Why Light Matters
How light controls your health
Humans are essentially solar powered creatures, so it's vital that you understand the way that different types of light, such as natural daytime sunlight and artificial nighttime light, affects your health.
It all comes down to how light impacts your circadian rhythm.
Your body's 24-hour biological clock, or circadian rhythm, is a system built-in deep within your brain that affects every aspect of your mind and body.
Your circadian rhythm influences hunger, digestion, energy metabolism, fat storage, alertness, body temperature, mood, all major hormones and neurotransmitters, and, most crucially, your sleep.
This 24-hour rhythm is the hidden system running your personal health show in the background of your life, yet hardly anybody is talking about this in convention healthcare.
Light is the chief factor controlling your circadian rhythm, and because of this, the way you interact with light affects EVERY area of your health, including your energy, mood, libido, metabolism, digestion, immunity, body weight, exercise recovery, sleep and more...
You NEED to understand how light impacts your circadian rhythm in order to be healthy, and, more importantly, you NEED to apply this understanding to interact with light in the correct way if you want to live a long and happy life.
Why your body needs natural morning light
Every single day for millions of years, our ancestors' circadian rhythms were controlled by exposure to natural light from the morning sun.
When your skin and eyes come into contact with natural morning light, this sends a signal to your brain and all of your corresponding organs and glands to increase energy, alertness and vitality.
Daytime sunlight contains an abundance of blue and green light frequencies that have a stimulating and energising effect on your brain.
Exposure to blue and green light vital throughout the day in order to set your circadian rhythm and help your body to produce chemicals such as serotonin (your happiness neurotransmitter), dopamine (your motivational neurotransmitter) and endorphins (natural feel-good brain chemicals) which boost your mood, energy, attention, focus and prepare you for high quality sleep the following evening.
Without exposure to blue and green wavelengths of light in the morning and throughout the day, all areas of your health will suffer.
Put simply, the message that natural morning lights sends to your brain is "wake up, it's daytime!"
Exposing yourself to at least 15 minutes of natural light in the early morning is crucial for a healthy circadian rhythm and high quality sleep.
But this is only half of the story...
Why you need darkness to be healthy
In nature, daylight is only half of the recipe for a healthy circadian rhythm and high quality sleep - the other half is darkness.
Darkness is the key signal in your evening environment that directs your brain to wind down and produce large amounts of your key sleep hormone melatonin.
Melatonin is the hormone that creates the condition for your body to experience high-quality sleep, and because of this, it also affects the function of virtually all of the other hormones and neurotransmitters in your body.
Your ability to produce high amounts of melatonin directly impacts every area of health including your weight, mood, appetite, digestion, metabolism, immune system, muscle growth, libido, sleep and much more...
It can't be emphasised enough how important it is that your body is able to produce as much melatonin as possible at nighttime if you want to be a healthy and happy human being.
The amount of melatonin that you're able to produce is directly proportional to the quality of your sleep, your mood and your overall health.
More darkness after sunset = more melatonin = a longer and happier life
Now... it's crucial you understand that once the sun sets outside, all forms of natural blue and green light (that were given off in high amounts by daytime sunlight) disappear from view until the sun rises the next day.
Blue light, and to a lesser extent green light, stimulate your brain and prevent it from calming down, producing melatonin and preparing for sleep.
This makes perfect sense, because you want to be energised during the daytime when the sun is full of blue and green light, and you wouldn't want to be producing melatonin and falling asleep... which is why these types of light begin to disappear in the hours leading up to sunset.
For millions of years, the only types of light that we were able to access after sunset were red, orange and yellow frequencies (the colours of fire).
These are much less energetic wavelengths of light that have a far smaller impact on our circadian rhythm and melatonin production.
The problem is we aren't living outdoors under nature's laws anymore. We're now in control of the types light that we're exposed to in our environment at night.
Why you need to block artificial blue light at night
Artificial light given off by modern LED bulbs, mobile phones, tablets, computers, laptops and other devices contain high amounts of blue and green light.
When you're exposed to any of these forms of man-made light in the evening or nighttime, it signals to your brain that it's still daytime.
This means that your brain stops secreting melatonin, your key sleep and anti-aging molecule, which prevents you from winding down and achieving deep and regenerative sleep.
You might still be able to fall asleep, but producing less melatonin means that you won't fall asleep as quickly and easily as you could, and you won't achieve the deep and restorative sleep you deserve.
Research shows that poor sleep quality is directly linked to weight gain, anxiety, depression, diabetes, neurodegenerative disease and most other health concerns.
The most common cause of poor sleep in our modern society is exposure to artificial blue and green light at night, which disrupts your body's circadian rhythm and destroys your brain's ability to the melatonin needed for high quality sleep.
Thankfully, not all light frequencies damage our sleep and circadian rhythm.
Red, orange and yellow light frequencies from candles and firelight are nighttime friendly, which means we can use these frequencies just like our ancestors did for millions of years to provide light in our evening.
Rather than live outdoors in caves and relying on firelight, we can use blue light blocking technology on our devices and blue light free bulbs.
But there's still one major problem.
We can't control most of the lighting in the world around us, so the most effective way to protect our melatonin, sleep and health from artificial light is to use blue light blocking glasses.
These glasses are scientifically proven to provide direct protection by stopping all sources of artificial light from reaching our eyes.
Daytime vs Nighttime Blue Light Blocking Glasses
Differing lenses are recommended for protecting your eyes from artificial light during in the daytime and the nighttime.
Our Night Lenses block all blue and the majority of green light frequencies. These are the most energising parts of modern lighting and they have the biggest impact on our melatonin, sleep timing and sleep quality. Considering that 90% of us admit to using technology that contains artificial light in the hours before bed, our night time lenses are the perfect tool for helping to achieve deeper and more restorative sleep so that you can thrive in the digital age. Wearing our night time lenses between sunset and the time that you go to sleep will protect your melatonin production, strengthen your circadian rhythm and live a happier and healthier existence.
When you wear our night time lenses you can expect to:
- Fall asleep quicker
- Sleep deeper
- Wake up feeling more refreshed
Our Day Lenses are the most effective solution for protecting your brain and eyes from excessive exposure to blue light from modern lighting and screen devices that damage your eyes and brain during daytime. They block the most damaging types of blue light whilst still allowing enough exposure to keep your circadian rhythm functioning well. By wearing our day lenses any time that you are exposed to artificial lighting (whilst at work, in school or at the office) you can protect yourself from the impact of harmful blue light.
Wearing a pair of our day lenses will aid with:
- Reducing eye strain and dry eyes
- Eliminating headaches and migraines
- Preventing mental and physical fatigue
- Keeping your brain alert, focused and productive
- Improving your sleep quality (although not as much as our night lenses)
Summary
Here are the key points you need to understand...
- Light is the master of your circadian rhythm and therefore the master of your sleep.
- Your circadian rhythm impacts almost every system of your body, therefore, exposure to the correct light frequencies during the daytime and evening is crucial for health and happiness.
- The sun provides natural blue and green light that helps to wake you up and ensure your circadian rhythm functions well.
- Sunset and the darkness that follows provides the signal that helps your brain and body to wind down and produce melatonin so that you can achieve high quality sleep.
- Exposure to artificial blue and green light frequencies after sunset tricks your body, disrupting your circadian rhythm and reducing your body's ability to produce melatonin.
- Using artificial light blocking technology (such as our blue light blocking glasses) will protect your circadian rhythm and sleep so that you can live a happy and healthy life!
Visit our store to learn more about our artificial light blocking technology