Researchers from the University of Strasbourg and University of Amsterdam recently presented their work to the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior, investigating what happens to appetite control after blue light exposure. What they found isn’t so sweet.
In their study, the team exposed rats to an hour of blue light at night and then observed their food choices. The rats were given a choice between their normal, nutritional food, water, lard and sugar water. They found the male rats drank more sugar water after blue light exposure than those that were not exposed to any blue light.
In addition, those rats exposed to blue light had an altered glucose tolerance, which can be a precursor to diabetes.
The takeaway for the researchers? Exposure to blue light before bed may increase our propensity to snack on sugary food and potentially disrupt the ability to process sugar.
This is in addition to all of the other known issues caused by blue light, including disrupting your sleep by suppressing melatonin production, prematurely aging your skin, and long-term consequences for your vision, like macular degeneration.
As the list of health issues caused by blue light gets longer, it might start to feel a little overwhelming. Luckily, there are ways to protect yourself. A screen protector, like EyeJust, is an affordable and easy-to-use way to block 50 percent of blue light at the source. That way, you can ensure the only sweet things you see at night are your dreams!