Red light therapy uses special properties of certain red (visible) and near-infrared (invisible) light to help promote wellness. People use red light therapy for different things, like reversing skin ageing, speeding up wound healing, increasing energy levels, reducing inflammation, improving joint health and getting a better night’s sleep.
We are still learning how red light therapy works. Studies have shown that red light therapy can have various benefits and that it is a safe and painless way to improve your health.
Light has been known to affect our biology in a variety of ways. For example, the amount of light reaching our eyes affects the production of sleep hormones. Light also affects how much pigmentation our skin produces. Some types of light can also help our body make vitamin D. Light can also be used to break down a chemical called bilirubin in some newborns and is used for this purpose in hospitals around the world. High-energy light can also be used to kill bacteria and disinfect surfaces.
Red light therapy uses special light that is different to other colours of light. Red light and near-infrared light can go deeper into body tissues than other visible light colours can, reaching tissues that these other colours of light cannot.
One of the possible benefits of red light therapy is better sleep. Red light therapy has been used to help people sleep for many years, but only recently have scientists started to research the benefits of red light therapy and how it helps people sleep.
SleepSleep is a vital part of being healthy. We often don’t think about how important sleep is, but most people spend more time asleep than doing anything else. People who always sleep eight hours a night will spend a third of their lives asleep.
Despite how important sleep is, we still don’t fully understand why it’s so important. But we do know that sleep helps your brain make and strengthen connections, which helps you think more clearly, concentrate better, and remember things more easily. Sleep also gets rid of toxins that build up in your brain during the day.
There are two basic types of sleep that everyone has. These two types of sleep occur in cycles and include REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and non-REM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep.
Non-REM sleep has three stages:
Stage 1: This stage of sleep is the transition from wakefulness into sleep. Your brain waves start to slow down.
Stage 2: During the second stage of sleep, your brain waves slow even more. Your eyes stop moving, your heart rate and breathing slow down, and your body temperature drops.
Stage 3: Brain waves become even slower in the deepest stage of sleep. You will feel very relaxed and it will be hard to wake up. This is the stage when your body is repairing and refreshing.
You also have REM sleep during the night, which happens on and off while you are sleeping between non-REM sleep stages. The longer you sleep, the longer and deeper your REM sleep will be. This is when dreams occur. You have more REM sleep as morning approaches, and it is the closest form of sleep to wakefulness.
The body’s clock
Your body has a clock that goes through a cycle every 24 hours. The circadian rhythm affects many important biological functions in the body, but one of the most important is sleep. It works by synchronising to light, which encourages us to sleep when it gets dark.
Studies show that light affects the body’s clock, and too much light before bed can make it hard to sleep. We now understand that the colour of light is also important. Blue light, which has a higher energy and shorter wavelength, has been shown to stop the production of melatonin, a hormone that the circadian rhythm uses to promote sleep.
This means that smartphones are starting to come with settings that automatically reduce the amount of blue light we see before we go to bed. People use these settings to reduce exposure to high-energy light at night and to sleep more soundly.
Sleep disturbancesSleep is important for your health and helps you to recover. Problems sleeping can have a very negative effect on your health. Chronic lack of sleep can lead to many health problems, including:
High blood pressure
Heart disease
Diabetes
Depression
ObesityPeople who have trouble sleeping or sleep poorly are more likely to have other health problems.
Does Red Light Therapy Help You Sleep?
Red light therapy uses special types of red and near-infrared (NIR) light to help make cells healthier and improve overall health. It is often used to help people sleep better.
Although red light therapy to improve sleep is a new technology, there are already several studies showing that it works. One of the first studies to look at this use of red light therapy technology looked at the impact it had on a group of elite female basketball players. In this study, the players were divided into two groups. One group did not receive any red light therapy, while the other group got full-body red light therapy for 30 minutes every night for two weeks.
The researchers then looked at how well the players could play, how well they slept, and what the levels of melatonin were in their blood. They found that the group that received red-light therapy got better at exercising for longer than the group that did not receive it. The group that received the red light therapy also said that their sleep quality got better after two weeks of therapy. The levels of melatonin in the blood of those who received the red light therapy were also significantly higher than those who did not receive the therapy.
There have been several small studies that show red light therapy can improve sleep quality, and many people report that it helps them sleep better and feel more refreshed.
While there have been several small studies that show promise in this area, scientists have not yet performed any of the large-scale studies needed to conclusively prove the benefits of red light therapy for sleep. But even though a large study has not yet been done, smaller studies and people saying that it works show that it has a positive effect.
How does Red Light Therapy Help You Sleep?
Studies on red light therapy show that it helps people sleep better. But scientists are only just starting to find out how this happens.
A group of researchers, led by Dr Ronnie Yeager, have published an important paper explaining their scientific idea about how red light therapy improves sleep. This is based on the hormone melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that helps regulate the body clock and make us sleepy. Blue light suppresses melatonin, which is why blue light makes us wakeful.
The researchers explained how red light therapy could interact with cells to increase melatonin levels. They also explained how red light could have other health benefits.
If the researchers are right, red light therapy could help you to fall asleep and help you to sleep more soundly. While more research is needed to verify this initial model, the basic ideas behind this research make it clear how red light therapy would effectively promote sleep.
Quick Tips to Getting Better SleepSo how can we use this to help us sleep better?
Here are some suggestions:
1) Start your day by going outside in the sun as soon as you wake up. This will reset your body clock. Studies have shown that exposure to the early morning sun can improve sleep.
If you can, get outside in the sun at different times during the day. As a study from Oxford shows, the quality and architecture of sleep is linked to light exposure.
3) Avoid caffeine after noon.
4) Try using a MERICAN recommended red light the