Your Mattress Is Not the Key To a Good Night’s Sleep Bloomberg Bookmark April 09 2020, 3:55 PM April 09 2020, 4:10 PM (Bloomberg Businessweek) —

We may hold on to the dream that the perfect mattress is the key to a great evening of sleep, but science shows that the answer may lie in lighting. Twenty years ago, the discovery of a photosensitive pigment deep inside the human eye helped researcher

Twenty years ago, the discovery of a photosensitive pigment deep inside the human eye helped researchers understand how blind people can wake up naturally in the morning without seeing sunlight. The pigment, melanopsin, picks up the blue light of the color spectrum, which signals the brain to energize. “It was a major discovery in neuroscience,” says Steven Lockley, an associate professor of med

“It was a major discovery in neuroscience,” says Steven Lockley, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He built off this discovery to help NASA determine how astronauts in space can maintain a normal sleep schedule without a 24-hour sun cycle. Remember science class in elementary school? When you look at a flame, the blue part is the hottest; the yellow, not as hot.

“In the daytime you want blue light, which is alerting and has you as productive as possible,” Lockley says. “In the evening you want to calm the brain with lower-­temperature light and make it dimmer.” This is why you should put your blue-light cellphone away when it’s time for bed.

The health benefit of obeying our circadian rhythms has led to an explosion in consumer products. Lockley now consults for Light Cognitive, a Finnish group that designs wall boxes to look like real windows, and he’s an adviser to LED maker Lighting Science, with whom he worked on the NASA project. He encourages getting as much natural sunlight as possible, above all else

Interior decorators are taking these cues as well, using blue-­enriched bulbs for gallery walls and dressing areas, where full-spectrum light is essential for seeing color. New York designer Clodagh, who won the 2018 Global Wellness Award, says low-temperature lighting has an important side benefit in the bedroom. “When you make love, you want to look your absolute best,” she says.