Blue light keeping us up?

softdown

Many studies say it does. Emanating from our tv’s. computers and phones. Studies have found that blue light blocking glasses are a surprisingly significant help. Ordered some and will try. 

Wondering if a smaller tv would help. Switching to a warmer (yellow vs blue) screen should help. I doubt a smaller tv helps much since they cite the blue light from our phones as a detrimental impact on sleep.

Blue light blocks the production of melatonin. An extremely vital sleep aid. On the other hand a slightly blue light of 6500k from light bulbs are used as “mood enhancers”. As is bright light and, especially, sunlight. 

Other effective sleep aids based on studies:

Theonine

Tryptophan

Magnesium - Glycinate commonly being cited as the most effective. Though Theonate helps cross the “blood/brain barrier”. Whatever that is. 

Ashwaganda

Less liquid prior to sleep - fewer night time nature calls. A serious issue for those with prostrate challenges. Try to get most liquids within 10 hours of waking. 

Less alcohol.
Kava Kava and Gaba - results vary

No caffeine after noon though the theanine in green tea may more than compensate for the caffeine. This “finding” surprised me. 

No meals within 2 hours of sleep.

No real workouts prior to sleep.

Cool temp of 60F - 67F.

Nose breathing

Vitamin D but not much in the evening.

Milk has Tryptophan by the way. 

Sweet dreams!

BB.

The fun thing about science and Internet Search Engines, you can always find a study/folks that have contrarian views... For example, I remember reading this a couple years ago--Lots of hand waving in the article:

https://time.com/5752454/blue-light-sleep/

Take that iPad study, for example. While it did show that bedtime exposure to blue light through an iPad can suppress melatonin, Wyatt notes that people who read on their devices for hours took only 10 minutes longer to fall asleep than paper book readers. “In over 20 years of practicing sleep medicine, I have never had a patient come to me and say, ‘Hey, doc, can you help me fall asleep 10 minutes faster?'” Wyatt says.

Goldstein adds that the spectrum of light isn’t the only thing that matters—so do brightness, and duration of exposure. “You can’t just worry about spectrum alone,” she says. “You can’t have your blue light filter on, and then have your phone or your tablet at maximal brightness” and expect to drift right off with no problem.

And something that we have forgotten about--In the times before artificial lighting, humans tended to have a sleep cycle when the sun went down, and woke up in the middle of the night, before falling to sleep again--Biphasic sleep (this appears to be culturally and location dependent?). And appears to vary based on how far (towards the poles) the people were. Did people in the far north with long winter nights tend to wake in the middle of the night .vs during summer (long days/short nights) or closer to the equator? Then there are traditions of shorter sleep at night and napping during the day (Spanish siesta--Avoid working during summer heat?)

https://www.sleepadvisor.org/history-of-sleep/

-Bill

softdown

Yep. Youtube likes to feature clips with opposing views right after I watch a clip. The science is never settled.

softdown

There is also sleep quality and duration. Forgot to mention that room lighting should also be dark 1 hour prior to sleep.

NANOcontrol

One of those two supplements raised my heart rate to over 110 bpm.

softdown

NANOcontrol said:

One of those two supplements raised my heart rate to over 110 bpm.

Which one?

softdown

NANOcontrol said:

One of those two supplements raised my heart rate to over 110 bpm.

Which one?

softdown

The blue light blocking glasses are helping some. Enough to be worth it.

NANOcontrol

Tell me if I got this right.  You want me to throw my heart into chaos just for your amusement.   

softdown

Speaking of chaos…

Just trying to help with sleeping challenges. 

WaterWheel

I've also read that light from a TV or phone screen would reduce the quality of sleep.       
When my boy was about 16 I replaced his basic phone with a smart phone and within a year he was sleeping with that thing playing documentary videos all night long facing him on a pillow while he slept.    Since I had read about the poorer sleep with a screen on in the room I made it a habit to go in most nights to make sure the phone was turned off.       Still even when he was 19 he would often fall asleep with that darn phone showing doculentaries but by that age he was beginning to realize that he woke up more refreshed when he turned the phone off before going to sleep. 

I've never had a screen in my room, even the LCD alarm clock faces away from me.      I don't know if it's the brain needing a break from all this modern noise or just the flickering light a screen produces but I've never been able to sleep well if there is a screen flickering in the room.

I suspect that the basic reptilian part of our brains which is always looking for danger monitors the light from the screen so we don't sleep as well.     Just a suspicion because I'm not a brain expert.

softdown

As BB noted, there are always contradicting studies. Different things work for different people. I know a very healthy 73 year old who sleeps with bright lights on. He is outdoors and on his feet as a rule. Yet had low Vit D levels. Surprises are so common.