Have you heard of “junk light”? Well, if you’ve heard of junk food you’re not that far off. Studies are beginning to show that certain kinds of light are just as bad for us as junk food!

Mitochondria are the little powerhouses that give us cellular energy to do everything we do. Most of our understanding about mitochondria has come from nutrition, or learning to feed our cells so that they produce energy efficiently. But there is now a growing understanding that mitochondria are not responsive only to nutrition, but they’re also responsive to light.

We evolved with only natural light, meaning that we were were exposed to little bright white or blue lights at night. When we did see light, it was daylight, and it told our bodies and brains to wake up, stop repairing and regenerating, and to produce energy.

Unfortunately, we’ve got a lot of unnecessary and artificial light in our modern lives that is messing up our cellular pathways. We’re being exposed to an unnatural spectrum of light at unnatural times of the day. And it’s affecting not only our sleep schedules, but also our energy,  metabolism, repair mechanisms, and moods.

As Bulletproof Coffee creator Dave Asprey puts it, “exposing our body to junk light is the same as eating junk food”.

Here’s the most important things you need to know about junk light, and how to protect yourself:

• Bright white light contains 5x more blue light (stimulating) than our bodies evolved with (ie sunlight) and is damaging to our system
• The most damaging light exposure is LED lighting in the evening because this is when the body needs to prepare for sleep and regeneration.
• Fluorescent and incandescent bulbs are also disruptive, especially if you’re using them in the evening or at night.
• Screens have bright light that is associated with macular degeneration. This can be filtered to block out the stimulating blue light by using programs like f.lux on your computer and phone.
• Wearing glasses like the TrueDark blue-filter twilight glasses in the evening can filter out 100% of the harmful junk light so you don’t disrupt your energy- and sleep-cycles.

Protect yourself from disruptive light with glasses, by covering up, eliminating screens at night, and switching LED lights out for incandescent or fluorescent bulb. I’ve got my TrueDark glasses and they’re already making a difference!