When you create the ideal bedroom setting, you likely think of the right bedding, the proper temperature for your thermostat, and even the use of a fan. However, one thing people often do not realize has a significant impact on their health is the type of lamp they use. With so many options today, ranging from incandescent to red light therapy bulbs, you have plenty to choose from, but what is the best?
This article aims to highlight the different types of lamps you can use and how each type benefits or harms your sleep cycle. You might think that lighting does not indicate your quality of sleep, but you might be surprised—the lamp you choose isn’t just about adding to your room’s décor; it’s about benefitting your rest. Let’s first explore incandescent bulbs and how these impact your sleep quality.
Incandescent Bulbs: Warm Lights and Its Effects on Sleep Quality
Incandescent bulbs are less energy efficient than most, but they happen to impact sleep quality less so than other types of lighting in your home. One metric that experts often use to measure the circadian rhythm impact of lighting is melanopic illuminance, which indicates how heavily a light source can hurt our circadian rhythms. For incandescent lights, it’s far less than you might imagine.
Compared to other sources of light, like energy-efficient lighting, incandescent lighting negates 90% of the impact that LEDs and similar lighting create within the home (Source: Scientific Reports). In other words, using incandescent bulbs is less likely to cause sleep challenges and disruptions. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for different forms of light, like LEDs. Even with their energy-efficient nature, the research still shows that they can limit your rest.
LED Lamps: Bright Ideas or Sleep Stealers?
While these LED lights might be a great idea for brightening up the home, they can cause some challenges that incandescent lighting does not. LEDs are made to be energy-efficient, but this also means that they can have an intense, blue-enriched light in some cases. When they are left in this state and not switched or programmed to a warmer color for the evenings, one study showed that patients experienced later bed and sleep times.
However, with proper LED programming, other studies have shown that the LEDs can encourage wakefulness during the day, but they may suppress the body’s release of melatonin before sleep and lead to less sleep over time, potentially even worse sleep quality because of this (Source: Sleep). While this may depend on the person in question, there’s still plenty of research that suggests LEDs have more of an impact on us than incandescent lighting.
Fluorescent Lighting and Sleep Interruptions
Similar to LED lighting, fluorescent lighting can also lead to some disruptions to your sleep over time. Light exposure at night has a negative impact on one’s health regardless of the circumstances, according to many researchers, but fluorescent lighting has an interesting effect on one’s sleep. Just like with LED lighting, fluorescent light bulbs were associated with worsened sleep quality. That means that despite getting enough hours of sleep, you might not be as rested as you think you are.
As with LED lighting, fluorescent lighting was tied to sleep onset latency, showing that the more people are exposed to this kind of lighting, the longer it takes for them to go to bed. Additionally, more melatonin is suppressed, leading to worse sleep and even interruptions during sleep (Source: Communications Biology). If you have been considering fluorescent lighting, these insights might deter you from these types of lamps. However, we have yet to examine red light therapy or halogen lighting.
How Halogen Lights Impact Nightly Rest
Halogen lights are an older type of lighting that is still used by many today, offering effects similar to those of incandescent lighting that we discussed previously. One study used a halogen light to study what would happen to people exposed to it and how their melatonin production would be affected. Interestingly enough, even just fifteen minutes at a time led to some melatonin suppression, showing that halogen lights can prevent adequate sleep quality (Source: Journal of Pineal Research).
Thus, you can see how halogen lights, much like the others presented, negatively impact sleep quality and can lead to disruptions in your sleep quality. With delayed melatonin release and even suppression, as well as disruptions and poor sleep quality, you might be wondering if there’s a light source that can help with sleep. Fortunately, there is red light therapy.
The Potential Benefits of Red Light Therapy Before Bed
If you’re looking for a beneficial form of light for your home, red light therapy might be able to help you relax, unwind, and align yourself with your circadian rhythm. According to one study, red light therapy may be beneficial before sleep because we are the least sensitive to it and because it can also influence melatonin secretion (Source: Frontiers in Psychiatry). The study also suggests that for some people, it can even reduce disruptions to your sleep cycle and encourage you to sleep more soundly.
However, it’s also important to note that these effects are not seen across all populations, especially for those who have insomnia. While there is an added benefit for some people, including more alertness, improved performance, and more, individuals who have insomnia and even others might not benefit from red light therapy. In some cases, patients with and without insomnia can experience anxiety, so red lights might not actually help with sleep. In short, the research on red light therapy shows mixed results, so if you would like to try this in your home, it’s important to note that it might not work for you as well as it works for others.
What Lighting Will You Use in Your Home?
With so many lighting options discussed, you likely have a good idea of what would be best for your home. Incandescent lighting or halogen lighting is the most natural but offers some downsides, while red light therapy might be the most holistic support you can find for your overall health and sleep quality. Which lighting will you use in your home?
We hope that this article was informative and you learned a great deal about lighting for your space. For more insights from the latest studies from experts in the field, visit the Pillow website to learn more about how to encourage the best sleep possible.
