By David Musnick, MD

The triggers to sleep and to awaken are complicated biochemical signals that are very much influenced by the amount of light you are exposed to at night and in the morning. Understanding this factor can help you make your home and bedroom more conducive to falling and staying asleep.

Light can disrupt your body clock
Your body establishes a circadian rhythm, or internal clock. Exposure to bright light in the evening can push your sleep clock ahead, making it difficult to fall asleep. It is best to go to sleep and awaken at about the same time every night and morning. One of the most important signals to your brain and sleep centers is the amount of light you are exposed to.

In order to help you to fall asleep at a reasonable time try the following: 30 minutes before you would like to fall asleep, dim the lights in your bedroom and in the rooms you’ll be in before going to bed. This may be the living room, kitchen, etc. Make sure there is enough light to conduct your activities safely, especially if you are working in the kitchen to prepare lunch for the next day.

Lights out before bedtime
Try to minimize exposure to your computer monitor, TV or bright bedroom or bathroom lights within a half hour of going to bed. It can be helpful to have a dimmer attached to your reading light. Your bathroom can be the most challenging room to have dim light; most bathroom lights are too bright to use right before going to bed. I suggest a nightlight or variable light in the bathroom while you are brushing your teeth and getting ready for bed. If there is no other way to have low light in your bathroom, you could wear dark sunglasses.

Avoid watching TV in bed as this exposes you to bright light. Turn your reading light down to a setting that allows you to just barely read a book or a magazine. Once you turn off all the lights in your bedroom, look around to make sure the room is dark enough to make it difficult to see objects clearly. If you can see objects clearly, you might still get light exposure through your closed eyes; this may decrease the depth and restorative aspects of your sleep. If it is too bright in your room you may consider using different window coverings. You can also put something over your eyes to decrease the light, such as the eye shades that one uses in an airplane. You can also use a black sock that is comfortable to cover both of your eyes to keep the light low.

You can use light in the morning if you are a night owl and would like to fall asleep earlier. Try reading in front of a bright light source of 5,000 to 10,000 lux first thing in the morning for 20 to 30 minutes. This should help to inform your body to fall asleep earlier. It can also be helpful for seasonal affective mood disorder (SAD) in the late fall to early spring.

Melatonin for sleep
Excessive light exposure in the evening can decrease the amount of melatonin your brain produces. Although supplemental melatonin is best used for shift workers and jet lag sleep disturbance, it can also be used in addition to light to help a person get to sleep or to shift their sleep pattern. Small doses can be helpful. One could try ½ to 1 mg two or three hours prior to wanting to fall asleep to see if this increases the ease of falling asleep.

Shhhh...
It is important to minimize any unpleasant noise that you can hear in your bedroom. Try to determine where the noise is coming from. Try closing your bedroom door and windows, use foam ear plugs or use white noise. White noise can be generated by a Hepa air filter or by a white noise generator and can make it easier to tolerate other noises.

If your bed partner snores, it is important to have them evaluated to determine if they have true sleep apnea or simply nasal congestion. It can make sense to sleep in separate bedrooms if there is a sleep noise problem that is significant. If you have a pet that makes noise at night it can also be helpful to get the pet evaluated. If the pet sleeps in your bedroom it may be appropriate to have the pet sleep in another room until this is taken care of. Getting adequate sleep is too important to forgo because of pet or bed partner noise.

Limit your evening light and noise exposure with the techniques in this article. You will be surprised how much easier it is to fall asleep and to stay asleep.

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