Do LED Lights Affect Our Sleep?

LED lights are used almost everywhere due to their long life, low energy consumption and flexible application possibilities. Although LED lights have many benefits, they can have negative effects on sleep patterns.

At the end of a tiring day, we need a restful sleep. The best environment for this sleep is the bedroom. Even if you do not illuminate your bedroom with LED lights, bright and colorful light of city lights can enter through your window.

LEDs, which we are used to seeing in the streets, commercial buildings and workplaces, have now entered our homes and even our bedrooms. So how do LED lights affect our sleep quality?

The body’s biological clock works in a rhythm determined by the amount of light we are exposed to in the environment. This is called circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythm directly affects metaboloism, nutrition, brain activities and, accordingly, sleep.

The human brain is programmed to sleep when it’s dark, and to wake up when it’s bright. At night, information is sent to the brain through the eyes and the body begins to secrete sleep hormones. When it is daytime, the light is perceived by the eyes and a signal is sent to the brain. The body begins to secrete hormones that stimulate warming and waking up.

While the sleep pattern was determined only according to sunlight, this process started to change completely with the discovery of artificial lights.

Even if we do not use LED lighting in our homes, we are exposed to LED light through computers, televisions and smartphones throughout the day. The biggest problem in LED lighting is that the light is dominant in the blue wavelength. That is, it contains a high amount of blue light. Even though the light color of the LED is white, it contains a high amount of blue light.

Prolonged exposure to blue light significantly reduces sleep hormone (melatonin) production. In this case, it will not be wrong to say that the sleep quality is decreased.

It is not possible to give up artificial lights completely in the modern world. However, you can take some precautions to avoid the negative effects of LED lights and other artificial light sources.

You can prefer warm colors (close to yellow) in the lighting of rest areas in your home. You can reduce the brightness of the lights one or two hours before bedtime or turn them off completely. You can use blackout curtains to control the artificial light entering your home through windows.