21: How Junk Blue Light From Screens Affects Your Energy, Brain, Body & Sleep

[00:00:00] My mission is to create lots and lots of healthy, happy, kind, loving, and abundant humans. And we can only do that when we’ve got right energy. When we get a great sleep, when we feel really good in our bodies, when our weight is balanced. And so one of the really easy things to do is to protect your eyes when you are watching a screen or using a device.

And that includes our children.

Hi there. Welcome to the field better now, podcast. I’m your host, Jackie Balca. And if you’ve arrived here, no, there is something in here to spark yourself to create a bit of future in your health, in your. In your relationships, both yourself and for those around you, just one small action step at a time with so much love and gratitude to be your guide.

Let’s get started.[00:01:00] 

yeah. Jackie is watching screens bad for me. Hey, everybody super excited about this episode. We are going to talk about another tip and some tools that you can use. Some are completely free to protect your eyes from what I call the junk light that comes out. So are you one of those people that has some sort of device?

Have you got a phone? Do you use a computer? Do you watch your TV? So you may not know, but these emit something called blue light. And just for purposes of this conversation, I’m going to call that junk light because blue light is everywhere. Like you go outside into the sun and you get a really good dose of blue light.

So some blue light is really good and some blue light is junk clot. And so we’re going to call all of that light coming from screens, junk [00:02:00] clot. What happens is the body actually needs to use. Energy. So the mitochondria, which are the powerhouses of our cells need to use more energy to process this junk light.

And so what happens is that it causes issues in the body. One of those issues is inflammation. And one thing I talk about a lot is inflammation is the leading cause of disease and it is preventable with, so we need to talk about this before. Like I said, my mission is to create lots and lots of healthy, happy, kind, loving, and abundant humans.

And we can only do that when we’ve got right energy. When we get a great sleep, when we feel really good in our bodies, when our weight is balanced. And so one of the really easy things to do is to protect your eyes when you, uh, watching a screen or using a device. And that includes our children they’ve even got.

Studies on preschoolers. So super young children [00:03:00] where their circadian rhythm. And we’re going to talk about that in the moment, what that is, but where their circadian rhythm has been disrupted, because they’ve been exposed to even small amounts of artificial light before bed. And the sleep has been disrupted.

We know that a good sleep is really paramount. It’s the best free drug that there is. It’s when the body does all of its cleansing processes and it’s a really, really good way to manage health and wellness in the body. So we need, we need, we need great sleep, but this study shocked me. It’s a really recent study and it showed that our little people are precious, little people.

Super sensitive to artificial light. And how many of our children now are on devices? You know, quite a lot. One of the things that we do in our house is wear blue blocking glasses and even the kids. So these are glasses and we’ve got some for the day and we’ve got some for the night and the night ones have an extra special filter.

And they’re sort of the ones that have that colored lens. Like sometimes it’s Fred, sometimes it’s yellow or orange, so they’re not the most attractive, [00:04:00] but they’re very, very effective. What we’re seeing. So much eye strain and fatigue, headaches, migraines, blurred vision, along with all those diseases of inflammation, like cancer, diabetes, weight, imbalances, heart disease, and vision loss.

All of these issues have been linked to too much exposure to blue light at night. So breaking this down, what is happening? We have a gland in our brain called the pineal gland. It’s really tiny. It’s about the size of a pea. The pineal gland releases a lot of melatonin, a few hours before bed, which is our signal to be sleepy.

So we have stress, hormone cortisol that is rises. First thing in the morning when we wake up and is supposed to fall steadily throughout the day when melatonin sleepy hormone takes over rises towards the end of the day. Day’s high at night, which keeps us sleepy. What happens with the junk light is that it disrupts this pattern called [00:05:00] out circadian rhythm.

There was a study where people read using a light emitting device. So a screen before bed compared to people that read a printed book and it showed that people took longer to fall asleep. They slept less safe play, and they were way more alert than the people that were reading the printed. So it’s really important that we don’t mess up this process and we don’t interrupt the pineal gland releasing the right amount of melatonin because we need to protect our sleep for us to be in optimal health.

So there’s a few really simple. Tools and tips you can do right now to reduce the amount of junk blue light exposure. So the first thing is you can switch your phone to night shift mode. So it’s a simple setting in the phone. There’s a day shift and a night shift. So exactly that towards the end of. It will change what’s happening with the wavelengths of the light emitted from the phone.

So have a look at that on your phone. The second thing is you can shut down devices. So you’ve [00:06:00] probably heard this one before easier said than done, but definitely the more time before bed that you don’t have a device on the better. And there’s plenty of research to show that reducing screen time at night.

Linked to the quality of your sleep. Another great tip is to invest in block-out curtains. This is an absolute necessity in our home. So the darker the room it’s really, really important to protect that melatonin pattern. I was speaking to somebody last week that was very proud of the fact that they had the natural light just coming into their home, through their living room.

And it’s really, really important that we sleep in his dark rooms possible dark and. Wearing blue blocking glasses. I really feel that this is such a great tip, such a great investment. The feedback is phenomenal when people buy them about their headaches going away, children being able to focus more. I just really believe that the human body wasn’t designed to deal with all of this junk blue light.

So we’re really looking at the [00:07:00] balance of two things. We’re looking at increasing. to natural light. So for example, the sun going outside first thing in the morning, and really getting exposure to sun on your face, in, through your eyes. So a lot of people talk about eating the sun or sun gazing and exposure to sun on your.

Like your chest and your arms is going to do wonders for your circadian rhythm. And then that will impact your sleep later in the night. Sometimes you don’t link the fact that you’re out in the morning, looking at the light. And then how is that going to impact on your sleep that night? So that’s intrinsically connected and then there’s reduction of artificial junk blue light.

And so anything you can do to protect. GYN and your eyes from that is absolutely imperative. So we’re looking at two things. Another tool that I use in my toolbox is my infrared sauna. So being an infrared sauna is another great way to get exposure to light, which will have. Balance out the junk light from screens that is [00:08:00] sometimes outside of our control.

We don’t talk a lot about this, but the light fittings themselves, you want to move away from fluorescent Ellie days and two more lights that are safer for the body. Like your Amber lights or red light. The fluorescent and led lights create issues in the body because they dump large amounts of blue light, which causes eyestrain.

So when you think about replacing lights, especially in the bedroom, you really want to think about those Amber and red bulbs, and there’s lots available now. Quality of blue blocking glasses and bulbs is really important. So make sure you do your research. I love supporting a company called Baxa blue.

They ship a wide. I get a great discount for people. If you want to check out backs, the blue.com that I use. And my discount code is Jackie. I love Bexley blue because every pair of glasses sold, they actually donate a pair of glasses to somebody in need. Do your own research. I’m really passionate about making sure [00:09:00] that people understand the information, which is empowering and moving you away from disempowerment.

You are responsible for health and nutrition and for keeping yourself well, nobody else is, and you may even be responsible for that in your household as well. So please protect yourself so many tools and tips we discussed today out curtains, getting great exposure to natural sun light or the through the sun being outdoors.

Infrared saunas is a great way to rebalance the impact of junk blue light and protect your eyes. Skin from that either with blue blocking glasses and looking at the light sources in your home and any bowls that can be replaced, especially in the bedroom to Amber or red bulbs. So there’s a few tips for you.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode and subject that I’m very passionate about and I hope everybody. It goes out there and protects themselves. I can’t wait to hear how you go. I look forward to seeing you next week. Bye-bye [00:10:00] if you made it to the end of this episode, celebrate yourself because it means you are truly dedicated to feeling better in your health, in your career, in your relationships.

And I am so proud of you. And if you want more. Feel better now. So tuning every Monday for new episodes and join our community on Instagram at Jackie Belper for all the behind the scenes action and more. Hey, why don’t you sign up for a chance to have your question answered@fieldfitbitinstitute.com.

Sign up. That’s feel better. institute.com/the sign up, but most of all, please keep reaching to feel better because the world needs you to feel good. So you can share that very special gift that only you have. So with that said, see you soon here’s to feeling better now. Bye-bye.[00:11:00]