Sleeping with even a little bit of light isn't good for your health, study shows

Turning off the lights and closing the curtains isn't exactly a catchy, new sleep hygiene hack, but this common sense advice is gaining even more scientific credibility.

, senior author of the new study and director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University.in a variety of ways and could predispose people to chronic diseases.conducted by Zee and her team at Northwestern was designed to measure the physiological effects of 100 lux of artificial light on healthy adults while they were sleeping.

Unlike those who spent both nights in the dark, the group exposed to the light had elevated heart rates throughout the night. They also had increased insulin resistance in the morning, meaning they had more trouble getting their blood sugar into a normal range.Zee says there are multiple potential ways that being exposed to light at night could disturb our metabolism.

"That probably means that the light level that was getting through the eyes was not really bright enough to suppress melatonin," says Zee. The study is an important example of how even relatively dim light exposure can be disruptive to our sleep-wake cycle, saysHe says the findings makes sense because the autonomic nervous system has a robust daily rhythm.

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