Light and sleep
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Ever since I was a kid I've been used to sleeping with a little bit of light in the room. Usually one of those blue bulbs in a little night light plugged into an wall outlet.
At our vacation home, we had strategically placed night lights that would go on automatically when it got dark. Even though we owned that house for 30 years, I always felt a little "off" when I woke up in the middle of the night. Like "where am I?" because the surroundings weren't my regular home where I spent 99% of the time.
FF to senior years, and I've added night lights in hallways and bathrooms to our Chicago house. Various factors that prompted me to do so included dogs sleeping on the floor and my night vision getting worse as I age. If you don't see a Newfoundland sleeping on dark-colored carpeting, well let me say it can be a hazard.
Now I read that those lights may be doing me in cognitively...
Your bedroom is probably not as dark as it should be. Even through closed eyelids, light streaming from the television or hallway can make its way into our retinas and harm our health and mental acuity the next day.
The deleterious health effects of nighttime light exposure are staggering.
Research has shown that even relatively dim light when we snooze — about the equivalent of a hallway light — can have surprisingly profound physiological effects, raising heart rates, reducing the duration of important sleep stages and increasing insulin resistance. In older adults, any light exposure at night was associated with higher rates of obesity, diabetes and hypertension.
Thankfully, there is a simple solution: Wear an eye mask when you sleep.
I think I may try one of these. I read about it elsewhere and it looks like a comfortable option for a sleep mask
If anyone here wears a sleep mask, whether for travel or daily use, and you have a recommendation I'd love to hear about it.
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The lights from the other buildings around us are pretty bright... I do have an eye mask but haven't been using it. I'm at risk for all of those things, so maybe I should start wearing one again! I like the shaped ones better than the flat ones, more comfortable on my eyes.
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I have never tried to sleep with an eye mask, but I sometimes put a small washcloth folded up over my eyes. My mother once implied that was dangerous, like that it could suffocate me? I don't see how, but maybe it's not the best idea.
Re light at night, I very much dislike having any light leaking into the bedroom. We have a nightlight in the hall that I actually swapped out to get one that wasn't as bright. But if we close the bedroom door, it gets too hot. Or if there's no light in the hall, it's dangerous because of where the stairs are. Maybe it will be better after we move....
