Is blue light really stealing your sleep? New research says maybe not

YOU'VE likely heard this advice before: put your phone away before bed to avoid blue light and sleep better.

- VUYILE MADWANTSI

Many people now believe blue light from screens disrupts melatonin, leading to restless nights and groggy mornings.

But is blue light truly to blame? New research suggests the answer isn’t so simple, and there may be other reasons you're not sleeping well.

Blue light, from the sun or screens, can lower melatonin, the hormone that tells your brain it’s time to sleep. This can make falling asleep harder. However, new studies suggest blue light’s effect on melatonin and on sleep might not be as strong as we once believed.

Lauren Hartstein, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Arizona, says the evidence connecting blue light to sleep disruption is murkier than previously believed.

While blue light can indeed lower melatonin levels, many of the studies supporting this link are outdated or conducted in controlled lab environments that don’t reflect real-world conditions.

For example, the oft-cited 2014 Harvard study on blue light found that reading on an iPad at maximum brightness for four hours delayed sleep onset by 10 minutes. But how often do you stare at a screen that intensely just before bed?