Red Light and How it Can Affect Your Sleep
Red light therapy has been found to be helpful for skin health, wound healing, hair growth among people with alopecia and pain management. Some have claimed it’s also useful for sleep, but research and experts tell a different story. Circadian rhythms — the body’s internal clock controlling our sleep and wake cycles — respond “to light as a signal to be awake, and to dark as a signal to fall asleep,” according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The most important thing that influences and trains our circadian rhythms to 24 hours a day is light. And light has many, many different wavelengths,” said Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine. “That’s why when we talk about blue light or red light, we’re not talking about a red-colored light bulb. It’s the wavelength of light.” We’re most sensitive to blue-wavelength light — the kind emitted [...]