Will getting out in the sun help me sleep better?

It’s taken a toll on our slumber. The Public Health Association of Australia, which has described sleep as a “key indicator of social wellbeing”, included light pollution as one of the factors contributing to the nation’s sleep problems.

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Skyscraper construction in cities has created “urban canyons” that rob us of natural light – with a major impact on our health, says Karolina Zielinska-Dabkowska, a lighting designer and assistant professor in architecture at Gdansk University of Technology in Poland.

Besides disrupting sleep, artificial light exposure at night is linked to breast and colorectal cancer, Zielinska-Dabkowska says in an email interview. “It’s also a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity and depression,” she says.

There are a few ways we can win back some control of our circadian rhythms.

Get morning light

“Exposure to daylight in the morning will have a positive impact on your quality of sleep at night,” Zielinska-Dabkowska says.

Your circadian rhythm is highly sensitive to light in the first hour after waking. Get some blue-rich sunlight early in your day, she advises, ideally without wearing sunglasses or contact lenses to best activate your biological clock.

Trade the afternoon latte for a walk outdoors

The body produces melatonin again after lunch. Some cultures accept the sleepiness produced by melatonin and encourage siestas. Other cultures face it with tea or coffee.

Sunlight, however, can stop melatonin from telling you to snooze. A study among university students showed that exposure to even artificial blue light in the early afternoon not only improved post-lunch sleepiness but also boosted memory.

Rethink your home lighting

Move your desk to a space that gets the most natural light during the day.

Dim all lights at least three hours before bedtime.

The lighting should be subdued and depleted of blues. In 2009, NSW and Queensland banned the sale of incandescent light bulbs, paving the way for LED light and smart bulbs, which can be programmed to be bluer during the day and redder in the evening.

“Also the placement of light sources is important,” Zielinska-Dabkowska says. Avoid overhead lighting, and place lamps low to the ground or on tables, with shades to avoid looking directly into the source, she recommends.

Change your phone’s settings

Avoid screen time before you sleep, but because that can’t always happen, turn on the “night shift” setting on your iPhone or “blue light filter” on an Android phone to adjust the colour of your screen in the evenings.

“These features do not completely reduce the blue wavelengths,” Zielinska-Dabkowska cautions, but they “mitigate some of the impact of such devices”.

Sleep in darkness

Experts recommend a room being no brighter than 1 lux during sleep – the equivalent of a candle one metre from the eye. If you get a lot of light pollution from outside your house, experiment with a sleep mask or blackout curtains.

What I want my patients to know

Despite being readily available in the US, melatonin is only available with a prescription in Australia. Before trying a pill, talk to your doctor about cognitive behavioral therapy if you have insomnia – it’s our first-line recommendation because it can address the underlying cause of your inability to sleep as opposed to medicines that target symptoms.

Trisha S. Pasricha is a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and a medical journalist.

Washington Post

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