My favourite gadget is the enemy of my melatonin

Many women with hormonal imbalance are struggling with poor quality of sleep or insomnia.

There are a few underlying causes for it such as lack of magnesium, low levels of progesterone, high levels of cortisol due to high levels of mental or physical stress, mentioning just a few.

But there is one that might be completely overlooked, THE BLUE LIGHT coming from your favourite gadgets.

I know you might not want to admit your secret addictive love to your phone or tablet that is keeping you awake till late at night but if you have been struggling with fatigue, hormonal imbalance, chronic pain and you are trying to cover your zombie state with a load of caffeine, well you just want to read these few lines.

There are two main hormones responsible for your sleep Arginine vasotocin (responsible for the depth of your sleep) and Melatonin, both produced by the pineal gland.

Melatonin is responsible for regulating our circadian rhythm (the natural biological clock) and the levels of melatonin are boosted when it’s dark. It participates in a wide variety of cellular, neuroendocrine and neurophysiological processes. The particular thing about melatonin is that it starts to secret when it gets dark and reaches its peak around 2 am. Most of the production of melatonin happens before midnight, so if you don´t get into bed at this time you are asking for trouble because you are losing more than 50% of its production. Scientists found out that 2 hours of sleep before midnight is equivalent to 4 hours of sleep after midnight. In other words, your body gets a better quality of sleep, which helps to restore your body on the cellular level, before midnight. Melatonin is also the most powerful antioxidant and plays a major role in the process of ageing.

Don´t forget, melatonin needs dark to activate, so if you are using any type of screen with blue light before bedtime, you are blocking the production of your melatonin. Even dim light can interfere with a person's circadian rhythm and melatonin secretion.

Other important facts about melatonin are:

• Decreases with age.

• Helps to prevent and treat tumours and cancers.

• Protects against free radicals and radiation.

• Helps to maintain an optimal immune system.

• Lowers the risk of osteoporosis, lowers cholesterol and blood pressure.

• Helps manage stress.

What are the possible consequences of blue light Exposure?

• Disturbances in our circadian rhythm that lead to changes in brain cells and cause sleep problems.

• Increase of production of neurotoxins that cause insomnia.

• Appetite disorders. The light of the cell phone at night creates an imbalance in the hormones that control appetite, elevating the risk of compulsive eating and anxiety.

• Affects the vision. Exposure to blue light produces a common syndrome known as computer vision syndrome (SVI), macular and retinal degeneration (eye fatigue, dry eye, itching, back and neck pain, blurred vision, tearing and double vision). The extra strain on the eyes, forced to focus at close range for long periods and subjected to blue-violet light emissions, ends up exhausting them.

• Depression and stress. The reduction of melatonin, in addition to causing insomnia, can increase the possibility of frequent depression or aggressiveness because the person does not conceive to disconnect, so his/her mind never rests and does not give his/her body and organism time to recover, and this increases tension and nervousness.

• Cognitive decline. Among the adverse effects of blue light are cognitive decline, memory difficulty and lack of concentration.

The blue light and your hormones connection.

Everything in our body is connected and our endocrine system is full of messengers that are in constant communication that affect each other. If you are under stress, your main stress hormone cortisol will be affected negatively. Cortisol wakes us and should be at its peak in the morning. Melatonin and cortisol are in an opposite relationship; when melatonin is high, cortisol should be low and vice versa. When either of these gets out of balance, our ability to sleep is affected and that is going to produce extra stress on our adrenals. When you use any device with blue light just before your bedtime you are disturbing this very sensitive balance between cortisol and melatonin. When your cortisol get exhausted due to long term stress (including not enough sleep) cortisol starts to steal from pregnenolone (the so-called pregnenolone steel) that is produced through the same hormone pathway as cortisol. Pregnenolone is the precursor of progesterone so this steel will impact the production of progesterone. If your body doesn´t produce enough progesterone you are then at the risk of developing Estrogen dominance.

So, with just one peek at the screen at night you are creating a storm in your body.

How do you protect yourself?

• Use dim red lights for night lights. Red light is less likely to shift circadian rhythm and suppress melatonin.

• Avoid looking at bright screens beginning two to three hours before bed.

• If you work a night shift or use a lot of electronic devices at night, consider wearing blue-blocking glasses or installing an app that filters the blue/green wavelength at night.

• Expose yourself to lots of bright light during the day, which will boost your ability to sleep at night, as well as your mood and alertness during daylight.