Sleeping while the light in your bedroom is on not only affects your sleep and wake cycles but can affect your mental health. This study indicates that there is a close link between symptoms of depression and exposure to light during sleep.
No matter how dim the light may be during bedtime, it can affect your mental health. Therefore, many other types of research indicate that there are many benefits of sleeping in a dark room for your mental health. As such, the following are some of the reasons why sleeping in the dark can be desirable.
Table of Contents
Effects of light during sleep
The significant notable effect of sleeping with light at night (LAN) is that it contributes to depression. Though it is not clear how depression is linked to LAN, it is believed to disrupt your continuous sleep cycle. It is generally agreed that disturbances in your sleep, such as watching neon lights, can cause depressive symptoms.
Light at night can inhibit the secretion of melatonin, a hormone that regulates your sleep-wake cycle. Light can disrupt your internal clock, and this affects the production of melatonin. This vital hormone is responsible for controlling mood-related symptoms like the ones usually associated with depression. Melatonin relieves depressive symptoms, and this helps to improve your mental health.
Lack of sleep due to light also lowers the release of serotonin, a hormone that helps your mind to feel sleepy. It also helps you to feel relaxed, and it drifts you into a sound sleep. The mind can awake or half-awake due to light, and this implies that it is still active. As such, the brain cannot release serotonin which helps you to fall asleep quickly and helps you to sleep longer.
Teenagers face a high risk of sleeping in rooms with a light on compared to seniors. The eyes of the teenagers are more sensitive to light compared to the adults. The light reception capacity of the eyes of senior people only accounts for one-fifth of that of the youths. Therefore, regardless of age, all sources of light should be shut during sleep time.
Why depression is an issue of concern
There are many effects of recession such as mood swinging, and this is not good for mental health. Depression can make you feel sad, and affect your day to day life. You can also lose interest in a lot of things which negatively affects your social life.
The other danger of depression is that it generates a sense of insecurity such that it can lead to withdrawal symptoms. The affected person withdraws himself from society and leads a miserable life. Other people may resort to substance abuse which only worsens the health state of mind.
The condition of depression can also lead you to become suicidal, and this can cause unnecessary loss of life. Therefore, depression should be avoided or cured before it posses a real threat to your life. You can treat depression naturally by improving your sleep patterns at night.
If you often sleep with the light on in your room, then you need to switch it off when you sleep. Avoiding light at night will surely go a long way in improving your mental health. Your mind can be in a position to secrete sufficient serotonin which is vital in uplifting your mood. When you are in good mental spirit, you can live a healthy social life. Likewise, you may not need any medication to treat depression.
Other effects of sleep deprivation due to light at night
Your brain’s ability to properly function depends on the quality of rest it gets at night. The mind is a complex organ that controls all functions of the entire body. Research shows that sleep deprivation reduces the flow of blood to specific areas of the brain. Such regions of the brain are responsible for controlling the thought processes at a higher level.
When the high level thought the process in the brain is affected, your logical reasoning capacity is changed. Your useful thinking skills are also affected, and this affects the way you present yourself or perform various tasks. Poor reasoning means that you cannot be able to solve challenging problems.
Lack of sleep can cause effects like memory loss as well as failure to concentrate. Your mind cannot remember certain things because it is not stable. Such kind of scenario is terrible since this can negatively affect your work leading to poor results in whatever you do. The cognitive speed to respond to specific issues also suffers when the mind is not in good health condition.
The other issue is that lack of sleep that may be caused by light at night can negatively affect your decision-making process. Your reaction time is also affected, and this leads to poor judgment. As a result, you may end up getting injured or involved in fatal accidents. To prevent these scenarios, you need to take enough rest by improving your sleeping habits. Sleeping in the dark is an excellent remedy for mental problems caused by lack of sleep.
Benefits of sleeping in complete darkness
Sleeping in a completely dark room is healthy for your mind since it can get the proper rest. The body can continuously rest for the recommended seven to eight hours for a healthy body and mind. During this period, the brain restores some cells so that it remains in good mental health state. If sleep is disrupted, the mind cannot be able to perform vital functions that affect the nervous system.
When there is some form of light in the room you are sleeping, no matter dim or bright, the brain receives a signal that keeps it awake. During the period your mind is awake instead of sleeping, it will be active, and this prevents it from secreting melatonin that plays a pivotal role in regulating sleep patterns in all human beings.
The other problem with light at night is that it interrupts your sleep and you can then fail to get sleep. The internal clock in mind gives a wrong impression that it is daytime when in fact the mind should be resting. Extended periods in light affect the timetable of the brain to perform different tasks.
As the above study notes, sleeping in total darkness is a viable option that can help prevent depression. It indicates that people who have a habit of sleeping in rooms with light at night have high chances of developing depression if they continue performing the exercise. As a result, mental health suffers, and individual performance in different things is also affected.
It is, therefore, good practice to make sure that you sleep in a dark room since there are many benefits from this practice visit our website for tips. It is a noble idea to prevent certain conditions that can lead to diseases instead of seeking medication afterward.
Switching off the lights during bedtime cannot be something very challenging. Your body will also get ample time to rest in an appropriate environment that will not disturb the mind. In other words, some of the mental health challenges can be easily solved without using any medication.
References
https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/wellbeing/2018/03/31/sleeping-light-depression/
https://www.rd.com/health/wellness/reason-you-need-to-sleep-in-the-dark/
Trish Boudreaux
Trish, which is her pen name, is a New Orleans native who works in the insurance industry. She is married and enjoys reviewing and testing out new mattresses in a quest for the best night’s sleep. She is honest and upfront without being pushy or sales driven. Read More.
