Part I Blue Light, its effects on sleep and health
During the evening at anytime of the year it is important to reduce the amount of Blue light one is exposed to. Most video screens, cell phones and other electronic devices if not corrected emit blue light. Another, blue light source are LEDs and fluorescent lights Typically one can find Warm fluorescent lights and avoid the ones marked cool etc.
Blue light suppresses the production of Melatonin which is often referred to as the sleep hormone. Blue light not only interferes with humans sleep, this article points out it interferes with wildlife’s sleep too. Blue light does have a place for humans, it is associated with increased cognitive awareness alertness etc. Naturally one’s exposure to blue light is at its greatest around noon when the qualities of increased cognitive awareness and alertness are often important. I am not convinced LED produced blue light is not harmful to life. In the morning and evenings the light is much Warner, historically it was during these hours if we had illumination it was firelight/moonlight both much warmer lights with more red and orange hues. This image shows the approximate colour for particular degree Kelvins.
F or home lighting it is generally best to use lights rated as soft or warm in terms of colour. Even soft LEDs or warm fluorescent are a few degrees more towards the blue spectrum than the traditional incandescent light. LCD and LED screens are considerably bluer, typically being 6500 – 9500 K.
Usually it is recommended to have at least 30 minutes between screen time and bedtime, of course that would only apply if one were able to get to a lower degree Kelvin environment. Watching the TV at the foot of one’s bed, then turning it off to go to sleep is not conducive to good sleep, nor does it allow the body to recuperate and rebuild one’s RNA and other processes the time of sleep is supposed to do to recuperate and regenerate while sleeping, it could contribute to why one often feels tired and worn out when they awake.
The active stimulation of the TV screen, computer game etc are also not conducive to good sleep either.
In addition to an improved sleep, melatonin has been associated with better eye health especially Age-Related Macular Degeneration concerns, reduced effects of Jet Lag, and very importantly protects the mitochondria in cells and inhibits cell death.
Before I delve into radiation concerns, it is not advisable to sleep with one’s cell phone nearby because of the light they emit.
Especially during the winter it is strongly recommended to use a computer app that varies blue light from the computer screen during the day. To the best of my knowledge all major Computer operating systems and cell phones have such an app included in their basic operating system installation.
For instructions to activate it on one’s system:
If you can not find an app in the above list that works for you. Try. I personally use Red shift and found it easy to set up. I also shifted the default settings which most would find work to the warmer end of the spectrum with a night time kelvin of 2900 which is still much more blue than firelight/incandescent bulbs. Apart from suggesting one use one that works for them, doubt there is much of a significant difference between any of them, but I do recommend using one, even if you do not think you look at your computer late enough in the day for it to matter. When most if not all major software companies add a blue shift app by default it should be a good indicator it is important to use one.
Part II Electromagnetic Radiation, its effects on sleep
A good reference for both a discussion of light and melatonin as well as electromagnetic radiation is the Building Biology Institute Factsheet, Their web site also features a “Find an Expert“ at the top of their home page if one wishes to have an in home consultation and hopefully site specific recommendations.
Even CBCNews recommends not sleeping with one’s self phone next to them. For years experts on the effects of electromagnetic radiation have recommended one not sleep with their cell phone near them, yet people continue to do so. The reasons to not sleep with one’s cell phone next to them not only include the problems caused by blue light exposure at night but, issues related to electromagnetic radiation. The radiation concerns also extend to cordless phones (I recently measured the continuous radiation ie when not on a call of a cordless phone bass station and found the level was nearly 300,000 micro watts per sq metre – the recommended maximum exposure while sleeping is less than 0.1 microwatts. Not much point in commenting on Canada’s Safety Code 6 International Commission on Non Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) heat based numbers that essentially are based on if it does not cook one in 6 minutes then one can be exposed to that level 24/7. ICNIRP is an industry funded by invitation membership that frequently has to replace its members when caught in conflict of interest. They are not a representation of an international organisation in the normal standard setting sense nor are the qualified to set Standards (Guidelines)for the health and safety of the citizens of the world. But, they must have good salesmen if they can convince the people responsible for radiation protection in much of the western world that few test on rats in 1953 when thermometers were inserted into rat’s rectums and the rats behaviour changed is relevant to mankind’s health and safety.
A number of papers have studied the effect's of EMR on sleep Improvement of several stress response and sleep quality hormones in men and women after sleeping in a bed that protects against electromagnetic fields Exposure to Radiofrequency and Electromagnetic Fields and Sleep Quality: A Prospective Cohort Study are examples.
Many people find turning all power to the bedroom off from the circuit breaker panel at night gives them a better sleeA number of papers have studied the effect's of EMR on sleep Improvement of several stress response and sleep quality hormones in men and women after sleeping in a bed that protects against electromagnetic fields Exposure to Radiofrequency and Electromagnetic Fields and Sleep Quality: A Prospective Cohort Study are examples.p. One of the reasons for this is it also minimises what is known as dirty electricity in the bedroom. A quick definition of dirty electricity is EMR interference or line noise a form of electrical pollution that deviates from a pure 50/60 of one’s main power source. It can be caused by devices plugged into the circuit. One big source is the plug in power supplies many devices and recharger units use. These units known as switch mode power devices should be unplugged when not in use as they not only generate dirty electricity but also even when plugged in and not charging use electricity.
Even if not in one’s bedroom, it is best to position any radiating device router, cell phone, modem computer etc as far away from one as possible (other end of the house is not too far away.) Once one get past the close in zone(Also called the near field and intermediate field where one can be exposed to spectacular peaks and valleys of radiation exposure – around a large cell tower this distance could be in the order of 125 m around a device (this means beyond 2 meters from a lap top on wifi/bluetooth) the intensity of the radiation drops by what they call the inverse square law. Ie. double the distance and the intensity of the radiation drops to 1/4 or halve the distance and it rises by 4(22=4 ). Three times the distance and the level drops to (32=9)1/9th or reduce the distance to a third then the intensity is a nine fold increase.
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