A new study suggests that exposure to ambient light while sleeping at night can lead to elevated heart rate and increased blood sugar the next day.
Study lead author Phyllis Zee, chief of sleep medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a press release The study results show that a night of moderate light exposure during sleep can “impair glucose and cardiovascular regulation.”
The study, which was published on Monday in PNAS, tested the effect of sleeping in moderate light and sleeping in dim light for a single night. Participants exposed to moderate light showed a higher level of alertness.
The researchers noted similarities between the way a person’s nervous system reacts to light during the day, when light heightens awareness and increases heart rate, and while sleeping.
“Even though you are asleep, your autonomic nervous system is activated. That’s bad. Typically, your heart rate along with other cardiovascular parameters are lower at night and higher during the day,” said Daniela Grimaldi, co-author and research assistant professor of neurology at Northwestern.
Meanwhile, the researchers also found a link between sleeping in a lighted room and diabetes and obesity. They noted that people exposed to light while sleeping showed increased insulin resistance the next morning, which over time can lead to elevated blood sugar levels. Zee said this added to the findings of a previous study that found that healthy people who were exposed to light during sleep were more overweight and obese.
“Now we’re showing a mechanism that could be instrumental in explaining why this happens,” Zee said. “We show that it is affecting their ability to regulate glucose.”
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“In addition to sleep, nutrition, and exercise, light exposure during the day is an important driver for health, but at night we show that even modest light intensity can affect measures of heart and endocrine health.” Zee added.
Zee then offered advice on ways to mitigate the effects of nighttime light exposure. First, she said, keep the lights off. If this is not possible, avoid exposure to blue light such as from screens and keep it away from a sleeping person. If lights are necessary, choose a less stimulating color. Finally, Zee recommends blackout curtains or eye coverings.
There is a neat way to determine if one’s room is too bright, according to Zee.
“If you can see things very well, it’s probably too light,” Zee said.
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