You may know the relevance of you switching off lights and devices around you, for uninterrupted and 'sweet' sleep; but you may not be conscious of how bad the lights outside your home might be for your rest.
The streetlights that are so helpful when you're walking along a dark road at night can disrupt your sleep patterns, according to a study released this week from the American Academy of Neurology.
"We live in a 24/7 society, and outdoor lighting helps us be safer at night, but it comes with a tradeoff," Dr. Maurice Ohayon, a Stanford University sleep scientist who authored the study, stated. "That fact that we encounter less darkness as we go about our day may be affecting our sleep."
Researchers interviewed more than 15,000 people over the course of eight years about their sleep quality and bedtime habits, then cross-referenced participants' reports with data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program to determine how much outdoor light they were exposed to at night.
The night-time environment of people in urban areas was three to six times brighter than that of people in small towns and rural areas, scientists found. And residents of bright areas were more likely than those in low-light areas to sleep less than six hours per night, be dissatisfied with their rest and report fatigue.
The worst offenders, are the new generation of LED streetlights. They give off a bluish light and are brighter than traditional sodium-vapor streetlights, which have an orange tint.
"The blue light emanated by the streetlights in most big cities provides more safety because it's like daylight, and allows people to see more clearly at night," Ohayon said. "But it is uniquely disruptive to human sleep."
Ambient blue light from modern street lights is basically as bad for your sleep as having screens and gadgets in the bedroom.
The Stanford University sleep scientist recommended using blackout shades or sleep masks in the bedroom and limiting LED light exposure from cell phones and computers near bedtime.
This may not look as a new advice; and it seems much easier said than done, but it all calls for EXTRA EFFORT!!!
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