There is ample evidence that being exposed to so-called blue light, especially at night can be harmful to your health and contribute to insomnia.
The reason is that our gadgets, like laptops and tablets emit blue light that suppresses the production of melatonin in our bodies. Screen time at night therefor can attribute to a lack of melatonin when you are about to go to sleep.
The easiest remedy is of course to get rid of all electronic devices 3 hours before bedtime to ensure that nothing influences melatonin production. But that is not always possible, especially not in situations like the one I find myself in, where I very often have to work nights to communicate with colleagues in other parts of the world. I installed f.lux (great free program) on my laptop. It makes the color of the display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and brighter during the day.
When I started searching the internet to see what I could do to limit my blue light exposure, I discovered that we absorb blue light through our eyes. So one recommendation is to wear blue-light blocking eyewear, which aren’t cheap. However, I noticed that they had were orange-tinted glasses. Considering the costs, I thought it was worth buying a cheap $10 pair of orange-tinted sun glasses to see if that would work.
Guess what? Sure they look weird, but they get the job done. I faithfully wear my glasses after 8pm to ensure I block blue waves and it improved my sleep. Cheap fix that I wanted to share with you so you can spend your money on what really counts: running gear.
Happy sleeping!
