Blue/Green Light and Melatonin

The knowledge surrounding the negative effects caused by certain parts of the light spectrum are increasing with each passing month. Despite this, most people are unaware of how light emitted from lights and electronics impact sleep quality.

The lightwaves from 400-570nm have been shown to down-regulate melatonin. Unfortunately, modern lighting and electronics output strong signals in this part of the light spectrum.

Natural light contains the whole spectrum of light. Getting daily exposure to natural light is actually good and does not require "blue blocking" glasses.

So what do I do?  I wear Essilor EyeZen glasses when working on a computer. The EyeZens block 415-455nm which includes a majority of the blue spectrum given off by lighting and electronics. The EyeZens do not block the rest of the spectrum which your body needs to thrive.

After sunset, I wear glasses with red lenses such as the Ra Optics Noctural Red glasses which block up to 550nm or Red HDE Laser glasses ($10 on Amazon) which block up to 532nm. The Ra Optics are more costly but not as nerdy as the HDE safety glasses. Many people also opt for the Swannies. These only block up to 480nm so may not work for people with a lower sleep drive. Other "blue blocking" glasses are the BluBlox Sleep+ (up to 550nm), Carbon Shade (up to 550nm), and True Dark (up to 600nm).

Until next time, Enjoy!


Chuck

Finding Correlations

I have spent a lot of time over the past several years trying to better understand how my lifestyle choices affect my biology.  One recent correlation I found while playing around with the analysis feature of HeadsUpHealth was a strong correlation between insulin load and my resting heart rate, as measured by my Oura ring.

I have found that I need to keep my insulin load below 75g for optimal sleep and weight maintenance.  

My next area to dig into is morning glucose levels versus HRV.  Others have mentioned that these two measures have a strong correlation. 

Enjoy!

Chuck