Health

Red Light therapy: Helps or Disturbs Your Sleep Cycle?

The effect of lights on our sleep cycle is well known to almost all of us. Bright light and blue light can create certain obstacles in our sleep cycle and provide us with troubled sleep. However, there are almost limitless solutions to grab sleep with certain side effects and the possibility of health hazards. Amazingly, the spectrum of red light has proved to be helpful in restoring the sleep cycle and providing you with better sleep. Today, we are going to talk about the benefits red light can provide you with your sleep condition. Stay tuned to get the whole picture.

Red Light and Sleep

Many researchers have done significant research on the effect of red light on our bodies and minds. At last, they concluded that red light produces melatonin in our bodies. When the body comes in contact with melatonin, it soothes our mind and body. As a result, our bodies get relief from stress and anxiety. The darker the environment you are exposed to, the more melatonin is produced in your body. As a result, the natural clock in the body gets triggered, and the sleep quality of the person increases. A 2019 research concluded that using a combination of red and ambient white light administered in the afternoon has improved the circadian rhythm of the persons and helped them gain more alertness. This study was pretty helpful as most people tend to lose concentration and have a dip in energy after lunch. The promising results are now required to explore more, but there is evidence that red light therapy is highly beneficial for mental health.

Red light, Sleep Inertia, and Night Vision

The feeling you get after waking up from sleep is referred to as sleep inertia. It is highly associated with a person’s short time memory. Red light is proven to help ease sleep inertia upon waking when it doesn’t suppress the melatonin level of a person. As for night vision, the glare of white light during the night can create a certain difficulty in the vision of a person. At the same time, red light doesn’t possess any glaring features and makes it easy to see even in the deepest of fog. This is mainly the reason to use red light in signaling, and astronauts carry red flashlights.

What Color Should Light be Avoided at Night?

Any kind of light can create a disturbance in your biological clock when it’s bright enough or directly shines upon your face. However, some colors of lights may cause more harm than others. For example, blue light can be pretty beneficial for you during day time. It provides you with a certain energy and makes you more alert about your surroundings. However, the blue light wavelengths can stop your brain from producing melatonin. As a result, it will make it harder to fall asleep or stay asleep.  So, if you have problems sleeping, sources that emit blue light like your phone screen, laptops keep them away.

When your circadian rhythm is off, the equilibrium of the bodily state affects severely. It not only provides you with bad quality sleep but also can induce many long-lasting physical health conditions.

Red Light Therapy

Red light therapy is a recent method of therapy that can emit 10,000 lux of light through a lightbox. This lightbox contains a number of red lights depending on the dimension of the box. Rather than tainted red light, here, red LED lights are used to get the exact wavelength of the light. Depending on the needs of the person, one needs to expose himself to this light for a certain time to gain the benefits. If a person has trouble falling asleep, he is required to use the device early in the morning. That way, the body is tricked into believing that it has received the natural light, and the circadian rhythm is restored accordingly. On the other hand, if the person has trouble keeping asleep, it is advised to get light therapy during the afternoon, and it works to make the body stay asleep. This therapy is non-invasive and painless. This helps a person receive the therapy without any hassle and without any side effects.

Although light therapy consists of pure light energy, for a person with light sensitivity, it can cause some mild harm. Therefore, if you are taking a medicine that makes you extra sensitive to light or has bipolar syndrome, consult your doctor before receiving light therapy. 

Light therapy has opened a lot of doors of possibility. A therapy that was invented just a few decades ago now provides a lot of benefits that seemed impossible a few years ago. The advancement of technology has provided us with immense benefits, and it is just the beginning. Soon, light therapy may cross certain boundaries that we haven’t even imagined yet. We cannot wait to see how far light therapy will go in the near future.

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