How can I sleep better?
Sleep Better Every Night Over the past
Over the past fifty years, circadian rhythm research has uncovered an intricate network of biological clocks throughout the human body — revealing how they help us sleep better, stay healthy, and function in harmony with time. This timing system ensures that our physiological processes perform the right tasks at the right times — from fighting off pathogens to digesting food and facilitating sleep. But the circadian clocks themselves don’t run with perfect precision. To stay synchronized and function optimally, they require regular calibration from sunlight, daily routines, and other environmental cues.
Modern lifestyles, however, often clash with our body’s natural rhythms. People now spend most of their time indoors, stay up late eating at irregular hours, and frequently shift their sleep schedules between weekdays and weekends — effectively creating a kind of self-inflicted jet lag. The consequences are significant: in the short term, circadian disruption and sleep deprivation can impair cognition, mood, and reaction time. Over the long term, they raise the risk of infections, diabetes, depression, dementia, cancer, heart disease, and even premature death.
To improve sleep and overall well-being, scientists emphasize three essential principles — distinguishing light from darkness, keeping consistent meal times, and maintaining regular sleep schedules. Simple habits, such as taking a walk outside during the day and minimizing light exposure at night, can help you sleep better and make a noticeable difference.
Light is the most powerful signal for the circadian system. Blue wavelengths are particularly effective — and that’s no coincidence. Humans evolved outdoors, under the sky, and midday sunlight is especially rich in blue light, helping us sleep better by keeping our internal clocks aligned. Yet the common advice to avoid blue light at night tells only part of the story.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, researchers discovered a special class of light-sensitive cells in our eyes that aren’t involved in vision directly. Instead, these cells synchronize our biological clocks — a process essential for helping us sleep better and maintain overall health. They detect light intensity and wavelength, integrate signals from the rod and cone cells, and send this information to the brain’s circadian pacemaker.
The circadian rhythm system depends on exposure to bright light to function properly. However, we are not very good at judging how much light we actually receive. The brightness of typical indoor lighting ranges from about 100 to 250 lux — which may look bright to the eyes, but it’s far dimmer than the blue-enriched daylight our circadian system is most sensitive to. Even on a cloudy day, outdoor light can be several times stronger, often reaching over 10,000 lux.
Timing also matters. Bright blue light during the day helps synchronize the circadian rhythm and promotes the nighttime surge of melatonin — the hormone that signals the body it’s time to sleep, while also enhancing alertness and cognitive performance during the day. Yet exposure to the same artificial light or glowing screens at night can disrupt this system.
Blue light has the strongest disruptive effect, but any color of light, if bright enough, can interfere with the biological clock, suppress melatonin production, and make it harder to sleep — or to sleep better. Exposure to light in the middle of the night — such as turning on the bathroom light — can be especially harmful, since the circadian system is at its peak sensitivity and least expects illumination. Research shows that even dim light, like a hallway bulb, can raise nighttime heart rate and disturb sleep, making it harder for your body to sleep better and fully restore itself.
Please read more at: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03148-8
Sleep Better Every Night Over the past
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