Sleep is one of the most important activities of our daily lifestyle, a minimum of 8hours of sleep is advised for keeping good health and mind. Our brain releases the chemical melatonin that helps us to get ready for bed, during the sleep period our entire body rejuvenates itself, conserves energy, balances hormones etc.
Though sleep is important but it is crucial to sleep in right conditions. Many people prefer to keep lights on or have night lamps on during sleeping for reasons like to deal with fear of darkness, insomnia and some just to be safe from the boogie man hiding under the bed. But, this practice can cause health problems for life.
Studies have shown that light at night can become a means to cause obesity in people irrespective of gender along with diabetes and hypertension. When exposed to lights at night the melatonin levels in our body changes that disrupts the circadian rhythm and weight gain causing prior mentioned diseases.
Lights during sleep can interfere with the sleep-wake cycle that can affect the quality and amount of sleep and other diseases like secretion of insulin, having pitch dark while sleeping protects the eyes too.
Lack of sleep has been associated to depression. In the journal of affective disorders, 2013 a study has been published that people struggling with depression had been exposed to high levels of night light. Melatonin boosts our sleep and lights at night lessens it causing poor sleep.
Type 2 diabetes is another disease caused due to keeping lights on during sleep. Researchers have found that diabetic patients had nighttime light exposure around four hours before bedtime but when the time span is increased the numbers increased to 51%. Decrease in melatonin levels affects other hormones like glucose and leptin which controls your appetite and glucose.
It is also found that usage of smartphones and other screen gadgets that emit blue light suppresses melatonin levels therefore exposure to light of any form while sleeping or around bedtime can cause life threatening diseases.