How dark should your bedroom be?
I’ve always been one of those people that are light and sound sensitive. I am easily stimulated by noise and light and can lie awake if there is a beam of light piercing through a blind or curtain. But is it just me? I keep an eye mask by my bed for early morning and have put black out curtains not only in my room but my children’s as well. Many discussions about sound machines with my husband, should you use them in your child’s bedroom or should they be able to sleep anytime and anywhere? Actually from studies, I have found that it’s not just me! See what research says about light.
Light inhibits the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that naturally promotes sleep. “Even if you doze off, light can be detected through your eyelids””and your brain won’t produce melatonin if it’s confused between night and day,” says Joyce Walsleben, PhD, associate professor at the New York University School of Medicine. “You want as much darkness in your bedroom as you can handle without tripping over things.”
Even when you are getting ready for bed, light should be dim to prepare your body for sleep. We have gone so far as to put dimmer’s on lights in the kitchen so when it is getting closer to bedtime my children see the room getting darker and are preparing for sleep. The signal when stories have been read, teeth are brushed and prayers are said is “Light’s Out.” It’s time for your body to slow down and enjoy the darkness.
I’m not going to say it was easy with my children, it has been a process but changing night light’s to red has proven to ease the transition to a darker room.
According to Mother Earth News “Melatonin is a hormone that is produced and secreted at night, and only at night, by the pineal gland. Exposure to light at night completely suppresses the production of melatonin. It doesn’t require very bright lights to stop the production of melatonin””bright indoor white light at 300 lux as well as very dim light at 0.25 lux (moonlight is about one lux) were both sufficient to prevent all melatonin production in laboratory animals. And research conducted by the National Institutes of Health showed that even a very brief light exposure suppresses melatonin production in lab animals: a one minute exposure to white light every two hours during the night suppressed melatonin production by 65 percent. The only type of light that does not affect melatonin production is red light.
Melatonin is essential to the regulation of reproduction, body weight, and energy balance, and is necessary for the synchronization of sleep and circadian rhythms. In other words, if you don’t get enough darkness, you have a very good chance of ending up tired, cranky, listless, out of whack, and possibly obese. (Perhaps it’s not just the potato chips we eat while watching TV that are making us fat; maybe the the blue light emanating from the TV is also at fault.)
Recent research has also shown that one of melatonin’s functions is to thwart the growth of cancerous tumors. Researchers began studying the relationship between melatonin and cancer when it became obvious that women who work the night shift have an increased risk of developing breast cancer, and because it was known that nocturnal exposure to light””any color light other than red light””suppresses the normal nightly production of melatonin.”
So if you or your children need a nightlight, red is the best color. I found some at my local Costco that change to any color but we keep it on red. Who knew right? So there, I told my husband to quit turning on the bathroom light on full blast when I’m brushing my teeth. He thought I was crazy when I told him I am easily stimulated by light but turns out, lowering lights at night will help you fall asleep faster!
Sweet dreams to you too,
LL