Blue Light At Night? Save More Than Just Your Sleep!
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Beating The Insomnia Blues
You previously asked us about recipes for insomnia (or rather, recipes/foods to help with easing insomnia). We delivered!
But we also semi-promised we’d cover a bit more of the general management of insomnia, because while diet’s important, it’s not everything.
Sleep Hygiene
Alright, you probably know this first bit, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t cover it before moving on:
- No caffeine or alcohol before bed
- Ideally: none earlier either, but if you enjoy one or the other or both, we realize an article about sleep hygiene isn’t going to be what changes your mind
- Fresh bedding
- At the very least, fresh pillowcase(s). While washing and drying an entire bedding set constantly may be arduous and wasteful of resources, it never hurts to throw your latest pillowcase(s) in with each load of laundry you happen to do.
- Warm bed, cool room = maximum coziness
- Dark room. Speaking of which…
About That Darkness…
When we say the room should be dark, we really mean it:
- Not dark like “evening mood lighting”, but actually dark.
- Not dark like “in the pale moonlight”, but actually dark.
- Not dark like “apart from the light peeking under the doorway”, but actually dark.
- Not dark like “apart from a few LEDs on electronic devices that are on standby or are charging”, but actually dark.
There are many studies about the impact of blue light on sleep, but here’s one as an example.
If blue light with wavelength between 415 nm and 455 nm (in the visible spectrum) hits the retina, melatonin (the sleep hormone) will be suppressed.
The extent of the suppression is proportional to the amount of blue light. This means that there is a difference between starting at an “artificial daylight” lamp, and having the blue LED of your phone charger showing… but the effect is cumulative.
And it gets worse:
❝This high energy blue light passes through the cornea and lens to the retina causing diseases such as dry eye, cataract, age-related macular degeneration, even stimulating the brain, inhibiting melatonin secretion, and enhancing adrenocortical hormone production, which will destroy the hormonal balance and directly affect sleep quality.❞
Read it in full: Research progress about the effect and prevention of blue light on eyes
See also: Age-related maculopathy and the impact of blue light hazard
So, what this means, if we value our health, is:
- Switch off, or if that’s impractical, cover the lights of electronic devices. This might be as simple as placing your phone face-down rather than face-up, for instance.
- Invest in blackout blinds/curtains (per your preference). Serious ones, like these ← see how they don’t have to be black to be blackout! You don’t have to sacrifice style for function
- If you can’t reasonably do the above, consider a sleep mask. Again, a good one. Not the kind you were given on a flight, or got free with some fluffy handcuffs. We mean a full-blackout sleep mask that’s designed to be comfortable enough to sleep in, like this one.
- If you need to get up to pee or whatever, do like a pirate and keep one eye covered/closed. That way, it’ll remain unaffected by the light. Pirates did it to retain their night vision when switching between being on-deck or below, but you can do it to halve the loss of melatonin.
Lights-Out For Your Brain Too
You can have all the darkness in the world and still not sleep if your mind is racing thinking about:
- your recent day
- your next day
- that conversation you wish had gone differently
- what you really should have done when you were 18
- how you would go about fixing your country’s socio-political and economic woes if you were in charge
- Etc.
We wrote about how to hit pause on all that, in a previous edition of 10almonds.
Check it out: The Off-Button For Your Brain—How to “just say no” to your racing mind (this trick really works)
Sweet dreams!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
Dopamine can make it hard to put down our phone or abandon the online shopping cart. Here’s why
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Ever find yourself unable to stop scrolling through your phone, chasing that next funny video or interesting post?
Or maybe you’ve felt a rush of excitement when you achieve a goal, eat a delicious meal, or fill your online shopping cart.
Why do some experiences feel so rewarding, while others leave us feeling flat? Well, dopamine might be responsible for that. Here’s what it does in our brains and bodies.
Vardan Papikyan/Unsplash It’s a chemical messenger
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter – a chemical messenger that facilitates communication between the brain and the central nervous system. It sends messages between different parts of your nervous system, helping your body and brain coordinate everything from your movement to your mood.
Dopamine is most known for its role in short-term pleasure, and the boost we get from things such as eating tasty foods, drinking alcohol, scrolling social media or falling in love.
Dopamine also assists with learning, maintaining focus and attention, and helps us store memories.
It even plays a role in kidney function by regulating the levels of salt and water we excrete.
Conversely, low levels of dopamine have been linked to neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease.
How dopamine motivates us to pursue pleasure
Dopamine is not just active when we do pleasurable things. It’s active beforehand and it drives us to pursue pleasure.
Say I go to a cafe and decide to buy a doughnut. When I bite into the doughnut, it tastes fantastic. Dopamine surges and I experience pleasure.
The next time I walk past the cafe, dopamine is already active. It remembers the doughnut I had last time and how delicious it was. Dopamine drives me to walk back into the cafe, purchase another doughnut and eat it.
Dopamine drives us to do things that felt good last time. Fotios Photos/Pexels From an evolutionary perspective, dopamine was incredibly important and it ensured survival of the species. It motivated behaviours such as hunting and foraging for food. It reinforced the pursuit of finding shelter and safety and keeping away from predators. And it motivated people to seek out mates and to reproduce.
However, modern technology has amplified the effects of dopamine, leading to negative consequences. Activities such as excessive social media use, gambling, consuming alcohol, drug use, sex, pornography and gaming can stimulate dopamine release, creating cycles of addiction and compulsive behaviours.
Our dopamine levels can vary
Our brain is constantly releasing small amounts of dopamine at a “baseline” rate. This is because dopamine is crucial to the functioning of our brain and body, irrespective of pleasure.
Everyone has a different baseline, influenced by genetic factors such as our DRD2 dopamine receptor genes. Some people produce and metabolise dopamine faster than other people. Our baseline levels can also be influenced by sleep, nutrition and stress in our lives.
Given we all have a baseline of dopamine, our experience of pleasure at any given time is relative to our baseline rate and relative to what has come before.
If I play games on my phone all morning and get a dopamine release from that, then I eat something tasty for morning tea, I may not experience the same level of fulfilment or enjoyment that I would have had I not played those games.
The brain works hard to regulate itself and it won’t allow us to be in a constant state of dopamine “highs”. This means we can build a tolerance to certain exciting activities if we seek them out too much, as the brain wants to avoid being in a state of constant dopamine “highs”.
Healthy ways to get a dopamine boost
Thankfully, there are healthy, non-addictive ways to boost your dopamine levels.
Exercise is one of the most effective methods for boosting dopamine naturally. Physical activities such as walking, running, cycling, or even dancing can trigger the release of dopamine, leading to improved mood and greater motivation.
Running can also give you a dopamine boost. Leandro Boogalu/Pexels Research has shown listening to music you enjoy makes your brain release more dopamine, giving you a pleasurable experience.
And of course, spending time with people whose company we enjoy is another great way to activate dopamine.
Incorporating these habits into daily life can support your brain’s natural dopamine production and help you enjoy lasting improvements in motivation, mood and overall health.
Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Share This Post
-
The Immune System Recovery Plan – by Dr. Susan Blum
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
The subtitle of the book is “A Doctor’s 4-Step Program to Treat Autoimmune Disease”, so we’ll not keep the four steps a secret; they are:
- Using food as medicine
- Understanding the stress connection
- Healing your gut and digestive system
- Optimizing liver function
Each of these sections gives a primer in the relevant science, worksheets for personalizing your own plan to your own situation, condition, and goals, and of course lots of practical advice.
This is important and perhaps the book’s greatest strength, since there are dozens of possible autoimmune conditions, and getting a professional diagnosis is often a long, arduous process. So while this book can’t necessarily speed that up, what it can do is give you a good head-start on managing your symptoms based on things that are most likely to help, and certainly, there will be no harm trying.
While it’s not primarily a recipe book, there are also recipes targeting each part of the whole, as well as an extensive herb and supplement guide, before getting into lots of additional resources.
Bottom line: if you are, or suspect you are, suffering from an autoimmune condition, the information in this book can make your life a lot easier.
Click here to check out The Immune System Recovery Plan, and help yours to help you!
Share This Post
-
Why Yoga Sucks, According To A Yoga Teacher
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Yoga’s great, except in the ways it isn’t:
These ideas might meet with some resistance
Fun fact: around 75% of yoga practitioners worldwide are female, and 81% of them are over the age of 30.
Fun fact: women over the age of 30 experience sarcopenia, the gradual loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength, and osteoporosis, the thinning and weakening of bones.
…which is a pain in each part, because:
- Muscle is metabolically active tissue, so declining muscle mass slows metabolism and lowers calorie needs, contributing to weight gain if eating habits don’t change.
- Reduced bone density increases the risk of fractures, stress injuries like shin splints, loss of height due to spinal compression, and serious injury from falls.
Happily, these age-related changes can be slowed or even prevented through correct fitness choices.
Good news: resistance training involves working against progressively challenging external loads that create mechanical stress to stimulate muscle and bone growth.
Bad news: yoga is not resistance training and doesn’t meaningfully build muscle mass or increase bone density for most practitioners.
To be clear, yoga can increase strength and benefit beginners initially, but it quickly plateaus and doesn’t provide enough stimulus for bone density improvements.
In summary: yoga is valuable for flexibility, mental health, and enjoyment, but it should be combined with meaningful resistance training for health, longevity, and resilience.
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
Which Style Of Yoga Is Best For You?
Take care!
Share This Post
Related Posts
-
5 Ways To Make Your Smoothie Blood Sugar Friendly (Avoid the Spike!)
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
At 10almonds, we are often saying “eat whole fruit; don’t drink your calories”. Whole fruit is great for blood sugars; fruit juices and many smoothies on the other hand, not so much. Especially juices, being near-completely or perhaps even completely stripped of fiber, but even smoothies have had a lot of the fiber broken down and are still a liquid, meaning they are very quickly and easily digestible, and thus their sugars (whatever carbs are in there) can just zip straight into your veins.
However, there are ways to mitigate this…
Slow it down
The theme here is “give the digestive process something else to do”; some things are more quickly and easily digestible than others, and if it’s working on breaking down some of the slower things, it’s not waving sugars straight on through; they have to wait their turn.
To that end, recommendations include:
- Full-fat Greek yogurt which provides both protein and fat, helping to slow down the absorption of sugar. Always choose unsweetened versions to avoid added sugars, though!
- Coconut milk (canned) which is low in sugar and carbs, high in fat. This helps reduce blood sugar spikes, as she found through personal experimentation too.
- Avocado which is rich in healthy fats that help stabilize blood sugar. As a bonus, it blends well into smoothies without affecting the taste much.
- Coconut oil which contains medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) that are quickly absorbed for energy without involving glucose, promoting fat-burning and reducing blood sugar spikes.
- Collagen powder which is a protein that helps lower blood sugar spikes while also supporting muscle growth, skin, and joints.
For more on all of these, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
Take care!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
Figs vs Passion Fruit – Which is Healthier?
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Our Verdict
When comparing figs to passion fruit, we picked the passion fruit.
Why?
Both are top-tier fruits! But the passion fruit is just that bit more passionate about delivering healthy nutrients:
In terms of macros, passion fruit has slightly more carbs, notably more protein, and a lot more fiber, giving it the win in this category.
In the category of vitamins, figs have more of vitamins B1, B5, B6, E, and K, while passion fruit has more of vitamins A, B2, B3, B9, C, and choline, making for a marginal win by the numbers for passion fruit here.
When it comes to minerals, figs have more calcium, manganese, and zinc, while passion fruit has more copper, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and selenium. A clearer win for passion fruit this time.
Adding up the sections makes for an easy overall win for passion fruit, but again, figs are really a top-tier fruit too; passion fruit just beats them! By all means enjoy either or both; diversity is good!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
Top 8 Fruits That Prevent & Kill Cancer ← figs have antitumor effects specifically, while removing carcinogens too, and additionally sensitizing cancer cells to light therapy
Enjoy!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
-
Another Benefit To Coffee: Insulin Sensitivity!
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
We have written before about the health benefits (and risks) of coffee; for most people, the benefits far outweigh the risks, but individual cases may vary:
The Bitter Truth About Coffee (or is it?) ← this is a mythbusting edition
Speaking of bitterness; coffee has abundant polyphenols, which means an abundance of benefits that we discuss in the links above and below this line 😉
See also: Why Bitter Is Better: Enjoy Bitter Foods For Your Heart & Brain ← while it says foods in the title, this does cover coffee too.
For mythbusting on caffeine specifically, enjoy: Caffeine: Cognitive Enhancer Or Brain-Wrecker?
There are also gut health benefits from drinking coffee, and what’s good for our gut is invariably good for our heart and brain:
Coffee & Your Gut ← gut bacteria do not, by the way, have a preference about how you make your coffee or whether it is caffeinated or not
Aaaaaand, we recently shared new research on how coffee appears to be protective against frailty in older age. We say “appears to be”, because it was a longitudinal study and so technically we cannot say categorically that the link was causal, but the association is very strong, to the point that it’d take quite some explaining if it’s anything other than the coffee consumption that caused it.
You can read about that here: Coffee vs Frailty!
Now, the latest: Coffee & Insulin Sensitivity (and how to do it right)
A large (n=7,453) study of people aged 19–64 examined coffee-drinking habits and insulin sensitivity, looking at markers including the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR).
For the women in the study:
- One cup of black coffee daily reduced HOMA-IR and fasting insulin by 26% and 21%, respectively.
- Two cups of black coffee daily were linked to a 23% lower risk of elevated fasting insulin or HOMA-IR.
- Two or more cups of black coffee yielded a 27% and 36% reduction in HOMA-IR and fasting insulin, respectively.
For the men in the study:
- In men, no significant associations with glucose metabolism markers were observed. Sorry.
For those enjoying cream/sugar in their coffee:
- In those consuming coffee with sugar and/or cream, no significant associations with glucose metabolism markers were observed.
You can read the paper itself here:
Association Between Coffee Consumption and Glucose Metabolism Markers in Korean Adults
Want to learn more?
French biochemist Jessie Inchauspé, the “Glucose Goddess”, had this to say about the topic of coffee and blood sugars (an adjacent topic to coffee and insulin sensitivity):
Coffee, From A Blood Sugar Management Perspective
Lastly… Want to stock up on coffee?
Here’s a store for Lavazza Coffee that offers discounts if that’s something you like 😎
Enjoy!
Don’t Forget…
Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!
Learn to Age Gracefully
Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails:
