Are you living under junk light?
Why light is fundamental to health
What is junk light?
Signs you are feeling the effects of junk light
Junk light and fertility issues
Junk light and diabetes
Junk light and depression
Junk light and children's development
The dangers of blue light
Choosing biological lighting for your living and work spaces
Why light is fundamental to health
Why light is fundamental to health
Light is the main signaller for the body's circadian rhythm cycles, or our biological clocks, that direct our body to sleep, eat, and wake up. Even our organs have individual circadian cycles. Full spectrum sunlight (290-420nm wavelengths) are important frequencies of light that drives a master clock or the SCN (suprachiasmatic nucleus), which is located in the anterior region of the hypothalamus above the optic nerves that send signals from the eyes to the brain. Its main input is via the retina and other parts of the brain.
The SCN directly responds to light, and is the reason why we have sleep-wake cycles that are determined by light exposure. Artificial light disrupts this clock and its circadian rhythms, which may contribute to chronic insomnia, as well as other chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and cancer. Under the wrong light, your body is confused about what to do when and starts doing them at the wrong time.
Hormonal production, including melatonin, depends on this tiny gland. Cortisol’s circadian rhythm is essential for our health, playing a role in various processes that impact metabolism, repair cells, and strengthen our immune system.
The master clock controls all biological activities, including body temperature, brain wave activity, sleep-wake cycle, hormone production, cell regeneration. Disruptions in your HPA axis circadian rhythm can increase the risk of developing chronic conditions like obesity, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
Dysfunction here is not easily fixed by adrenal supplements. It must be fixed by limiting blue light and maximising exposure to the sun.
Sunlight always comes well-balanced with both red and blue spectrums of light. However, artificial lighting have distorted spectrums.
Light influences the diversity of our gut health as a species across the world too. The human gut microbial diversity has been reported to be lower in industrialized populations as compared to non‐industrialized ones. Since it is also reduced in individuals with some metabolic and inflammatory diseases as compared to healthy ones, this “loss” of diversity in industrialized populations is currently considered to be a public health issue. Besides diet, sanitation, medication, host genetics, and/or other unidentified factors, light depending on the latitude that you live in correlate with species diversity.
What is junk light?
Junk light is light that is mismatched and even disruptive to biological needs. Many modern light sources are missing important spectrums or have altered frequencies, giving rise to “flicker”.
Today we use LED bulbs and fluorescents lights to save energy and money. This is the spectrum of the LED light bulbs that have replaced much of the lighting used today; it is one of the biggest technological shifts in modern history that gets little more than a passing nod on its impact on society. LEDs are much brighter and use less power, however, they have a bright blue emission spike from the LED itself.
Comparing natural and artificial lighting sources in terms of power spectrum, color temperature, and the characteristics of flickering, glare, UV emission, and IR emission.
Rhodopsin is the primary photoreceptor molecule of vision. Light striking a rhodopsin molecule in a photoreceptor cell of the retina is converted into a biochemical signal by a photochemical reaction. The signal is processed by other cells in the retina and sent to the brain.
Such lightbulbs actually increase light pollution in cities. One stark example is they have changed how cities look from space. The fluorescence of the phosphor coating in the bulb (if used) is seen in the green, yellow, and red spectrums. the 290-420nm wavelengths of full spectrum sunlight is completely absent.These are the frequency of light that drives the retinal-SCN-hypothalamic pineal tract in humans during daylight.
It is difficult to find lights with colour temperatures <2000K. The lowest color temperature is ∼2500K for incandescent bulbs, whereas these values are typically between 3000 and 5000K for warm- or cold-white fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescent lamps, and LEDs.
Junk light and fertility and conception
Melatonin is more than a “sleep hormone”. It is a master regulator of the circadian rhythms, antioxidant, and is anticarcinogenic.
Melatonin influences influence a wide variety of cellular processes that affect cancer, heart disease and even fertility. New research suggests that melatonin plays a crucial role in a variety of physiological processes, including fertility and fetal development. Healthy melatonin levels are necessary for optimal fertility. Eggs, like all cells in the human body, are exposed to free radicals that can cause DNA damage. Melatonin actually acts as an antioxidant in the ovaries, removing free radicals and preventing cellular damage.
This maternal melatonin plays several roles in a fetus. It conveys information about dark and light cycles to the fetal brain, helping the developing child to begin forming its own circadian rhythm. In addition, melatonin is believed to play an important role in activating certain genes that are essential to proper development from conception through birth.
This study explores melatonin’s role in healthy pregnancies. Its pregnancy night-time concentrations increase after 24 weeks of gestation, with significantly high levels after 32 weeks. Melatonin receptors are widespread in the embryo and fetus since early stages. There is solid evidence that melatonin is neuroprotective and has a positive effect on the outcome of the compromised pregnancies.
Junk light and diabetes
Chronic blue light exposure elevates Blood Sugar Among Electrically Sensitive Diabetics and May explain Brittle Diabetes and type 1 cases. By closely following plasma glucose levels in four Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics, the study finds that they responded directly to the amount of dirty electricity in their environment. In an electromagnetically clean environment, Type 1 diabetics require less insulin and Type 2 diabetics have lower levels of plasma glucose. Dirty electricity, generated by electronic equipment and wireless devices, is ubiquitous in the environment. Exercise on a treadmill, which produces dirty electricity, increases plasma glucose. These findings may explain why brittle diabetics have difficulty regulating blood sugar.
Junk light and sleep and depression
Poor light creates poor sleep. One way light affects sleep is via the photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs). They are distinct from the more well known rods and cones and the most sensitive to blue light. They signal the SCN in the brain about the amount of light they are receiving, keeping our bodily processes synchronised to the day/night cycle in sync.
In 2001 it was discovered that exposing the eyes to light in the blue end of the visible spectrum suppresses the production of melatonin, commonly known as the sleep hormone. Sleep researchers won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2001 for discovering the mechanism behind our body’s 24-hour sleep cycle, including its relation to melatonin.
Melatonin modulates autophagy (clearing out the junk) and has been repeatedly observed to inhibit the growth of several tumor cell lines. However, Bright light exposure suppressed melatonin by almost 90 percent, and the effects persisted even after the kids returned to dim light. Sleeping in darkness is important too. Adults who sleep with even a little light in their bedrooms are far likelier to experience symptoms of depression. Animals sleep in dim light gain 50% more weight than counterparts who sleep in darkness, even when they eat the same amount of calories.
New mothers need to get up during the night to care for their babies. This is the time when melatonin is normally flowing. Exposing their eyes (and skin) to light cuts off the flow. It also hijacks their circadian (internal) clock. On subsequent nights the melatonin may not begin flowing at the normal time making it difficult to fall asleep. Over time, disruption of the circadian rhythm plus sleep deprivation may result in depression.
Sleep deprivation can cause depression. So can poor light cycles. Researchers exposed rodents to alternating periods of light and dark for 14 days. Then, researchers tested the mice for behavioral and hormonal signs of depression and brain functioning. The altered-light cycle caused a spike in the stress hormone cortisol, which led to depression-like symptoms, delayed learning, and adverse effects on the rodents’ memory—even though the mice got sufficient sleep throughout the experiment.
Junk light and children
Children’s eyes are anatomically slightly different. They let in more light, and any exposure to bright light before bedtime can throw their body clocks out of whack. Blue light can travel right passed the cornea and directly hit the retina much more easily than when kids’ eyes have fully developed.
The dangers of blue light
Blue light by itself does not exist in nature. It must be kept balanced with the other frequencies of light in the sun for our human biology.
As part of the visible spectrum (approximately 380nm to 780nm) of electromagnetic radiation, the blue-colored bands of light, or high-energy visible (HEV) light, are much more energetic than their longer wavelength counterparts. They penetrate deeper into the eye than other wavelengths of light, and can cause changes in retinal tissues, including the macula.
Blue wavelengths of 415nm to 455nm were found to be damaging to the retina, the wavelengths between 450nm to 550nm provide the strongest stimulation of circadian and neuroendocrine responses
Being exposed to blue light in the evening hijacks our circadian rhythm, creating a cascade of health problems via oxidative stress and mitochondrial apoptosis. It has also been shown to cause inflammatory apoptosis and DNA damage [5].
Light-emitting-diode (LED)-induced retinal neuronal cell damage
LED blue-light exposure poses a great risk of retinal injury in rod-dominant animals. blue LED group induced more functional damage than that of green or red LED groups. The wavelength-dependent effect should be considered carefully when switching to LED lighting applications.
We know that blue light is the most harmful to the retina and ocular surface. Read about junk light dangers and myopia and eye health here.
Why choose better lighting
Our body is designed to be sensitive to environmental cues, and light is the most important factor that controls every physiological process. The quality of light you live under determines how well your body’s circadian rhythms run, creating a cascade of health effects.
Regulates circadian rhythms for better sleep
Improves short and long-term health
Boosts productivity and focus
Enhances physical, mental and emotional well-being
Creating biological lighting for your living and work spaces
Here are simple tips you can do to get the fundamentals of light right for your space.
Choose full-spectrum lighting. Traditional halogen and incandescent bulbs use heat to create light, and have the full spectrum of light. LEDs and fluorescents are not full spectrum bulbs because they do not have 290-390 nm light.
Block blue light from digital devices, especially after sunset. Choose something rated that will block 400nm to 550nm, which also covers the green spectrum. The 475nm to 550nm bands are green. Research is showing that the green band is also problematic for migraines and invoking seizures.
For example, I wear blue blockers after dark and install the Iris software on my laptop (Another option is f.lux, though Iris blocks 100% of non-red light and also stops flicker.)
Plan biological appropriate times for tasks. how and when a person consumes screens is just as important as the activity itself. If it's in the day when the sun is out and coming through the windows, a screen should not be as disruptive compared to evening use. Have enough lighting (preferably natural) behind or on the sides, so the TV or computer monitor is not the main source of light in the room. This is especially important for children, as they are developing their hormonal and circadian rhythms.
Ensure your indoor spaces have natural, unfiltered sunlight. Most glass and a lot of modern plastics block UV frequencies, hence you need to crack open the windows. When UV wavelengths 290-415nm are subtracted, absent, or blocked from the human eye chronically for any reason, the pupil remain larger than it otherwise would be. Full spectrum sunlight contain 290-400 nm light. All life evolved with this light on earth. Almost all manufactured lenses of any kind back from 1930 until today are made so they block all UV frequencies of light.
Make a sleep sanctuary. Have you gone camping in the woods away from city lights? Your room should be pitch-black to emulate the best light-dark cycle.
Ensure your daytime spaces receive enough natural light. Although indoor lighting may appear adequate, the intensity is so low that our body’s circadian system perceives it to be nighttime. This can send confusing signals to our brain, negatively impacting our sleep, well-being, and health.
If you are doing a renovation, work with someone who prioritises good light, including material finishes, colour temperature, and even Melanopic Lux to Photopic Lux ratio (M/P ratio). Your lighting choice not only influences the comfort of the those who will live and work in that space. Contact me to see how I can work with you or alongside your interior design project manager on the best lighting solutions for your project.
Want to learn more about how to choose bio-based lighting into your home? Get in touch!
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