Exposure to light during sleep affects metabolism, finds study

Some people can’t sleep with the lights on in the room, while some are unable to sleep without at least a night bulb switched on at night.

Well, this study throws light on what’s better for sleep patterns.

Exposure to light during sleep at night not only affects sleep, it also negatively impacts metabolism, a recent research suggested.

According to the study conducted by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, light exposure during sleep decreases cells’ ability to respond to insulin action which leads to the development of type 2 diabetes.

Lead author of the study, Ivy Cheung Mason, stated that the preliminary findings suggested light exposure at night could lead to type 2 diabetes while the final report showed it had the potential to impact metabolism negatively.

The researchers divided twenty healthy adults aged between to 18 and 40 years randomly into two groups – “Dark-Dark (DD)” and “Dark-Light (DL)” and asked to have an eight-hour sleep. Participants’ blood samples were collected on two nights and oral glucose tolerance tests were performed in the morning. The changes of two days and nights were examined between two groups.

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