How Does Light in the Bedroom Change the Way You Sleep

Creating a good sleep environment is the key to getting a good night’s sleep. You’ve probably thought about the kind of mattress that you sleep on, keeping clutter out of your room and how to de-stress before bed to help you get high-quality sleep.

You might not have thought about how the lights in your bedroom might affect your sleep patterns.

There are all sorts of light that our eyes can take in. However, our brains do not react to all of the different kinds of light in the same way.

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Natural Light Is Great For You

Natural light is created by the sun, as you might expect. Natural light is the best at creating a natural circadian rhythm of all the light.

But, you can also get these lights through “happy lamps,” especially if you are struggling with mood issues. The more sunlight you get, particularly early in the day, the better off you will be throughout the day.

Limit Blue Light In the Evenings

If you are changing out the lights in your house, and compact fluorescent bulbs which are more energy-efficient than traditional light bulbs. However, they are also designed to give off a brighter light that comes from the blue spectrum of light.

Blue light comes from LEDs, compact fluorescent bulbs, and LCD’s like that of your phone, computer, and televisions. These lights send signals to our brains that it needs to pay attention to whatever is on it and boosts reaction times and mood.

As you might expect, these lights are terrible for you when you’re trying to sleep. Which means you need to put the phone away when it’s time to start getting ready for bed. Instead, start using an actual alarm clock and avoid checking your phone at night to help yourself get a good night’s sleep. You can also get high-efficiency bulbs that come with a dimmer and a more yellow tint to make it easier on your eyes and brain.

All Light Is A Distraction at Night

Whether it’s coming from your phone or from a lamp outside of your window, light is a distraction. Our brains automatically translate light into signals to wake up, which disrupts your sleep pattern and circadian rhythm.

If there are a lot of lights outside your window or in the rest of your house, try shutting off those lights when you can and add light-blocking curtains to help that light out of your room whenever possible.

You can always open the windows and curtains during the day, but you should close at least the curtains at nights to keep out extra light. And, of course, put your phone face down so it’s not lighting up in the middle of the night and waking you.

You might want to talk to your partner about this as well to make sure that they are on the same page with you about these changes that you want to make.