MD, FAASM - Board-Certified Sleep Medicine Physician
Dr Joshua Roland
Education and qualifications
Comment on Blue Light
MD, FAASM - Board-Certified Sleep Medicine Physician
Dr Joshua Roland
Joshua Roland is a board-certified sleep medicine physician with extensive clinical and research experience in the field of sleep medicine. He is currently serving on the California Sleep Society board of directors.
He has multiple publications in scientific peer-reviewed literature, has contributed to sleep medicine textbooks, and has been cited by numerous sleep-related articles and media outlets.
Sleep is a crucial aspect of our physical and mental wellbeing. Not getting enough rest has been linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, infection, inflammatory conditions, mood and mental health risks, car accidents, and issues with memory and cognition. Many people have trouble sleeping at night, often thought to be due to insomnia, when in actuality they have a circadian rhythm disorder known as delayed sleep-wake phase disorder, which can be due in large part to the negative impact of blue light. Blue light, as emitted from our many devices and artificial lights, can be detrimental to our sleep through disruption of our circadian rhythm, or internal clock. Our internal sleep-wake schedule is in large part dictated by the naturally produced hormone melatonin. Our bodies are built so that in the evening when the sun goes down and it gets dark, melatonin is released from our pineal gland, keeping our circadian rhythm in sync and helping us to sleep at night and be awake and alert during the day. Studies have shown that blue light actually suppresses this naturally occurring melatonin release, diminishing one of the major driving forces propelling us to sleep. While in modern society it is hard to completely escape evening blue light, utilisation of blue light filters and low blue light products such as those offered by Ocushield can go a long way to reducing blue light’s deleterious effect on sleep.