So as many of you know, there are specialized
cells within your retina that sense light that thereby influence your body's circadian clock system neuro endocrine functions, like your mood, your affect memory, focus, sleep, attention, and even hormone regulation. So what we're going to do today is take a deeper dive into the neurochemistry of this and talk about this new paper, which was a conglomeration of multiple experts in the field of circadian, physiology and retinal physiology to help you better understand the recommendations for how much light you should.
Be getting during the day and how to avoid artificial light exposure in the three-hour window before bed. And also why you're sleeping because it turns out that light is almost like a nutrient. It's as important as protein as macros as exercise as sleep. It's really influential and impacts neurocognitive function impact circadian, rhythms, impacts hormones and everything throughout your body. And we're going to really sort of drill down on this and I would encourage you to actually get a meter that can assess light. I've just purchased
One, it should be coming tomorrow. So we'll do a little video review of that later in the week, so that you can really fully appreciate, you know, if you're getting your quantify to quantify how much light you're getting during the day, and then to actually go into your home and see. Gosh. This is exceeding. The amount of intensity of light that is, you know, considered healthy by this expert panel that could, you know, if you're getting excessive amounts of Light, how you could mitigate that to improve your sleep to
Prove, your mood, your memory, your focus, your attention, turns out that when you're exposed to artificial light at night, it can impair your attention the next day. It can impact. Melatonin release growth hormone. Release. We know there's this epidemic of low testosterone of adrenal fatigue early menopause perimenopause. Well, what if we're just having excessive amounts of artificial light, that is, you know, sort of augmenting, our circadian clock system. And so we should be a little bit more Vigilant about
That. And what I love about this paper is they help to quantify the amount of Lux that you should be getting during the day. And by the way, the Luxe is the way to quantify the intensity of light. For example, if you stare right at the Sun, that quantifies, you know, getting over 1000 Lux by being outside during the day and so forth. And if you're in an office, it might be say, 500 Lux. If you're watching TV, it's in the 400 range, when it really should be in the 30 range in the three-hour window before bed. If you're staring.
At your phone, it's about 60 Lux, which is double what the expert consensus panel recommends in terms of how much intensity that light is impacting. These intrinsically photosensitive, retinal ganglion cells that communicate with the suprachiasmatic nucleus within your hip hypothalamus that influences your whole Central and peripheral circadian clock system. So again, you have photo sensing retinal cells. These melanopsin photo sensing cells within your retina. This this is part of the
Visual part of the eye. I believe they're part of the cones of the eye, but this pigment is able to pick up on light, intensity in that intensity influences, then your circadian, physiology melatonin, release growth hormone, release cortisol, leptin. All of these hormones that have imbalance levels in people that are overweight. That have cardiovascular risk factors that have a heart attack, you know, the circadian clock system is impossible to disentangle from all of these different diseases and ailments and
problems. And so, since light is such a big influencer in the jargon that they use and in trainer because light in trains the circadian clock system, it sort of feeds, the fly will of the diurnal. Rhythms. We need lightness. And we also need Darkness at the right times. And so, we're going to dive into this paper and talk about the nuances and talk about the specifics about how much daylight you should be getting about how to avoid artificial light in the three-hour window before bed and how to make sure your bedroom.
Is really dark. Because there was a really interesting study finding that people that had a small amount of light coming through the bedroom. Independent, of other factors, increase risk factors, predicting a future, heart attack. So, you got to think about this, in the context. If you're doing everything to minimize, our vascular risk factors, and lose weight and be healthy, but yet you have a TV in your bedroom or you have a nightlight or something to that effect. You could be, you know, sort of jumping over dollars to save pennies. So the title of this paper is recommendations.
Or daylight evening and nighttime indoor light exposure to best support physiology sleep and wakefulness in healthy adults. This was recently published in plos biology and I will link that Below in the show notes and and much more. So, friends before we get into it and talk about the specifics as always. I just want to thank you for being here. Thank you for that like button. Thank you for sharing this directly with a friend via text message. So hey, watch this video. There's cool images. You got to check this out and be more mindful about light exposure, also friends, one of the things, one of the tools that we have over at our sister company my oh science.
Solutions to help in train and support your body's circadian rhythms, like adrenal extracts. In the morning can be very helpful for helping to kick start that circadian. Awakening response in circadian, rhythms in kick-starting, cortisol, release and much more. Also in the evening. We have a great powdered sleep support formula that has inositol l-theanine touring Gaba magnesium. So this is part electrolyte part sleep enhancement and part healthy glucose metabolism. And so he's friends. We can't diagnose treat or cure any disease.
Aziz here. We're just talking about supporting Health, but if you would like circadian, aligned nutrients, check out my oh, science.com. That semi oxc ience.com bioscience with an ex.com and you can use a coupon code podcast to save at checkout. So what I would like to do here is just sort of read what I thought was very interesting direct quotes from this paper so that you don't have to. Certainly I recommend downloading it and written yourself, but I know you're busy. That's why you tune into podcasts and videos like this.
The scientist want to say ocular light exposure has important influences on human health and well-being through modulation of circadian rhythms and sleep as well as neuroendocrine and cognitive functions, prevailing patterns of light, exposure. Do not optimally engage these actions for many individuals. Basically what that means is it how most people sort of their light hygiene. It's just it's not compatible with health and that's why we see so much chronic disease and susceptibility to acute, acute infections they say, but it
Vance's in our understanding of the underpinning mechanisms and emerging Lighting Technologies. Now present opportunities to adjust lighting and promote optimal physical, and mental health and performance. So, again, anyone who has any mental, health, issues, anxiety, depression, inability to focus, and ability to concentrate. They should be extra mindful about light exposure and like hygiene. And we're going to really drill down very, very soon, hear about that. They go on to say besides supporting visual perception ocular light exposure.
Our
influences, many aspects of human, physiology and behavior, including circadian rhythms sleep. Alertness both Central, both the central circadian clock system and then the peripheral circuit and clock system, mood neuroendocrine and cognitive functions. This array of retinol driven responses to light collectively, termed non-image forming. They're going to say non-visual are important determinants of Health well-being performance and are closely and clinically relevant as evidence by current light therapy for circadian.
Rhythm Sleep Disorders, in various forms of depression, industrialization and urbanization have progressively in dramatically. Altered individuals, light exposure, like the street lights that are right outside your apartment, your condo or your home, those annoy the crap out of me. Also, we have lights, these compact fluorescent light bulbs that last, you know, until Infinity. Well, there are very bright. Now, putting out, probably between 90 and 100 Lux and that's augmenting, melatonin release, growth hormone, release and more. So they say due to spending more time in,
Oars were electric, lighting provides a dominant source of Illumination, you know, we are augmenting, these clock systems. So they say, substantial evidence indicates that such altered light exposure patterns, contribute to negative impacts on health, sleep and productivity ranging from acute increases in accident risk to increase. Incidences of cardio, metabolic diseases, obesity, heart disease, diabetes and certain forms of cancer and they have multiple references that you can dive into. So therefore there is an urgent need for evidence LED clinical recommendations.
Oceans to inform design and application of light emission Technologies and human light exposure. So what I would like to do here is just share with you these images here. This is figure 2 and this shows the melon topic EDI, which is the Luxe. Okay. So basically remember the Lux is a way to characterize, the intensity of the light, when you get near that 100 looks range in the evening. That's when you get a very significant amount of melatonin suppression. So, you might say,
100 Lux at so much. That's like looking at the sun. No, that's like watching your television with the compact fluorescents above you on. Many people are getting this much exposure every night, you know, before in the three-hour window before bed. And they wonder why they can't sleep. They wonder why they can't lose weight. They wonder why they crave junk food. They wonder why they have his Dawn effect in their blood. Sugar goes through the roof when they're sleeping. Well, it's probably due to the Melatonin suppression via the increased intensity of the light because it's
Not just about the sort of the, the color Hue of the light. Well, we used to think. Well, it's the blue light. That is particularly problematic. Well, I'm not saying the blue light is any more benign than other. It's certainly not helpful, but it's actually the intensity of the light. That's what we need to understand is the Luxe because these photo sensing neuronal receptors here. The intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells. The here just picking up on light intensity. When it's very intense, those retinal cells seem to
It The Messengers that it's daytime. And so and that relays neuro chemical cues to the main circadian clock sort of Hub called the scn suprachiasmatic, nucleus in the hypothalamus, which is part of your hormonal regulatory system. So you can start to see here how maybe, just one night of going to a concert or one movie is not a big deal or one red. Eye flight is not a big deal. But the red eye flight paired with going out till 2:00 in the morning, every night paired with
Ting Netflix on your computer screen. Looking at your iPhone before bed. Every day, every week months years later. You can see why some people are developing diseases. That historically were not found in people in their 30s, 40s or 50s, even 20 year olds, now are getting bellies, have sarcopenia obesity and osteopenia and early menopause and low testosterone. You can see how things are starting to sort of shape up and it's not just the food that we're eating. It's the artificial light that were exposed to it.
Wrong time of the day and the insufficient daylight, which is where I would like to go next year because it's really important that we recognize exactly how much light we should beginning during the day. So, the daylight recommendations from this expert, consensus panel is 250 Lux at the level of the eye. Okay. So again, that's like most offices, some offices are even darker than that. And so this is an occupational, health hazard. If you're an employer and you don't have sufficient.
Went bright light, you're not supporting these, you know, intrinsically photosensitive, retinal ganglion cells. That is in training the circadian clock system. So it's important. Now, of course, the best way to entrain the Circadian rhythm is to go outside during the day, eat lunch outside. Go move. Read a book or do your work, or take your phone calls. Take your meetings. Take your Zoom meetings while you're outside. And this is something that I would say. In the last several years have been much more mindful about this, even when it's cloudy out here in Seattle. It's quite often.
Audi, right, so just going outside even when it's cloudy during the winter months and just exposing my eyes and frequently looking up. And in the direction of the sun, very helpful. Very helpful for again, aligning and matching your circadian. Rhythm to the season, aligning your circadian rhythm in your sleep-wake cycles and their neurocognitive processes to help overcome seasonal affective disorder, that happens to many people. Myself included by living in the Seattle area during the winter. So very important for many of us and it makes it easier and easier.
Now that the days are longer and we're getting more sun. Here's the cold water. You want to minimize exposure in the three-hour window before your desired sleep, time to just 10 Lux measured at the I. Okay. This is like having ten candles on a candle, releases about one Luxe. So this is like having a fire. This is very, it's like camping. And this might be why some people feel myself included, feel great when you go camping because guess what, like, you're off your screens. You're off the computer, you're off.
Your
iPhone. Hopefully, you're not watching the television and so you go to bed earlier. You have better sleep. You have less melatonin suppression. You might have more growth hormone release and and so on. So again, this is the expert. Consensus recommendation is the maximum melon. Topic. Exposure is 10 lakhs measured at the level of the eye. Okay, your phone is about 5 times that so please turn down the intensity of the light on your phone. Turn invest in light. Hygiene, get some old-school.
Cool bulbs and so forth. Some of the incandescent bulbs, not the compact LEDs, the so-called smart light bulbs, and do what you can to make your house, more light friendly guy. Now, here's what's really interesting. The, the nighttime light recommendations for a sleep environment is to sleep. Environment should be as dark as possible. The recommended maximum ambient. Melon, topic, light exposure is one Lux measured at the I so really important that your bedroom is dark. Please get rid of the television. No phones in the
Drum, get some blackout curtains. You know, I know I've traveled to various country various countries. Yeah, but also various cities in North America, New York, Toronto, Vancouver, British, Columbia, Chicago, major cities, Baltimore and gosh. I'm really disappointed at how bright these cities are for people that live in. This is urban environment due to the businesses. The commercialization, the background lighting, and the whole thing. So, this is where Mass come in and I'm a big fan.
Fan of blue blocks that make a great sleep mask and is called a remedy sleep mask REM remedy, you know, for rapid eye movement, remedy sleep mask. I'll put links below, that can be very helpful. You just want your room to be very dark. Because again, these photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, they are picking up on light and one study. Actually, I'll share with you on the screen right here. Actually found again, as I mentioned earlier, that people that just had five Lux of light coming in. This was a randomized, people to two different arms of the study had one son.
Artificial. Light coming into the room, they had again, statistically significant increases in a myriad of different. Cardiovascular biomarkers related to to getting a heart attack and dying from Sudden cardiac death. So we should be considerate of this and we should be mindful of these of these long-term Health consequences. It may seem benign, like everyone's doing, it's just light like no big deal, but it affects the rate at which you age at the cellular level. It affects the quality of your sleep. It affects your neuro.
Endocrine neurocognitive function, so repairing, and resynthesizing and rebuilding neurotransmitters. I mean, this is really important stuff and now we can quantify this. So I did get this light meter. I'll just share with you on the screen on Amazon. It was $29. I have yet to play around with it. Maybe some of you have already purchased one of these different tools, but I'm going to be going around to my house. My daughter's room kitchen lights in this and making sure.
That were below that 10 Lux range or moving some light bulbs around or changing the size of the light bulbs or the temperature K of the light bulbs doing something. So friends. I encourage you to share this message with people because I truly believe in the science and this expert consensus panel. Corroborates this evidence that hey look light is a nutrient darkness is a nutrient and the diurnal rhythm of exposure to light and darkness. It's very important.
My friend. So we should take this very seriously and I implore you to do this as well to optimize your health. Your aging. Look, we talked about cardiovascular disease and cancer are the leading causes of mortality and mismatched light exposure. Circadian rhythm disruptions are intimately connected to the development and the, the sequela the pathophysiology of those diseases. So we should be very, you know, I see so many people masking, but they have these compact fluorescents all over their house TV's on.
And everyone, right? So we need to be mindful of this, my friend. So, please share this message. Let others know that there's an expert panel now that is recommending over 250 Lux
during the day, get outside. Go walk, expose your body, especially your retinas, your eyes. That is do not wear sunglasses, it driving in the car doesn't count. You need to just you know be one with the Earth outside an exposure body to Daylight as much as as you possibly can. And then also make sure that in the 3-hour window before bed. It's as dark as possible.
Possible minimizing artificial light exposure. So that's all I have for you. Today is always thank you for tuning in. Thank you for that like button. Thank you for sharing this video and leaving a comment. And we will catch
you on a future one, down the road, until then you will.
