How Light Works For Sleep

How does light work for sleep? Light has a strong influence over the timing of your circadian rhythm. Light triggers the shut down of melatonin in your brain. So we can use this to our advantage when trying to regulate sleep problems or reset your body clock.

Exposure to bright light is most effective for people who develop a circadian-rhythm disturbance like Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder or Advanced Sleep Phase Disorder. But light therapy can also be helpful for restoring normal sleeping patterns to people with jet lag and shift work sleep disorder. Sunlight is the best type of light to trigger a resetting of your internal clock, but sunlight is not always available for the purposes of treatment. Fortunately, there are commercially produced light boxes available for this purpose. These boxes are designed to mimic the wavelength of the sunlight without the harmful ultraviolet effects.

Similarly, there are commercially available light-blocking glasses that work the opposite of the light box. Remember, light wakes you up and the dark makes you sleepy. The glasses block the light that triggers wakefulness. These are helpful for shift workers who need to sleep during the day or people who can’t fall asleep in the early evening due to a disturbance of their body clock.

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Видео How Light Works For Sleep канала Dr. Tracey Marks