SLEEPING with the TV on can cause several health defects, including early death, a sleep expert claims.
A new study by Northwestern University School of Medicine claims that sleeping with even the slightest ambient lighting during nighttime sleep can harm your cardiovascular function.
Chief of sleep medicine Phyllis Zee and her team examined the role of light in sleep for healthy adults between 63 and 84.
According to the study, sleeping for only one night with a dim light, such as a TV set with the sounds off, raised people's blood sugar and heart rate during their sleep.
The study revealed that exposure to any among of light during your sleep period was "correlated with the higher prevalence of diabetes, obesity and hypertension" in both older men and women.
Researchers found that insulin resistance occurred the morning after people slept in a light room.
Insulin resistance is when cells in your muscles, fat and live don’t respond well to insulin and can’t use glucose from your blood for energy.
To make up for it, your pancreas makes more insulin, and your blood sugar increases over time.
“Now, we are showing a mechanism that might be fundamental to explain why this happens. We show it’s affecting your ability to regulate glucose,” Zee said.
Zee and her team said they were surprised that fewer than half of the men and women in the study consistently slept in darkness for at least five hours each day.
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"More than 53% or so had some light during the night in the room," she said.
Zee added that people who slept with higher light levels were more likely to go to bed later and get up later, and "we know late sleepers tend to also have a higher risk for cardiovascular and metabolic disorders."
"People should do their best to avoid or minimize the amount of light they are exposed to during sleep," she advised.
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Experts advise people to position their beds away from windows or use light-blocking window shades.
People are recommended to avoid charging their laptops and cellphones in their bedroom, where melatonin-altering blue light can disrupt their sleep.
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