I blogged about my purchase of an eye mask for sleeping here.
I like it. No more being bothered by the hall light, the bathroom light, and the lights in other family members’ bedrooms when their doors are left open.
But it turns out that I’m not just doing this for the sake of family harmony. Sleeping in the dark is also good for my cardiovascular health. This week, I read that nighttime artificial light exposure is a big risk factor for developing cardiovascular diseases among adults older than 40 years.
What I read: Nighttime exposure to light may raise cardiovascular risk by up to 50% (Harvard Gazette)
Nearly 890,000 women and men wore wrist bands that collected data on light for more than a decade. Compared with the half with fairly to very dark nights, the 10% with the brightest nights had nearly a third higher risks of developing coronary artery disease.
This risk of heart attack, stroke and other heart failures, including atrial fibrillation, was high even after adjusting for the well-established cardiovascular risk factors. These include physical activity, smoking, alcohol, diet, socioeconomic status, polygenic risk and even sleep hours/interuptions. The women studied were slightly more prone to the effect than men.
Published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, the study strongly suggests that, in addition to current preventive advice for heart health, getting a good night’s sleep with no light at night is a useful strategy for reducing cardiac and vascular diseases.
You can read the study here, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2840489
This incentivizes me to get more specific about closing the blackout blinds in my bedroom at night. NYC has SO much ambient light. And I like waking up and looking at the sky. And, I realize that’s why I got remotely operated blinds!