General Home Lighting, Home Lighting, Lighting & Health, Room by Room Home Lighting Guide

Should You Have Lights On During Sleeping? Is Blue Light Harmful For Your Eyes?

Best Lighting for Sleep

Just like how natural light dictates your sleeping cycles, the light inside your home also dictates your quality of sleep. Can you imagine sleeping with a big light bulb shining brightly in your room? To get sound sleep, you need to plan the lighting in your bedroom and we are here to help you along the way!

Another thing to keep in mind is that you are not likely to sleep as soon as the sun sets (especially in the Winter). So, you will need to install lights that will provide equivalent brightness to natural light, and at the same time, ensure that the shift in lighting when you sleep feels natural.

Let’s look at this in two steps. Firstly, which light bulbs you should install to help prepare your body for sleep. And then, we will discuss the best type of lighting during sleep. We’ll also delve into how phone light affects your sleep and the perfect lighting for children during night time. Let’s get started!

Light to induce sleep

Light to induce sleep

Once the sun has set, it is important to start preparing your brain for the sleeping period, even though you will not be sleeping immediately. So, while you may use LED bulbs as a source of daytime lighting, the perfect light for the evening is emitted through fluorescent bulbs. These help your body produce melatonin, one of the most important hormones that help induce sleep.

Fluorescent light is bright enough to ensure that your room feels well-lit. It also helps ensure that the sleeping process comes naturally, and you don’t have to keep twisting and turning in your bed when it is time to sleep. Try to avoid shifting to a low-lit room as soon as it is evening, as this can be stressful for the eyes.

Fluorescent bulbs are also energy efficient so if you are staying up for a few extra hours past your bedtime, then keeping your bulbs on will only affect energy usage minimally.

Light to use during sleep

Sleeping in the dark is the best option but if you like to sleep with a light on then that can be fine as well. In that case, you should always opt for soft or blue lighting or a dim night light. According to multiple scientific studies, blue light helps ease your brain before and during sleep. It’s the opposite of yellow light which is the natural daytime light that we receive.

We are also prone to use our phones right before we sleep whether it’s just to run through our inbox or watch an episode of our favorite show. This can be harmful to the sleeping process but to give up this habit completely is quite difficult. Blue light, once again, is a great way to counteract this effect.

Since the light being emitted by the phone screens comprise largely of blue light, having non-blue light in the room makes its effect even stronger. But if you have a soft blue light illuminating the room, the light from your phone screen will feel natural. If you choose to turn off your phone or look away for a minute, your eyes will not have to readjust to the lighting in the room as well. Modern phones also have night modes that can help by using blue light.

Professionals also recommend blue lighting for night-time to many patients with insomnia or those with difficulty sleeping.

Light to use during sleep

Best night-light for children

Children’s eyes are more sensitive than an adult’s. So, if you have kids at home, you need to ensure that they have the ideal amount of lighting during their sleep. A sudden switch from yellow to white to blue light can harm their eyes in the long run.

Another important aspect is that children have a stronger affinity towards natural sleeping cycles. So, by using a dimmer, you can control the intensity of the light in the room and thereby lull them into a natural state of undisturbed sleep. Dimmers can be fitted with any form of light including LED.

Children often don’t like to sleep in complete darkness. Instead of having a strong bedside lamp that can serve an opposing purpose, you should choose to dim the overall light in the room, and thereby create the perfect sleeping atmosphere for your kids. Night lights can also be very helpful for kid’s in this situation, a dusk to dawn plug in nightlight will automatically emit a dim white light as the room gets dark and switch off as the day starts.

Summing Up

The lights in your bedroom dictate a lot of your bodily processes. You can choose to keep yourself up for long hours with the help of the correct lighting, and you can also induce natural sleep by changing the lights. Blue light is always the best option when it comes to sleeping with a light on.

However, for children, slowly dimming the amount of light in the room is a better option. While adult eyes are able to quickly adjust to a shift in the light from yellow to blue, children may find it harder. So, using a dimmer is the best option when it comes to setting up your kid’s bedroom lighting.

Make sure that you are putting in enough planning when choosing light bulbs for your home, as this will not only affect the condition of your eyes in the present but also affect the quality of your sleep.

author-avatar

About Nicky Walker

Nicola is a lighting specialist at The Lightbulb Company with a keen awareness of the important role lighting plays in our everyday lives. She enjoys discovering new ways in which lighting can affect science, mental health and of course, most of all, reduce our carbon footprints.