Light Pollution At Home

Interior lights reflected off inner side of windows!

Noise & light stimulation a major problem in parts of the world where overdevelopment & thoughtless lamp & light installations & wasteful energy practices related to lamp switching are major causal factors in light induced sleep disorders & related health problems. Cooler, Very Dark, & Silent or *white noise* help to encourage healthy sleep via circadian rhythm entrainment! 

Here I document light pollution during pre-dawn morning hours at home. I live with someone who is afraid of the dark & who has reduced sensitivity to light due to her advanced age & associated eye disorders or diseases that reduce sensitivity of her eyes to light. Se also experiences sleep disorder related super late stay up & sleep in later sleep patter with only a few or couple of consolidated blocks of sleep. During the day she takes naps if she did not get enough sleep. My ongoing hypothesis that artificial light exposure from her giant LED TV & artificial lights are acting as a stimulant that disrupt & interfere with her circadian rhythm & degrade her overall health, physical & mental. 

External outdoor street & building lighting also enters windows during dark hours, providing immense amounts of photons that can act as wake promoting stimuli. Have a look at this image where you can see indoor & outdoor lights that operate during all dark hours. She refuses to close the blinds due to a claustrophobic fear of enclosed spaces that make her feel "like she's choking" / something I suspect related to the artificial light overexposure // Look at the blue white commercial lights from the health club nearby entering the window on the left & the corner indoor lamp & street light in the upper corner of the right window. This sources produce considerable brightness during dark sleep hours! 

5K building light + 3k street light + indoor lamp

Here we see multicolored Christmas lights in LED + a small glass lamp on the brass rack plus the corner lamp, all of which stay on 24/7. Thankfully they only consume small amounts of electricity! Thankfully she turns off the super bright 3200 lumen table lamp near the middle of the image & only uses that for reading printed books, though often until the early morning hours, again light acting like a stimulating wakefulness promoting agent.

More interior light sources on 24/7 

You can actually see the 5K commercial outdoor LED spotlight from the nearby health club projecting into the kitchen a blue white rectangle that hits the framed picture on the wall & area near the coffee brewer & stove top! A second blue white rectangular beam projection visible on the wall near the wreath, originating from another poorly designed but lower output blue white LED security lamp on the health club's exterior walls. Requests to adjust beam angle or install shade have gone without reply! 

Other 24/7 always on lamps indoors 

Sleep Wake Cycle Hormones vs Light Exposure

Human circadian rhythm, ie sleep wake cycle, are set by brain hormonal balance of cortisol *wake* & melatonin *sleep) hormonal axis by taking light intensity & color sensory information from human eyes where blue white bright light a stimulating wakefulness promoting color & intensity while soft dim orange or red light barely visible less stimulating. Total darkness essential for best sleep as darkness or pitch black encourages brains release of melatonin. 

Special thanks to Charles Czeisler, MD, PhD who pioneered this science & related facts! 

Frank Baldino, Jr., Ph.D. Professor of Sleep Medicine

Brigham and Women's Hospital
Division of Sleep Medicine , Room 438A
221 Longwood Avenue
Boston, MA 2115
Tel: 617-732-4013
Fax: 617-732-4015
Email: charles_czeisler@hms.harvard.edu