Light and its value to you

The value of light and its effect on us is far greater than most people realize. Light plays a remarkable role for maintaining health and general well being. Light is as important a supplement as any vitamin, mineral, or anti-oxidant. Proper exposure to beneficial wavelengths of light is absolutely essential for health maintenance. You can learn how to make the better use of light in your life through a few simple lifestyle changes. 

Light is a powerful regulator of the human circadian system, our biological body clock. The circadian clock controls physiological changes that occur with the natural light-dark cycle of the day. Circadian rhythm disorders are among the major causes of sleep disruption and seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also called winter onset depression. You can learn more about circadian rhythms by visiting our sections on enhancing sleep, circadian rhythms, SAD, and our section on jet lag.

We are light-dependent beings. A lack of proper daily light levels will disrupt our internal body clock. The circadian body clock responds to a relatively narrow band of blue light known as the “action spectrum.” This blue light action spectrum, interestingly, correlates to the color of the blue sky. This blue light wavelength plays a major role in aligning and resetting the body clock through the control of release of hormones including the sleep hormone, melatonin.

We work in buildings using artificial light that disrupt our circadian rhythms. We drive cars with tinted glass that lowers the transmission of beneficial light. When in the outdoors, many of us wear sunglasses blocking beneficial light from entering the retina. The result; it significantly reduces the light frequencies that we need every day.

The best way to properly set your body clock is simply by getting natural light during the day. We are most sensitive to light in the early morning and late afternoon. Getting adequate light is relatively easy during much of the year.

First step, take off your sunglasses!

If you wear sunglasses often, you are depriving yourself of beneficial blue spectrum light. People are basically using sunglasses too often, not recognizing that it has an impact on health and well-being.

Many who work indoors put on sunglasses the moment they go out to compensate for the brightness. When light is blocked in this manner it is sending a signal to the brain that it is night or dusk causing melatonin to be released. This can easily result in circadian sleep disorders and can worsen winter depression.

Try this little experiment…  The next time it is nice outside, when you are in a natural setting such as a park or in the woods, pay attention to your mood and how you are feeling with and without your sunglasses. Pay attention and you may notice a subtle but obvious change in your mood. This will be more pronounced during the shorter days of the year.

It is important to condition yourself to take those sunglasses off when practical. It may be a little difficult at first as your eyes may need time to reacclimatize to natural light but you will desensitize rather quickly. Wearing a hat with a brim will help since direct sunlight is not required. Of course, there are times when sunglasses are quite important. You will want to continue to wear your sunglasses in very bright settings and when driving to reduce glare.

If you are in a work environment with minimal exposure to direct light, take your breaks outside even if it is just ten minutes. When you are outside during lunch or on weekends, especially when in a natural setting, you want to allow your eyes to receive that natural, blue sky light. When at work, it will help to be near a window, but often the glass is blocking the important part of the blue spectrum since many modern glass windows contain tint. 

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A sensible person might argue that at 74, Connie Berto should be enjoying the quiet luxuries of retirement, like afternoon naps and baking pies. But like most Americans, Berto has picked the rush of an active, nonstop lifestyle over peace and quiet.

“I’m always on the go, go, go,” said Berto, who lives in the Sleepy Hollow community in Marin County. “My husband and I have a lot of interests and volunteer work and grandchildren - 2-year-old twins that I babysit all the time. I have two horses in the backyard, and I do all the cleaning and the cooking myself.”

And don’t get her started on the holidays. “With five kids and their spouses and trying to get Christmas presents for everybody, well, we’re always on a tight schedule,” she said.

There’s no doubt, Berto said, that Americans are more stressed out than ever before. Doctors agree. In fact, they say, Americans are so riddled with stress these days that it’s making them sick.

An office worker develops a strange rash from the daily pressures of dealing with a demanding boss. A child complains of a stomachache from too much homework or grueling daily soccer practices. A teenager lives on coffee and energy drinks in order to squeeze in more time for social activities.

Chronic stress has been linked to depression, heart disease, autoimmune disorders, premature cell aging, and obesity and diabetes. It can cause hives and numbness, gastrointestinal problems and acne. It can make people more susceptible to the flu.

The really frustrating part for doctors is that much of the stress patients experience is manufactured - the result of an increasingly connected society that has everyone expecting instant gratification, and instant results. Very few people are making the time to unplug and relax, even for just a few minutes every day.

Circadian Rhythms | Stress and Health

“Once I reach Jordan, which is usually 5 p.m., I fight sleep really hard till 9 or 10 p.m.,” he explains. “The next two days are key. The first day around 11 a.m., I go out and walk in the sun for one hour minimum. The next day, I do the walk two hours earlier. I try to avoid light early in the day.”

This ritual, says Hattar, helps to fast-forward his circadian clock to Jordanian time. Now, instead of feeling fuzzy-headed and sluggish for a week, he feels like his normal self after two days. But that’s not the only time Hattar pays close attention to his body’s clock. He rises at 4:30 or 5 every morning and goes to sleep at 9:30 at night. On work days, Hatttar tries to take a walk every afternoon around the Homewood campus. He has changed all of the light bulbs in his home to low-intensity bulbs. “If you came to my house at night, you’d think I’m a cheap guy,” he says with a smile. All of these practices, he says, are intended to keep his body clock aligned with the clock of the external world, determined by when the spinning Earth countenances the sun.

Hattar, who holds joint appointments in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences’ Biology Department and the School of Medicine’s Neuroscience Department, is an expert on this circadian clock, the master timekeeper we all have in our brain that governs our sleep and wake cycles and many other body fluctuations. He doesn’t study the circadian clock of people, though. He studies mice, in particular, the cells, genes, and neurochemicals that help to set the mouse’s biological clock. But his results and those of colleagues in the field who study people, he says, have caused him to rethink his own habits. So about four years ago, he adopted a more circadian clock-friendly lifestyle. He now feels better. Or at least, he adds, he believes he does.

Circadian Rhythms | Blue Light Research

How to Improve Sleep Quality

High stress levels and lack of adequate natural light are two of the major causes of sleep disruption. MindSpa is helping thousands of people obtain high quality sleep by addressing these issues. We make a simple promise to you. When used as suggested on a regular basis, we guarantee you will experience an improved quality of sleep in less than 90 days or your money back.

Good quality sleep is essential to our mental health and physical well being. A lack of deep sleep can lead to reduced concentration and memory functions, mood alterations, depression and fatigue. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that sleeping less than seven and a half hours a day may be associated with a greater risk for heart disease, hypertension and other serious health-related issues.

Additional recent studies shows most of us suffer from occasional sleep disorders. For some it is a chronic problem. There are steps you can take to help you get healthy amounts of restorative, regenerative, deep sleep on a consistent basis

Stress & Anxiety

Many sleep issues are stress related. When stressed, we tend to create mental loops. This is most noticeable in the quiet of the night when our inner dialog takes over. It is during these quiet periods our mind tends to get stuck on problems commonly related to finances, work, health, or relationships making quality sleep difficult to attain. We have all experienced these high-intensity “mental loops” at different times. In the morning we wake up feeling exhausted, anxious and agitated. Stress-caused sleep disruption can result on seriously impacting our decision making abilities and our physical functioning.

Brainwave Activity

Think of brainwaves like ocean waves. They are measured on two scales; height and frequency of the waves. Normal beta brainwave activity is associated with the regular, active thinking process. When we are stressed, mental loops will cause our mind to shift to a high “beta” activity state.

As we explain on our Brainwave States section, high amplitude, fast beta brainwave activity generally reflects a state of heightened anxiety or stress accompanied by feelings of agitation and discomfort due to mental over-activity. This is associated with what is commonly known as the fight or flight state. When the high amplitude beta state is maintained for extended periods it leaves us feeling drained of energy and over time can erode our physical and emotional well-being resulting in a variety health issues.

Using MindSpa’s relaxation programs can significantly help to reduce undesirable high amplitude beta activity in just a few weeks. Many report experiencing immediate effectiveness. When you encounter common stress producing situations you will be better able to maintain an inner calmness with enhanced control of your life. Conversely, when you feel like you need a quick pick up, or when you just do not feel as mentally sharp as you would like to feel, MindSpa can help here as well.

Brainwave states | Circadian Rhythms | sleep disorders | Chronotherapy