Light Pollution Linked to Lousy Sleep, Dementia and Other Chronic Diseases
Illumination from outside (or inside) is really bad for you, multiple studies find. But there’s an easy fix.
My wife often falls asleep with YouTube videos running on her phone. The apparently soothing sounds of people DIYing anything from oil changes to chicken coop construction help her sleep, she claims. I’m dubious. But she listens via earbuds, so I can’t hear any of it. Even so, the light annoys the heck out of me.
So I think I’ll send her this story, which sheds light on why we should all shoot for total darkness in the bedroom — replicating the reality of sleeping conditions throughout 99.999% of human existence.
The upshot: Even a little bit of light at night, from outdoor light pollution or generated inside the bedroom, sneaks through our translucent eyelids and impairs sleep duration and quality — without us even realizing it — leading to higher risk of stress, anxiety, cancer, and numerous other chronic physical diseases and mental health conditions.
And now this…
