. We spend too much of the day indoors under artificial light and too much of the evening staring into bright screens.
Reducing blue light at night does not require a complicated protocol. Start by dimming the lights in the evening. Use warmer, lower-intensity bulbs when possible. Avoid bright overhead lighting late at night. Reduce screen time before bed, or at least use blue-light blocking settings or glasses. Keep your bedroom dark. Treat darkness as part of the sleep environment, not an afterthought.
If sleep matters, light matters.
And if your goal is better energy, better metabolism, better recovery, and better long-term health, then reducing excess blue light at night is one of the simplest places to start.
References
Strong, Robert E., et al. “Narrow-Band Blue-Light Treatment of Seasonal Affective Disorder in Adults and the Influence of Additional Nonseasonal Symptoms.” Depression and Anxiety 26, no. 3, 2009, 273-278. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20538
Tosini, Gianluca, Ian Ferguson, and Kazuo Tsubota. “Effects of Blue Light on the Circadian System and Eye Physiology.” Molecular Vision 22, January 24, 2016, 61-72. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26900325
Chang, Anne-Marie, et al. “Evening Use of Light-Emitting eReaders Negatively Affects Sleep, Circadian Timing, and Next-Morning Alertness.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 112, no. 4, January 27, 2015, 1232-1237. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1418490112
Tosini, Ferguson, and Tsubota. “Effects of Blue Light on the Circadian System and Eye Physiology.”
Chang, Anne-Marie, et al. “Evening Use of Light-Emitting eReaders Negatively Affects Sleep, Circadian Timing, and Next-Morning Alertness.”
Spiegel, Karine, et al. “Effects of Poor and Short Sleep on Glucose Metabolism and Obesity Risk.” Nature Reviews Endocrinology 5, no. 5, 2009, 253-261. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2009.23
Garcia-Saenz, Ariadna, et al. “Evaluating the Association Between Artificial Light-at-Night Exposure and Breast and Prostate Cancer Risk in Spain: MCC-Spain Study.” Environmental Health Perspectives 126, no. 4, April 23, 2018, 047011. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1837
Sancar, Aziz, et al. “Circadian Clock Control of the Cellular Response to DNA Damage.” FEBS Letters 584, no. 12, June 18, 2010, 2618-2625. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.febslet.2010.03.017
Tosini, Ferguson, and Tsubota. “Effects of Blue Light on the Circadian System and Eye Physiology.”
BrightFocus Foundation. “Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Facts and Figures.” Last modified January 5, 2016. https://www.brightfocus.org/macular/article/age-related-macular-facts-figures