This week in sleep news …
Light intensity may affect your sleep-wake cycle more than light color
Blue light might not be as bad as we thought, according to a new study published in Nature. Researchers recruited 16 participants who were exposed to a blueish light, a yellowish light, and a white control light for one hour before bedtime. They found no evidence that the variation in light color along the blue-yellow dimension played a relevant role in affecting human circadian rhythm. Instead, their results found that overall brightness of light played a larger role than color in affecting a person’s internal clock.
The findings aren’t a go-ahead to scroll your blue-light-heavy phone before bed. The researchers still recommend people reduce their exposure to short-wavelength light emitted from smart devices before going to sleep, as they still affect circadian rhythm.
Food insecurity may be associated with less sleep in children
A cross-sectional study looked at household characteristics and sleep duration in children in Los Angeles County. The final survey included 4,390 and 5,157 children participating in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in 2017 and 2020, respectively. They found that food-insecure households were more likely to have a child getting less than the recommended sleep duration. Additionally, children with caregivers without practical or emotional support were more likely to get less sleep than recommended. Higher amounts of screen time and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption were also found to have an association with sleeping less than the recommended sleep duration.
Disrupted sleep in your 30s and 40s may lead to cognitive issues later
A new study published in Neurology has found that people in their 30s and 40s who have disrupted sleep may be more likely to have memory and thinking problems later in life. During this study, participants slept an average of six hours per night. They recorded their sleep in a diary, completed a sleep quality survey, and took memory tests. While asleep, participants wore a wrist monitor for three consecutive days on two occasions one year apart. Researchers found that repetitive short interruptions of sleep during midlife were linked to worse cognitive function 11 years later. Interestingly, they found no association between worse cognitive function and overall sleep duration or self-reported quality of sleep.
In social media news …
Do you get up right when your alarm clock goes off or are you a snoozer? The CTV Morning Show shared what time their alarm clocks are set to and what time they actually wake up.
