In defense of the completely lowered blind: sleeping with some light has consequences on our health

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In defense of the completely lowered blind: sleeping with some light has consequences on our health
in defense of the completely lowered blind: sleeping with some

No lamps, no televisions; not even with the blinds up while the dim light of the street lamps filters through. Phyllis Zee, chief of sleep medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and her team are clear: sleep in the dark. But really dark. Not doing so, according to a new study, can end up causing problems.

the light you give me. “The results of this study demonstrate that a single night of exposure to moderate room lighting during sleep can affect glucose and cardiovascular regulation, which are risk factors for heart disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome,” Zee explained. The idea has been around for a long time in many research groups.

At least, since the evidence began to arrive indicating that exposure to light during the day increased heart rate through activation of the sympathetic nervous system. In this way, there was some physiological “help” that strengthened the state of alertness to face the challenges of the day.

And why not overnight? Although we often think that while we sleep we are isolated from the world, that is highly debatable. As Linda Hayes has been pointing out for years, the body is never disconnected from the environment. In fact, a good part of the things we dream of can be explained for that very reason: because our body continues to feel (and those sensations continue to interact with our brain). For this reason, the question that Zee and his team asked themselves was what happened to the light while we slept.

Light fire destruction. “Our results indicate that a similar effect is also present when light exposure occurs during nighttime sleep.” It’s not just that light alters cardiovascular parameters, it increases “insulin resistance.” Namely, roughly, that our body is unable to properly use all the glucose in the blood. This fits with previous studies linking light exposure during sleep and obesity.

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In other words, the main novelty of this work is that it identifies the physiological mechanism behind this impact of light while we sleep: we already knew that living in an increasingly illuminated world is bad, now we are beginning to know why. However, all the studies are done in the laboratory and that makes the analysis less valid. In daily life, the need for light (in older adults, for example, to avoid accidents) can give a positive balance.

A world full of light. However, it is something we should reflect on. In the US, up to 40% of the adult population sleeps with a night lamp on, with a light in the bedroom and/or with the television on. I have not found reliable data in Spain, but although the problem is much less widespread, it seems that it is growing in popularity. The fight against the dark continues

Image | Ruan Richard