Every horror movie, every spooky gossip session with your friend, surely does tempt you to sleep with the lights on, but is it as safe as it feels? Research shows that sleeping with the lights on could cause more harm than you can imagine.
While this might seem like a harmless habit for many, sleeping with the lights on is said to be far more dangerous to your health than you might expect. What feels like a comfort might indeed be a threat to your heart, hormones, and overall health, often without showing any immediate symptoms.
How Sleeping With Lights On Silently Strains The Heart
Exposure to light during bedtime can harm the body’s biological clock. It makes it difficult to achieve good sleep while linking the body to several other diseases. According to Dr Anis Rehman, Internal Medicine Physician, “Exposure to light during the night may increase the risk for metabolic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.”
This happens because light, even at low intensity, prevents the body from entering its natural recovery mode. This exposure to light at night can disrupt the body’s circadian rhythm, the “natural clock” that regulates the sleep cycle. This can further cause metabolic imbalances and disrupt the body’s cardiovascular regulation, increasing the risk of heart disease.
The SLEEP study’s author, Minjee Kim, M.D., an assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s Centre for Circadian and Sleep Medicine in Chicago, explains, “The link between light at night and cardiovascular disease has been overlooked for a long time. Now, people are beginning to recognise that this is a problem.”
Melatonin suppression is another silent driver of this issue. Melatonin, often known as the “sleep hormone”, plays an important role in supporting cardiovascular health.
Low levels of melatonin might lead to higher blood pressure and reduced cardiovascular protection. When light reduces melatonin production, the body naturally loses its natural armour that would otherwise keep the heart functioning smoothly.
Long-Term Consequences
While this may seem harmless to most, it is important to realise that the body actually sees prolonged exposure to light, especially at night, as a threat. Not only does it have immediate adverse effects like irritation of the eyes, headaches, or disrupted sleep, but it also makes the body vulnerable to long-term diseases like obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.
According to Business Standard, researchers said “physiological confusion” from light causes an increase in heart rate, high blood pressure, and a surge in stress hormones.
A study titled Light Exposure at Night and Cardiovascular Disease Incidence, published by JAMA Network, highlighted that “People with the brightest outdoor nights (top 20 per cent) had a 7 per cent to 23 per cent greater risk of coronary heart disease compared with those with the darkest outdoor nights (lowest 20 per cent).”
Further, the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) conducted a study with over 43,000 women aged 35 to 74 years. As per the study, researchers found that women who slept with a light on were “more likely to be obese.” These women were also more prone (17 per cent more) to gain almost 11 pounds or more in the time to come.
A 2022 study by NIH (National Institutes of Health) reveals that even moderate exposure to light can reduce insulin sensitivity, causing the body to stay semi-alert and unable to rest fully. This is especially relevant to metro cities in India like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, and Hyderabad, where exposure to artificial lights is higher than in other cities across the country.
This, combined with long work shifts, increased screen time, and irregular sleep schedules, makes the Indian population, workers as well as students, prone to the ill-effects of excess light exposure at night.
Read More: Does Every Phone Ring Feel Like A Mini Panic Attack?
How To Protect Yourself
The best part is that even though sleeping with the lights on can cause a plethora of health issues, it can still be reversed. Inculcating simple, effective changes can instantly help to improve the problems that this brings.
Dr Chester Wu, board-certified in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine, explains, “Sleeping with the lights on can lead to more nighttime awakenings and health issues like obesity, type 2 diabetes, and even depression. And your body can detect light, even when you’re sleeping. If you feel like you can’t drift off without some light, make your bedroom as dim as possible.”
Below are a few ways to protect your circadian rhythm:
Using dim lights: This will help the body understand when to slow down.
Keeping the room as dark as possible: Avoiding extremely bright lights and drawing the curtains to avoid light from brightly lit roads might help.
Limiting screen time a few hours before bedtime: Experts often advise reducing gadget use a few hours before bedtime so that the body’s melatonin levels can rise naturally.
Maintaining a fixed sleep schedule: Sleeping and waking up at the same time trains the body’s natural clock and reduces disruption of metabolic disorders caused by irregular sleep schedules.
Why This Matters
India is rapidly chasing its urban dreams, and with it, several new changes in lifestyle are taking place too. As the work culture evolves, the population seems to be skewing towards late hours and highly screen-oriented job roles. This leads the quality of sleep to decline, further impacting our health and metabolism and causing other long-term diseases.
The JAMA Network study titled Light Exposure at Night and Cardiovascular Disease Incidence concluded that “Avoiding light at night may be a useful strategy for reducing risks of cardiovascular diseases.”
Sleeping with the lights on might feel like a simple habit, but with time, it leads to the disruption of our natural body rhythms that are meant to heal us. By making small changes in our daily habits, we can give our bodies the space and time to restore.
Images: Google Images
Sources: Times Of India, Business Standard, National Institutes of Health
Find the blogger: @shubhangichoudhary_29
This post is tagged under: sleep health, sleeping with lights on, circadian rhythm, melatonin, cardiovascular health, heart disease risk, metabolic health, obesity risk, insomnia, sleep hygiene, sleep tips, artificial light exposure, blue light effects, urban lifestyle India, health research India, JAMA study, NIH study, night light effects, sleep disorders, wellness tips India, healthy habits, sleep schedule, screen time effects, mental and physical health, light pollution India
Disclaimer: We do not hold any right or copyright over any of the images used; these have been taken from Google. In case of credits or removal, the owner may kindly email us.
Other Recommendations:
Little Treat Culture: Why Gen Z’s Favourite Coping Mechanism Might Be Backfiring
