Bright Lights at Night Linked to Obesity

There are a large number of factors that contribute to individual obesity, as well as the current surge in obesity that everyone and their brother seems determined to beat here in the US.  There are numerous theories about these factors, and many of them are credible, but when it all comes down to it, for some reason the American public has become used to very large portions, poor food choices, and fast and easy, poor quality foods that do little more than add fat to our bodies instead of nourish it.

Hence, we also have skyrocketing levels of serious diseases like cancer and diabetes as well as heart disease.  The theories of obesity’s contributors have ranged from temperature control and lack of physical activity to various preservatives that are commonly used in foods.

Another contributing factor that you may not think about so much is watching bright lights, such as computer screens and television screens, before bedtime (I feel like a hypocrite as I type this because it’s almost bed time here for me and I’m looking at a giant, bright white-lit computer screen, yikes).

As you may have read before, your sleep patterns and adequacy of sleep hours can help you maintain your ideal weight. Those that are overweight tend to not get enough sleep, which causes larger appetites and cravings for more carbohydrates and fatty foods for energy, since you’re not getting that energy from sleeping at night.  Well, if you watch bright lights before you go to bed, it can trigger certain reactions that make solid, high quality sleep very hard to achieve.

The connection was made by Ohio University, who ran a study with mice who were exposed to bright lights for hours on end and mice who were not, and the results were pretty amazing. They showed the bright lights contributed greatly to a lot of weight gain – and very fast weight gain at that, suggesting that the same would be true in humans since we are very similar to mice in our body’s structures and chemistry.

I think for me, I can make this connection personally because I have experienced the affect of being exposed to bright lights before bed time and having a ravenous appetite that next day for all the wrong foods. I remember when I used to go out until all hours at night in college, being exposed to bright lights in bars and then going home and going straight to bed and waking the next day with a huge appetite. I don’t know if it was the alcohol or the bright lights, but there was definitely a noticeable difference in the foods I craved as well as the largeness of my appetite!