Vanessa Hill

But I think it is always worthwhile in a conversation about sleep to actually just let people know what the number one recommended treatment is.

I'm so happy that you asked me this question because there are a lot of misconceptions out there about blue light.

And what you just hit on is kind of true.

And that is part of the problem.

So you mentioned blue light and melatonin.

Now, blue light can suppress our production of melatonin, and that is a real biological mechanism.

What is nuanced is the effect that that actually has on our sleep.

Okay, so there's a very famous Harvard study that was done about 10 years ago that I see cited really often in a way that's kind of designed to scare us and make blue light the villain of our sleep.

And in the study, people read e-books or a regular paper book.

And the people who read e-books, their melatonin was delayed by 90 minutes.

Their melatonin production was delayed by 90 minutes.

So that's substantial.

It is substantial, and I see that statistic thrown around a lot.

But if you go and you unpack the methods of this study, they read an e-book on maximum brightness 30 centimeters away from their face for four hours before a set bedtime.

And I just like to think about how does that translate to real life?

If it does that, who has four hours to read an e-book before they go to bed?

I'd love to know that.

Who is reading it on maximum brightness, right?

So I think it helps to unpack the methods of a lot of these studies.

But what was really interesting about this one study was even though melatonin production was delayed by 90 minutes,