A simple low-cost way to improve your sleep quality and boost your brain health…
If you’ve ever had a bad night’s sleep (haven’t we all?), you’ll know just how terrible you feel the next day. It turns out that even if you actually think you’ve slept well, just one tiny little thing could actually be jeopardizing the quality of your sleep – and your health. And that’s how much light you have in your bedroom…
You might believe you’re sleeping in the dark, but those small amounts of light peeking through your curtains or under your door – as well as from a plethora of electronic devices – can have surprisingly high adverse effects on the health of both your body and mind.
A recent study has discovered that even the smallest and dimmest light can interfere with your mental alertness and memory by depriving you of the all-important restorative deep sleep your brain needs. It has also been found to lead to weight gain, diabetes, high blood pressure, poor heart health as well as depression. The benefits of a good night’s sleep for both your mental and physical health are truly way beyond what you even realize.
Fortunately, you don’t have to do much to fix this. Wearing a simple sleep mask will effectively block out any light and help you sleep considerably better at night. Even better, it’s all-natural, doesn’t involve any medication - and won’t cost you that much…
PROVEN BENEFITS OF SLEEPING WITH A SLEEP MASK
It makes absolute sense that nowadays people are struggling with health problems by not getting enough sleep at night. After all, we evolved as diurnal beings with a clear day/night cycle. With electricity, our ‘days’ became longer and the nights shorter, plus we introduced all sorts of lit-up electronic devices into our bedrooms. It’s no wonder our sleeping patterns have gone awry and we often land up with a serious case of brain fog in the morning.
Our brains are hard-wired to associate darkness with sleep, and only produce more melatonin when there is no light. Melatonin controls our sleep and wake cycle, and even a tiny bit of light leads to lower quality sleep as it disrupts effective melatonin production.
One of the clearest demonstrations of this phenomenon is an analysis of a number of studies on ICU patients who are exposed to light and whirring machines for 24 hours straight. By using both sleep masks and ear plugs, the analysis found a significant positive effect on the quality of their sleep.
Interestingly, they also found similar improvements when patients only used sleep masks, but not with ear plugs. So, the absence of light was more important than that of noise.
Another study found out just how profound the lack of good quality sleep can be on your health. Continual exposure to light at night was found to have a major long-term negative impact, being strongly associated with higher levels of obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure in older age.
But it’s not only your body that is affected. It’s also your mind and brain health. A recent study confirmed what we already instinctively know – that lack of good quality sleep has a major impact not only on mental alertness, but also our brain’s ability to encode and retrieve memories of daily events.
The study compared a battery of tests taken after a week of wearing a sleep mask compared to a week without the mask, and found superior memory, reaction time and mental alertness after wearing the mask.
A second experiment in the same study used a wearable device to monitor sleep with and without the mask. This found that wearing an eye mask resulted in more time spent in slow-wave sleep which is one of the major factors influencing memory improvement. So, when you sometimes think you may be losing your mind, it could easily be just because of poor quality sleep.
Clearly the benefits of sleeping with a sleep mask extend way beyond just improving how well you may think you have slept. They genuinely make a huge difference to both your body and brain health – and even better, do so naturally…
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HOW TO IMPROVE SLEEP QUALITY BY MANAGING LIGHT
Wear A Sleep Mask
One of the best things to help you sleep, this one is a no-brainer if you have limited control over the lighting in your bedroom – and even if you have. Most of all, sleep masks are easy and inexpensive to use – and they work.
Install Black Out Blinds
A much pricier option but if you feel uncomfortable wearing an eye mask, this is a highly effective way to prevent street lights peeking through your curtains, as well as filter out early morning sunlight. At the very least, ditch any see-through sheer, net or voile curtains, and opt for a heavier fabric option.
Darken Your Bedroom
Prep for your bedtime by signaling to your body that its almost time to go to sleep. A few hours before you go to bed, turn off all overhead light, in particular LED (or blue) lights which keep you awake, and opt for a low wattage lamp with warm (red/yellow) light which is much less likely to disrupt your circadian rhythm.
Remove Electronics From the Bedroom
This is another no-brainer. Any digital devices such as your TV, laptop and mobile, emit light and are proven to reduce sleepiness and sleep quality. Turn off the TV, and put your laptop and mobile in another room to remove any temptation to use them in bed. If you need some chill out time in bed before you go to sleep, rather read a book or magazine.
Cover Up Any Device Indicator Lights
This may sound a bit odd, but any form of light in your bedroom is a disruptor, even those tiny stand-by lights on your alarm clock and other devices. Cover them and any other similar small light sources with pieces of electrical tape.
Get Sunlight During The Day
If for any reason you’re not able to sleep in absolute darkness, then increase your exposure to sunlight during the day. This helps keep your circadian rhythm in sync, strengthens your sleep-wake cycle and promotes good sleep health. If you can, get out into the sun with the first couple of hours of waking up.
Wear Blue Light Glasses
If you have to work late into the evening on your computer, get some blue light glasses to reduce your exposure. Wearing blue-light blocking devices two hours before bedtime has been found to significantly improve sleep quality and duration, as well as reduce insomnia.
Limit Screen Time
That being said, it’s far better to habitually reduce total screen time in the evenings, not only to minimize blue light, but also due to the stimulating nature of electronic devices. A study found that heavy screen use is associated with difficulty in falling asleep, waking up multiple times at night, less sleep time, as well as poor sleep quality.
Make a habit of putting your devices into their own “sleep mode” a couple of hours before bed. Turn off notifications, put your phone into grayscale mode, block apps you habitually visit in the evening, and leave your mobile in another room.
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If you’ve always thought that diet and exercise are the most important things to guarantee good health and longevity, perhaps you should think again.
Research has clearly shown that even the tiniest bit of light exposure when you sleep – from your alarm clock or that small sliver peeking through your curtains - can have remarkably adverse effects on not only your body, but also your brain.
Investing in a simple eye mask to improve the quality of your sleep can make a world of difference to your brain health and mental well-being. Maybe it’s now time to also look after your mind…
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