We wake up to the sun. We go to work under bright fluorescents.
We come home and turn the lights on. In fact, the only time we
turn the lights off is to fall asleep every night. But if you’re
one of the nearly 70 percent of Americans who have sleep
problems, one trick to a better rest might just be found in the
dark… Yes–keeping the lights down may help improve your health.
Researchers at Harvard University have found that around-the-
clock light may be detrimental to our natural biorhythm. This is
particularly the case in the hours before bed, when many of us
keep our house lights at their brightest. According the
research, lights left on during sleep suppressed melatonin by 50
percent in subjects. However, when the 116 people in the study
were given eight hours of dim lighting before bed, melatonin was
produced 90 minutes more per day. In other words, lead author,
Joshua Gooley, PhD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard
Medical School, explains: “Our study shows that this exposure to
indoor light has