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Best Lighting for Health
Circadian lighting, including sunlight-mimicking light blubs, low blue light lights, no-blue bulbs, and red night lights. Scroll to the bottom to learn all about light and your health.
Best Low-Blue Lights for Evening
Sweet Dreams Amber LED
BlockBlueLight’s Sweet Dreams light bulb doesn’t have any blue light, and casts a yellow glow. Ideal for evening hours, this bulb is circadian rhythm supportive. These last for years, and INTMED10 gets you 10% off. I use these in my reading room before bed.
SORAA Zeroblue LED
These light bulbs are made with almost no blue light (less than 2%) but resemble a more normal light bulb than other blue light blocking bulbs, emitting your classic 2700K “warm white” light rather than the more yellow hue of most no-blue bulbs. Dimmable.
Best Red Lights for Bed Time
Twilight LED
This red light bulb by Block Blue Light is the most melatonin-optimizing option. 100% blue and green light free, this is ideal for lamps on the night stand. It comes in 40w and 60w options so you can still read and see well, without disturbing your circadian rhythm. These last for years, and discount code INTMED10 gets you 10% off.
Loftie makes a very cute and modern red light bedside lamp that’s great as is, but can also be used as a sunrise lamp. Pairs with their excellent alarm clock.
Best Low-Blue Night Lights
Loftie makes very cute low-blue night lights in amber and red options that will cause less wakefulness like standard night lights with more blue in their glow do, so you can easily get back to sleep after safely walking around with a night light. Automatic sensors.
This is a 100% blue and green light -free night light. It has an adjustable dimmer and automatic sensor to turn off when it’s light out.
Healthiest Day Time Light Bulbs
BioLight Full Spectrum LED
Blue light in the morning and afternoon are a good thing — it sets your entire circadian rhythm for the day and is the first step to better melatonin release at night! It also helps keep you alert and focused in the morning. The BioLight from BlockBlueLight is a circadian rhythm light bulb that mimics sunlight much better than a standard LED bulb. It has a healthy amount of blue light, and a fuller spectrum of all colors, too. In addition, it has a convenient 3-way switch that changes settings— to low blue for the evening and zero blue light for nighttime use.
All-Day Circadian Lighting
Blackout Curtains and Blinds
What I Use in My Home
More Healthy Design For You
More About Healthy Lights
What is the circadian rhythm?
Your body’s 24-hour cycle, also called its Circadian Rhythm, is a delicate and orchestrated set of signals telling your body what to do at the right times. It’s synced with the sun and moon, and light is the biggest way these signals are released— for example, low light in the evenings tells your body to start releasing the hormone melatonin, so you get sleepy. Bright light suppresses the release of melatonin, so you feel awake.
And, it’s not just melatonin— your circadian rhythm also releases hormones that control your blood pressure, bowel movements, hunger, and heart rate, all depending on the time of day.
In addition to hormones, you even have clock genes that help tell your cells what time it is and what to do, when. For example, during the night hours, DNA repairs are made, so you don’t get cancer.
What controls circadian rhythm?
The number one controller of your body’s circadian rhythm is sunlight. This obviously got a little more complicated when humans made the leap to electric lighting after hundreds of thousands of years. And, in the hundred or so years since, we’ve added brighter, bluer lights, all over our homes, impacting our circadian rhythm in less natural ways, more and more.
Is blue light bad for you?
Too much is. Excess blue light exposure is associated with insomnia, sleep disturbance, eye strain and macular degeneration, and incredibly, an increased risk of breast and prostate cancer. However, natural blue light is necessary in the mornings and day time and is a natural part of the spectrum from the sun. Exposure to bright, blue light in the morning improves sleep, mood, and alertness.
What does the natural light spectrum look like?
These are the wavelengths of colors that come from natural light sources— the sun, and fire. At noon, the sun emits a smooth even spread of all colors of light.
As it gets closer to evening, the sun emits much less blue light, and almost all red light. The lack of blue light sends a signal to our body to produce melatonin and we start to get sleepy.
Fires and candles produce a smooth spread of light, almost entirely in the red end of the spectrum.
What does an incandescent bulb’s light spectrum look like?
Patented by Thomas Edison, these were used from 1879 until their production and sales were banned in the US in 2023. The spectrum is smooth, and looks a lot like candlelight.
Why are incandescent bulbs banned in the US?
For many good reasons— they produce a lot of heat, have to be replaced more often than LEDs, and are far less energy efficient. The production of new bulbs is illegal here, but existing ones can still be bought and used. You can also purchase them in other countries where they haven’t been banned.
Are LED lights toxic?
LEDs, including TVs and “cool” or standard LEDs, emit a lot of blue light! The spectrum of wavelengths they emit is not as smooth, and there’s very little red. This can disturb your circadian rhythm, and many people complain that the light they produce feels creepy, or “off.” Over the years, warm white LEDs and now, no-blue LEDs have been developed, which are a lot more like incandescent bulbs. They’re still not quite the same, but they’re certainly getting closer.
Are fluorescent lights bad for you?
Fluorescent lights (also called CFLs) do emit a small amount of radiation and contain a small amount of mercury, so keeping your distance from them, and being especially careful if one breaks, is essential. They also have a really strange looking spectrum — this is why they feel so creepy.
What do the Ks mean on light bulbs?
K stands for Kelvin, and is a measure of how “warm” or “cool” the light coming from the bulb looks. The Kelvin scale doesn’t match up perfectly with the wavelength scale, but in general, the higher the Kelvin number (like 6,000K) the cooler and bluer light a light bulb emits. Low Kelvin numbers, like 2,100K, mean a light bulb emits warm, amber colored light.
What is light pollution?
Light pollution simply means the excessive, or poor use of, artificial light. Depending on the lightbulbs in your home and how bright they are, this can come from inside any time of day. It can come from outside, too. Outdoor light pollution easily finds its way into your home through cracks in blinds and curtains at night.
How dark should my bedroom be at night?
Your bedroom should have less than 5 lux of light while you’re sleeping for ideal health. For reference, the full moon on a clear night generates 1 lux. By comparison, and a single LED street light generates 5,000 lux. Even a very small amount of night time light (5 lux) can disturb your clock genes and cause circadian rhythm problems.
What is circadian lighting?
Circadian lighting uses artificial lighting like LED light bulbs to mimic the natural change in sunlight — changing from bright, blue light in the morning, to dimmer, redder light in the evening.
Circadian Lighting
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