Sleep discoveries continued


In the mammalian eye there are at least three types of cells in this context of interest. Rod and cone cells are two of them. The third are melanopsin containing cells acronymed ipRGCs - Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells. These are listeners of light and are involved in regulating the circadian clock based on light exposure. ipRGCs are sensitive mainly to the blue light portion of the color spectrum, absorption peaking at around 480 nanometers. ipRGCs have membrane receptors for the following neurotransmitters: Glutamate, glycine and GABA.
Melanopsin is encoded by the gene Opn4 located on chromosome 10. Mutations on this gene can influence susceptibility to SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder.

I've been using Uvex blue blocking glasses for 2 years (No affiliation so far) and have managed to improve my sleep significantly. One thing in particular is, as measured by oura-ring (No affiliation so far), my latency (the duration of getting to bed and falling asleep) is down to about 1 minute, which an amazing improvement! I also get a good amount of deep sleep (1h 30min to about 2h 30min) consistently.
https://www.uvex.us/en/products/general%20purpose%20eyewear/uvex-skyper
So now I will try out a new pair of blue blocking glasses from Safetyblue. They block even more frequencies including green light. Doing a bit of research green light is not in the clear in affecting sleep even though it is significantly milder than blue light. So I will try Safetyblue and give my feedback (at least to some degree) on results on my sleep quality when using them. https://safetyblueblockers.com/products/sleep-savior-ultra
oura (deep sleep & total sleep):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrinsically_photosensitive_retinal_ganglion_cells https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanopsin
Just a few studies I will go through in more detail later. There is surely more diligent ones out there if you look. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1896724 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14646259 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4734149/
Interesting that red light exposure improved melatonin production.. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3499892/

Comments

Popular Posts