Sunlight, Artificial Blue Light, Sleep, and Health

It’s been a beautiful day here in Michigan, and my wife, son, and I took some time away from our daily responsibilities this afternoon to get outdoors to watch the solar eclipse.

We had some clouds blowing over but with plenty of clear skies in between to be able to see the eclipse (with our protective eyewear, of course). It wasn’t a total eclipse in our location because we’re a bit too far north, but the sun was just a thin crescent at the peak of it. We homeschool, so I consider this activity today’s science class!

Watching the eclipse got me thinking about the importance of sunlight and how the artificial lighting of our indoor environments along with regular exposure to computer monitors and phone screens negatively affects our health.

We all know that being outdoors and enjoying the sunshine is good for our health and happiness, and how we need sufficient sunlight to maintain sufficiency of vitamin D, but another aspect of light I’ve been learning more about is the importance of infrared light.

We evolved to be exposed to sunlight during our waking hours. The infrared light we get from the sun is important for our circadian rhythm. The cycle of sunrise and sunset regulates melatonin production, helping us to get a good night of rest and recovery. Apart from the benefit of waking up feeling refreshed and focused, capable of high productivity, a sufficient amount of high quality sleep is important for healing and regeneration.

So, our lighting environment can have a pretty big impact on our health and wellbeing. Unfortunately, our modern lifestyles are not very conducive to getting the natural sunlight we need. Spending so much of our time indoors, where we are exposed to an artificial lighting environment, especially after the sun goes down, can be detrimental.

Spending so much time looking at a computer monitor or a cell phone screen is also not good. Monitors do not emit the full spectrum of light, and the amount of blue light we are exposed to from our screens can have negative health effects. Additionally, computer monitors flicker, and although we may not perceive it, this can also strain the eyes and potentially harm our vision.

Incandescent lightbulbs emit a fuller spectrum of light than LED bulbs, but because of shortsighted government interference in every aspect of our lives, incandescent bulbs have been effectively banned in the US. So, we are being pretty much forced into using LED bulbs without a thought for the potential health harms resulting from being exposed all the time to such a narrow spectrum of light largely in the blue range.

Being exposed to blue light in the evening and at night before bed upsets our natural sleep cycle, keeping us awake or affecting sleep quality so that we might feel sluggish throughout the following day as well as denying us the regenerative powers of sleep that help us to stay healthy and prolong our life spans.

We have taken a number of steps in our household to mitigate the detrimental effects of being exposed to artificial light sources like LED bulbs, computer monitors, and cell phone screens.

Of course, the ideal situation would be one where we get outdoors plenty to soak up the sun’s rays, and screen time would be strictly limited. But this is hardly practical for so many of us struggling to make a living in our so-called “modern” society.

If you can work a little time outdoors in the morning and evening to soak in infrared light, great!

Sticking to incandescent bulbs indoors, if you can still get them, might also be a wise choice.

Fire also emits infrared light, and since the home we’re currently living in has no fireplace, we consider this an extra benefit of lighting candles (in addition to the calming and warm atmosphere they help to create at night when we dim or shut off the lights in the hours before bedtime). My wife has taken to making her own candles out of beeswax, coconut oil, and essential oils.

In our household, we have taken several steps to mitigate detrimental effects of artificial lighting. I use software on my computer and phone to automatically filter different levels of blue light depending on time of day. We’ve also installed amber light bulbs in key areas of the house where we do not want the excessive blue light exposure in the evenings and nighttime. Additionally, we use blue light blocking glasses.

The app we use on our Android phones to filter blue light is called Twilight. (It doesn’t appear to be available for iPhones, but there is probably something similar in the Apple store.) All our computers have the built-in feature to control blue light (which has been a feature of the Windows operating system for a while now), but because I spend so much of my day at my computer for work, I purchased special software that provides more powerful capabilities.

Iris is computer software that helps to mitigate these problems by enabling you to control the filtration of blue light to avoid upsetting your sleep cycle and to control monitor brightness without the flicker. You can select from preset modes or program your own custom modes, and you can also set it up to automatically transition between daytime and nighttime modes.

The Iris website has helpful educational articles where you can learn more about the importance of light for our health and wellbeing, and how too little time outdoors and too much on electronic devices is detrimental. There is a 7-day free trial for the software so you can test it out for yourself before making a purchase decision. There is a monthly subscription plan, a one-time payment without future updates, and a one-time payment including all future updates.

Iris – Blue Light Filter and Eye Protection Software

We have also installed amber lightbulbs that block blue light in key areas of our home where we spend time in the evenings and night. Here are two lightbulb products we are using and are happy with:

LOHAS 3 Way Amber LED Light Bulbs (Blue Light Blocking)

Neporal Amber Light Bulbs (Blue Light Blocking)

We also use blue-light blocking eyewear. My wife usually doesn’t wear glasses, and our son has perfectly healthy vision, so they each have a pair of the framed glasses below, while I have a clip-on pair since I wear my prescription lenses all the time. (You can get blue-blocking glasses with corrective lenses, but since my normal glasses are such high quality, I just opted for the clip-on option without correction.)

Orange Blue Light Blocking Glasses

Clip-on Blue Blocking Eye Wear

Another product we have been considering but have not yet purchased is a red light therapy panel. Again, ideally, we would just get outdoors and get natural lighting at opportune moments throughout the day, including sunrise and sunset, but this is not always practical given our schedules (and would be even less practical during our winter months here).

There are really large and expensive panels out there, but we are looking for something kind of small that’s easier to store out of the way when not in use and doesn’t cost too much. So, having looked into options, I would probably get something like this one, which appears to be a good balance between quality and cost:

Hooga PRO300 Red Light Therapy Panel

Here’s to your health! And since I can’t help but be reminded of it after having watched today’s solar (and lunar) event, I’ll leave you with a song lyric:

And everything under the sun is in tune

But the sun is eclipsed by the moon

Name that tune in the comments! And feel free to share your own ideas about how to get the most benefits from sunlight while mitigating harms from living in artificially lit environments with routine exposure also to computer and phone screens.