Two weeks of sleep trouble forced me to use my silver bullet sleep tactic. Nothing causes a slumber so deep and peaceful quite like watching Ancient Aliens. I’m not lying either. I even mentioned it among previous sleep tips. There. I said it twice now. Watching TV helps me sleep sometimes. If violating one of [...]
Two weeks of sleep trouble forced me to use my silver bullet sleep tactic. Nothing causes a slumber so deep and peaceful quite like watching Ancient Aliens. I’m not lying either. I even mentioned it among previous sleep tips. There. I said it twice now. Watching TV helps me sleep sometimes.
If violating one of the most common sleep sins in watching TV wasn’t enough, I committed adultery a few nights ago. I fell asleep with the lights on.
Is it blasphemy? Or is it a simple tip you can implement tonight that will get you sleeping faster than ever?
Why keeping the lights on is bad
Improving sleep habits through television and lights. Am I going cuckoo? Maybe. To set the record straight, I only recommend watching TV if you’re checking out something that actually makes you tired. Diving into a suspense thriller isn’t the prescription; something that helps you turn your brain off is.
But what’s the deal with the lights?
Put on your paleo goggles for a moment. Charlie the caveman didn’t have electricity, you know. He evolved with the natural rise and fall of the sun, and our body is actually quite receptive of this. Mr. Melatonin, one of the chief hormone dudes responsible for helping us sleep, is actually inhibited by light. When the sun goes down, Charlie’s body is already preparing itself for a restful sleep.
But us? With light bulbs? Computers? eReaders? iWhatevers?
We’re drowning in light up until the moment we close our eyes to sleep. Melatonin doesn’t like this very much, which is why lots of people struggle with sleep. And this is also why most people that struggle with sleep are told to keep the room as dark and cave-like as possible.
So what’s the deal with keeping the lights on?
A light primer on lights (pun intended)
I’m not sure anyone asked god to specify the kind of light he let be, but someone should have because not all light is created equal. The light we typically associate with bulbs, computers, and things that illuminate dark rooms is white or blue light. I’m not quite sure I understand the difference between the two, but that’s less important than knowing that this kind of light is responsible for bottling up melatonin.
Thankfully, there is a different kind of light that we can use to help us see in the dark that won’t completely whack out our sleep chances. When I fell asleep with the light on, it was a red bulb doing the shining.
Red or amber light doesn’t appear to wreck melatonin and sleep as much as blue or white light. If you want to throw your paleo goggles back on, I’m sure you can find some way to sneak in some reference to wood burning red and Charlie undoubtedly having some of that around to keep warm at night. But since we aren’t Charlie, we have to be a bit more creative in red light pursuits.
Easy and effective red light changes
The first red light change you should make is downloading f.lux on your computer. Apparently, you can even download this on an iPad or iPhone if they are jailbroken. There are some Android apps out there that do the same thing, I believe. Casual Google search hits with an app called Twilight.
F.lux is totally free and changes the color of your computer screen emit a light more on par with the sun at specific times of the day (although you can adjust it to whatever you want whenever you want). So at night, it’s less white-blue and more red-amber.
The second red light change you should make is bedside if you read to help you sleep. Get a little night stand, a little lamp, and use a red bulb. The red bulb won’t be crazy luminous, so you have to have the book close(er) to the light, hence the nightstand.
It might even help to throw in some red bulb lamps anywhere that you might travel at the night time or the middle of the night. Beats getting hit by an immediate artificial sunrise effect at 3AM. If you want your pee to have a sweet amber glow, check out the LavNav. Never used it myself, but just letting you know that it’s out there if you happen to be a frequent mover in the middle of the night.
Should you be using red lights?
Crazily enough, there are some athlete that even use red light therapy. Not saying you should bask under a red light, but if you’re like me and have trouble sleeping at times, consider going red. You can find a red light bulb for like $2. It’s worth the experiment.
Don’t underestimate sleep. Perhaps George Carlin put it best:
So, next time you see someone sleeping, make believe you're in a science fiction movie. And whisper, ‘The creature is regenerating itself.”
If you’re training hard and breaking your body down, you are a creature that’s regenerating. Take sleep seriously, and make some changes if you struggle. You’ll never know if that injury six months from now could have been caused by a lack of quality recovery from a lack of quality sleep.