 Hey everybody, Dr. O here. So if you want better sleep, you have to remind your brain and eyes that the sun has gone down. This is huge, wildly important. The first step is to remind our brain that it's nighttime. We have special cells in our eyes that have one job to do. They actually don't help you see. Their job is to help the brain guess what time it is based on light exposure. So why would your brain prepare for sleep if it thinks it's noon? And that's the problem that we face because we're constantly exposed to light after the sun has gone down. So we should hack the system by controlling blue light exposure at night. So avoiding all light is best, but let's be real. I'm not going to sit in a dark room and read by candlelight for three hours before bed. The real world solution is to avoid blue light at night after the sun goes down. So why are blue wavelengths of light so important to your brain? We'll look up at the beautiful blue sky and you'll see. The blue light is specifically telling your brain if it's daytime or if it's nighttime. So does this stuff really matter this much? The short answer is big time. So let's go ahead and look at the science here. Really important stuff. All right. So what does the science say? Evening use of light emitting e-readers negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next morning alertness. So circadian timing would be your day night cycles and when you should be falling asleep and when you should be waking up. So this is a study looking at e-readers, like looking at a Kindle or something, but this would be the same for cell phones, computer screens, tablets, anything that's blasting your eyes with light before trying to go to bed. So hugely important stuff here. The light emitting e-book suppressed evening levels of melatonin by 55.12%, plus or minus 20.12%, which means that some people it was suppressing melatonin production by 75%. Right? So 55% was the average suppression of melatonin by using a light emitting e-reader before bed. Plus it delayed melatonin secretion by up to three hours. So you're secreting 55% less melatonin and you're not secreting it until up to three hours after you should. So you can make an argument that blocking blue light and not doing things like this before bed could replace the need for melatonin supplements altogether. So same study. Just averaged nearly 10 minutes longer to fall asleep. So it took them about 10 minutes longer to fall asleep every night. We've already talked about how 10 minutes per night of sleep is what, 61 hours a year. Participants also had significantly less REM sleep or rapid eye movement sleep after using the e-reader. REM sleep, critically important for humanity, right? We have way more REM sleep than other primates. REM sleep, critically important for mental and emotional health as well. So less sleep, less REM sleep, less quality deep sleep. It also led to impaired morning alertness so you didn't feel as good in the morning but it gets even worse. Melatonin onset was one and a half hours later on the next day as well even when the subjects weren't using the e-readers anymore. So it screwed up one night of sleep really bad and then it actually screwed up the next night of sleep even though you weren't using the e-reader anymore. So it's a huge no-no. So what's the actual solution? Let's hack the system like I said before by controlling blue light exposure at night. So let's get rid of all the light light that we don't need first though. So number one, turn off as many lights as you can. So just when the sun goes down, turn off half the lights in your home, turn off the lights you don't need. Turn down the lights that you can't. Maybe you have dimmer switches, maybe you have light bulbs where you can change the intensity. So get rid of as much light as you don't need, close the blinds, etc. You can actually use a light meter app on your phone to measure light intensity and what's known as LUX if you want to see how big of a difference this makes. So let's try to get rid of all light first. Another smart idea is to use red or orange bulbs or any other blue light blocking bulbs after the sun goes down. So we actually have a night light with a red bulb in the hallway for trips to the bathroom. So we don't have to blast our eyes with light when we go to the restroom. So you don't need to use a red bulb, but it's a good idea. But you can just go to Amazon. You can look anywhere specifically for blue light blocking light bulbs nowadays. So we've turned off the lights we could. We've turned down the ones we couldn't. We've replaced some of our lights with these red lights. I know some people will use, they have a couple lamps in their living room and with red bulbs in them and they'll only use those at night when the sun goes down. Great idea. Another tip, if you're going to watch TV in these last few hours before bed once the sun has gone down, keep it as far away as you can. TV is the lesser of all evils. It's better than looking at a computer screen or a phone screen that's a few inches from your face. The distance between you and the TV is what makes it less impactful. So it's even better if you're going to watch TV at night wear blue light blocking glasses, which we'll get to in just a second. All right, so what if you still want or need to use technology at night, right? I teach online courses. I build courses like this. I do a lot of my work online. There are nights that I still have to do work once the sun has gone down. I mean, most nights I have to do work when the sun has gone down. I minimize how much work I do that last hour before bed, but I still need to rely on technology a lot. So how do I get away with this? Number one, you set your device brightnesses as low as possible. If you have to use your computer or your phone, turn down the brightness. Don't blast as much light in your eyes as you used to. If you can't block all light, then block as much blue light as possible. So here's what I do. I use f.lux on my computer. So if you have an Apple devices, iPhones, iPads, or Macs, you can use night shift, and I'm sure all devices have this now, where you can turn down the blue light once the sun has gone down. But f.lux is the one that I use. I also have mine set as warm as possible. So I use night shift on my iPhone, and I have it set as warm as possible. Same thing with f.lux on my PC. Here's a picture of me just kind of playing around, but if you can't block blue light from inside your devices, then block it from the outside. So you can actually get blue light blocking screen covers, but I generally don't recommend them. I think the glasses are the way to go. So you can use orange or amber tinted glasses, or any other blue light blocking glasses to block a lot of the blue light for the last two to three hours before bed. So once the sun goes down, my devices will turn down their blue light. I'll wear the blue light blocking glasses to block even more, and then I'll turn off the lights I don't need. Like right now I'm being bathed in light. There's four lights here in front of me and one above me. I would never be in this environment before bed. All right, so just so you know, these are not a replacement for avoiding light and just going to bed, right? Avoiding all light would be best, but in the real world, avoiding blue light is the key. So they absolutely, this will help. I mean, this helps so much. This has been an absolute game changer for me. I'll walk you through my entire sleep protocol later, but I pull a ton of levers. I do a lot of different things, but for me, avoiding blue light at night and avoiding caffeine have made the biggest difference by far. I went from having to force myself to go to sleep at midnight to having to force myself to stay awake at 10.30. It's to the point now, if I'm being honest, if there are nights I just have to stay up, right? Sometimes I have deadlines at work or a sick kid, whatever it might be. If I have to stay up later than 10.30, I actually need to turn f.lux off on my computer because if I'm working on my computer late and I need to stay up, like I am too tired. So I kind of have to expose myself to blue light to force myself to stay awake. I'm not recommending that. I'm just showing you how big of a deal it makes. All right, so what are the key takeaways here? Light is the key factor that tells your brain whether it should stay awake or prepare for sleep. Blue light is especially important. So what are our action steps? Turn off as many lights as you can after the sun goes down. Number two, turn down the lights that you can't turn off. Number three, replace some of your light bulbs with red or orange bulbs or other blue light blocking bulbs. Number four, use a light meter app to measure light intensity before and after you make these changes to make sure you're making a big difference. Number five, keep screens as far away from your eyes as possible if you're going to use them. Number six, turn device brightness as low as possible. And then number seven, block as much blue light as possible. Put f.lux on your PC or use night shift on your Apple products. Make your device light as warm as possible. Blue light blocking screen covers and then blue light blocking glasses. I basically recommend everyone get a pair of those cheap blue light blocking sunglasses like I was wearing in that picture. So these hacks are especially important if you work the night shift and are sleeping at odd hours, right? If you're trying to sleep at noon, you have to control light intensity because it's so light outside. I have the advantage of going to sleep when it's dark. I'm not fighting the environment the way that you are if you work the night shift. If you think these tips are a bit much or too excessive, you're like, I don't wanna wear these sunglasses. I don't wanna do all these things. Go back to the beginning of the course to review how poor sleep is a major cause of your weight issues. These are small prices to pay to lose fat and regain your health. Okay, I hope this helps. Have a wonderful day. Be blessed.