Studies have shown that not getting enough sleep has the same effects on your body as being intoxicated. This has a direct impact on the quality of life you lead. In order to get an answer to the question “can red light help you sleep at night?” I will investigate the connection between red light treatment and restful sleep in this post. I will also discuss the factors that lead to sleep issues as well as the consequences of not getting enough shut-eye.
What Causes Sleep Disorders?
Sleep has a regulatory effect on mood, as well as on physical performance and cerebral acuity. Your whole quality of life can suffer when you don’t get enough sleep or when the sleep you do get is of poor quality.
However, red light treatment shouldn’t be your primary method of choice for improving your quality of sleep. Instead, you should work on developing sound sleeping patterns and supplementing these patterns with red light therapy. The following are some of the more common reasons of chronic sleep deprivation:
- Poor sleep habits
- Circadian rhythm that is not regulated.
- Tension and nervousness
- Sleep apnea
- Medical concerns like asthma
Poor Sleep Habits
Poor patterns of behavior are the primary cause of sleep disturbances. Even though there are a number of bad patterns associated with sleeping, the following are ones to watch out for:
- Having coffee too late at night
- Using your phone in the bedroom before going to sleep
- Not sleeping in a dark room
If you consume coffee or any other caffeinated beverage at the incorrect time of day, it can wreak havoc on the quality of your sleep. Even if you drink coffee for supper and are able to go to sleep within a few minutes of doing so, the quality of your sleep will be negatively impacted.
Coffee consumption typically comes to an end about three to four hours before bedtime. On the other hand, the half-life of caffeine is five hours. If you start drinking coffee at four in the afternoon, you may keep half of the caffeine in your system until nine at night. Stop consuming coffee after 2 in the afternoon if you want this problem solved easily.
Blue Light’s Effect on Sleep
Another activity that disrupts sleep is using a smartphone right before bed. The blue light emitted from your screen interferes with the production of melatonin, leading your brain to believe that it is still sunlight. Because of this, falling asleep can be challenging. Installing apps that prevent blue light or wearing glasses that filter blue light are two solutions to this problem.
The majority of people also do not sleep in rooms that are fully dark when they do so. It is possible that the light is coming from the street or from underneath your door. Because of this, the quality of your sleep and your ability to stay awake are both significantly impacted. Think about using door cushions and blackout curtains to completely hide the light.
Circadian Rhythm That Is Not Regulated
Unregulated circadian rhythms are another important factor that contributes to poor sleep quality. Consider your circadian rhythm to be the clock that is located inside of your body. When your body believes it is day, it secretes hormones that keep you alert, and when it believes it is night, it secretes hormones that make you asleep.
On the other hand, if your sleep cycle isn’t regulated, you’ll find that you get tired and invigorated at the inappropriate times of the day.
Fixing this shouldn’t be that difficult. Your body craves regularity, so try to maintain a consistent schedule for going to bed and getting up each day. This will give your body the predictability it needs to function well.
Both Anxiety and Stress
If you are apprehensive and stressed out right before you go to bed, it will be difficult for you to fall asleep. Because you are having trouble falling asleep, you are more inclined to cruise through social media on your phone, which inhibits the production of melatonin and makes it even more difficult for you to fall asleep.
This is where the therapy of red light can be of use. Taking a seat in front of a red light three to five times a week has been shown in a number of studies to lessen feelings of stress and anxiety. The anti-inflammatory properties of red light treatment make this possible, thereby enhancing your body’s capacity to deal with the effects of stress.
Red light treatment is so effective that it even helps individuals who suffer from the most severe forms of depression improve their symptoms.
Sleep Apnea
A surprising number of people have a disorder called sleep apnea, which disrupts their breathing repeatedly while they are sleeping. You get the sense that you haven’t slept at all when you wake up because your body isn’t getting the oxygen it needs.
Among the other symptoms are:
- Dryness in the mouth and the throat
- Irritability as well as persistent weariness
- Constant and severe headaches
- Snoring
- During sleep, periods in which there is no evidence of breathing
When you breathe in while you’re sleeping, the air will typically enter your nose, travel down your throat, and then enter your lungs. When you have sleep apnea, the muscles in your mouth and throat relax, which prevents breath from entering your lungs. Because of this, getting a decent night’s sleep becomes quite difficult.
There has been no research conducted in a clinical setting that cover red light treatment and sleep apnea. Therefore, the most effective course of action would be to speak with your doctor about obtaining a continuous positive airway pressure, often known as a CPAP machine, which will restore your ability to breathe normally.
Medical Problems
Your ability to sleep may be significantly impacted by a number of medical conditions. These are the following:
- Asthma
- Continuous suffering
- Cardiovascular disease
Because of their constricted breathing, many people who have asthma find it difficult to fall asleep. People who have asthma may have trouble with snoring, coughing during the night, secretion, and congestion. The good news is that you can control these symptoms by following your physician’s recommendations and engaging in red light therapy on a regular basis.
Chronic pain is another prevalent health issue that can contribute to a lack of sleep. There is a lot of evidence that points to a link between red light treatment and chronic pain relief, and multiple studies have shown that using red light can cut down on both inflammation and chronic pain.
For instance, one study indicated that red light therapy reduced the amount of pain experienced by people suffering from osteoarthritis by fifty percent. This is due to the fact that red light reduces inflammation and increases the flow of blood to damaged tissues.
Insufficient sleep is a hidden contributor to a wide variety of health issues.
On the other hand, you might be wondering how not getting enough sleep might produce long-term health problems. The following is a list of some of the more typical negative impacts that not getting enough sleep can have on your health:
- Fatigue
- Unhealthy levels of blood pressure
- Cardiovascular disease
- Obesity
- Weakened immune system function
Fatigue
The most significant negative effect of not getting enough sleep is fatigue, which manifests itself in every facet of one’s life. This involves going to work, spending time with friends, and working out. You could also find that routine activities, like as walking to the grocery store or climbing stairs, are too taxing for you.
But if you’re always tired, it could mean that you’re not getting enough sleep or that the sleep you are getting is of poor quality. Fatigue is a normal response to stress and physical exertion, but if you’re always tired, it could mean that you’re not getting enough sleep or that the sleep you are getting is of poor quality.
The following are examples of some common symptoms:
- A diminished outward manifestation
- Constantly suffering from headaches
- A sluggishness of reflexes
- Moodiness
- A lack of sound judgment and the inability to make decisions
Implementing all of the ideas described above can help you feel more energized immediately. These tips include sleeping and waking up at the same time every day, developing healthy sleeping habits, and avoiding blue light. Make use of red-light treatment a few hours before going to bed so that it can complement this.
Avoid spending the last few hours of the day sitting in front of a red light because doing so can cause your core temperature to rise, making it more difficult for you to have a comfortable sleep.
Make advantage of your light source three to four hours before going to bed instead. Because of this, you’ll be able to get the benefits of red light for sleep without having to worry about your core temperature increasing.
After a few weeks of practicing healthy sleeping habits and undergoing red light treatment, you will begin to see an increase in your level of energy throughout the day. If you aren’t, you should talk to a doctor about it because you could have an underlying persistent sleep condition called sleep inertia.
Hypertension (High Blood Pressure)
Over the course of more than five years, a comprehensive study that was conducted in 2009 and published in the Archive of Internal Medicine studied 578 persons. They divided these adults into two groups and gave one group fewer than six hours of sleep per night while giving the other group more time to sleep each night.
After five years, the researchers found that the group that slept for fewer than six hours had a risk of having high blood pressure that was 37 percent higher than the average.
This demonstrates the importance of getting enough sleep. A lack of sleep will not only make you feel sleepy the next day, but it will also have an effect on the long-term health of your heart.
This is another reason why those who have untreated sleep apnea have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure.
Therefore, even if you are unable to get eight hours of sleep per night, you should at least make an effort to get six hours because doing so will not have a negative impact on your long-term health.
Coronary Artery Disease
Your body restores its energy stores and gets ready for the next day while you are sleeping. This is very important for one’s health in the long run. Your heart rate slows down, your breathing becomes more regular, and your blood pressure drops when you enter the deep stages of sleep, often known as rapid eye movement or REM sleep. Your heart is attempting to recover from the strain that it has been under.
But if you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t spend as much time in the REM stages of sleep, which means your heart won’t have as much time to heal. Failure to recover can result in a variety of health issues, including coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke, and heart attack.
The good news is that a number of studies have demonstrated that regular sessions of red-light therapy increase the amount of ATP in cardiac tissue, which in turn strengthens the heart and reduces the chance of developing heart disease.
Obesity
Sleep disturbances, such as exposure to strong blue light at night, might make it difficult, if not impossible, to achieve your weight loss goals. This is for a number of reasons, including the following:
- The loss of willpower that results from fatigue
- Your performance in sporting endeavors gets worse.
- The hormone cortisol associated with stress rises.
Diet has a crucial role in the process of weight loss. Because eating these kinds of meals does not cause a surge in insulin or blood sugar levels, you should try to limit the amount of carbohydrates you consume at each meal. On the other hand, if you are lacking sleep and experiencing irritability, your willpower is significantly diminished, and you are much more prone to gorge on junk food.
When you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll find that your ability to recover isn’t as good as it should be. This makes it more difficult to go to the gym on a consistent basis, which hinders weight loss.
The modulation of hormones is the final mechanism through which insufficient sleep contributes to weight growth. A rise in cortisol levels and a fall in testosterone levels both contribute to an increased likelihood of becoming obese.
Impaired Immune System
The immune system is analogous to the army of your body. It is absolutely necessary for protecting oneself from outside dangers and illnesses.
However, a number of studies have shown that those who receive less than six hours of sleep every night have an increased risk of being ill. The amount of time required to recover from an infection was also lengthened when sleep deprivation was present.
Fortunately, red light treatment is beneficial for more than just getting you to sleep. According to a study that was published in 2021, photo biomodulation therapy can strengthen your immune system, allowing it to better fight diseases Covid-19.
Now that we are aware of the negative effects that not getting enough sleep can have on our health, let’s investigate how different wavelengths of light can affect our ability to go asleep and stay asleep.
How the Color Red Affects Your Ability to Sleep
To varying degrees, different types of light disrupt sleep. You may synchronize your circadian rhythm and wake up feeling invigorated while falling asleep in a matter of minutes during the night if you are aware of the types of light to which you should expose yourself at specific times of the day.
The amount of brightness that is measured in lux is called the lux, and the brightness of sunshine is 10,000 lux. Direct sunshine raises levels of the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline while lowers levels of the sleep hormone melatonin, which results in a feeling of increased energy. In contrast, the intense light found in a workplace only registers 500 lux on the lux scale.
Because light plays such a crucial part in warding off exhaustion, it is imperative that you make it a habit to sit in the sun as soon as you get up in the morning. In addition, it sends the message to your body that it is daytime, which helps to set your circadian rhythm.
Nevertheless, exposure to natural light confers other advantages, including the following:
- A higher level of vitamin D
- Reduces the risk of inflammation
- Boosts feel-good chemicals like dopamine and serotonin
However, despite the fact that artificial light is not as intense as natural sunlight, your brain still processes it differently. Because the wavelengths of blue light inhibit melatonin more effectively than sunlight does, you should avoid exposure to blue light at least a few hours before going to bed.
Exposure to red light, with its longer wavelengths, is not as stimulating or disruptive as exposure to blue light. These longer wavelengths encourage the creation of melatonin, which in turn makes it simpler to go off to sleep.
How to Make Better Use of Red Light to Improve the Quality of Your Sleep
However, you may be wondering how to implement red light treatment into your sleep routine. Should I do it first thing in the morning or should I wait until night?
It will be easier for you to get to sleep if you turn on your red light panel a few hours before going to bed because heat elevates your core body temperature and makes it more difficult to fall asleep. If you go to bed at ten o’clock at night, you might want to think about sitting in front of your red light at six o’clock. This will increase the amount of melatonin your body produces while also allowing it some time to relax and wind down before bedtime.
Dermatologists advise patients to participate in red light therapy for three to five sessions each week, each lasting between ten and twenty minutes. There are not many benefits to having extremely long sessions, and doing so only increases the likelihood that you will suffer from minor burns.
Conclusions Regarding the Use of Red Light in Sleep Therapy
If you are having trouble getting enough or quality sleep, you should consider resetting your circadian clock and developing healthy sleep habits, such as avoiding blue light waves in the hours leading up to bedtime. Melatonin synthesis can be enhanced with the help of low-level laser therapy, which also offers additional health benefits such as improved immunological function and a reduced risk of developing heart problems.
The amount of sleep we get has an effect on every facet of our health and is one of the primary determinants of how we feel and perform when we are awake. Maintaining a healthy sleep routine is one of the most important aspects of living a well-rounded life, and as such, you should make it a top priority at all times. You can improve the quality of sleep you get by adopting healthier living practices with the help of red light.
References
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Association. Sleep Deprivation and Deficiency. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep-deprivation
The State of Sleep Health in America. https://www.sleephealth.org/sleep-health/the-state-of-sleephealth-in-america/
Michael I., Richard O., Judith Carroll. “Sleep Disturbance, Sleep Duration, and Inflammation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies and Experimental Sleep Deprivation” Biological Psychiatry. 2016 July https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4666828/
Janet M., Norah S., Hans M., Monika H. “Sleep Loss and Inflammation” Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 2010 Oct.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3548567/
Book: Satchin Panda, PhD. The Circadian Code: lose weight, supercharge your energy, and transform your health from morning to midnight. Rodale Books. Jun 12, 2018 | ISBN 978163565243
Killgore WD. “Effects of sleep deprivation on cognition” Progress in Brain Research. 2010 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21075236/