Artificial light at night (LAN) is the problem.
One study, which looked at the effect of nighttime light exposure on the elderly, found that the longer and more intense the exposure to light at night, the greater the chance of depressive symptoms.
"In our research so far, light exposure at night would be associated with depressive symptoms, sleep quality, metabolic abnormalities and blood pressure, and a health problem like depression and insomnia are known to increase suicide," explained study co-author and sleep researcher Kenji Obayashi, M.D., Ph.D., a research lecturer at the Nara Medical University School of Medicine in Japan. The study was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders in 2013.
Researchers are still untangling the complicated ways in which lack of sleep, light at night, depression and suicidality might be related.
No studies have directly linked light at night to suicide, other than a 2009 study published in BMC Psychiatry that demonstrated a correlation between suicide, higher latitude and summer months in Greenland.
Obayashi, however, said that light at night could be altering the body's natural circadian rhythms, which relate to sleep/wake cycles and also seem to play a role in helping manage many of the body's systems.
"Delayed circadian phase may cause depression and insomnia; however, this has not been yet established," he said. "
In addition, LAN may alter human melatonin secretion pattern, which is the hormone associated with mental condition and sleep quality."
Encouraging the continuation of research are studies such as one in Molecular Psychiatry in 2013 that pointed out that rates of major depression have increased just as humans have increasingly brightened the night.
Some researchers have found that getting enough light at certain times of day can counter these effects, but Obayashi's team found that light at night was related to depression regardless of people's exposure to daytime light.
Because circadian rhythms are a 24-hour process, not a single event, light throughout the day and night will affect them.
How To Dim the Lights If you're used to the chatter of television soothing you to sleep, it's probably going to take time to adopt these mental health saving strategies. But try them anyway:
- Switch off screens. Turn off television, laptops, phones, computers and tablets at least an hour before bedtime. Try listening to the radio or an audiobook as you go through your bedtime routine.
- Use a red screen. If you can't give up your tablet or phone, find an app that gives you a reddish nighttime screen to avoid the waking effect of blue light.
- Dim the lights. As you go through your evening, cut down on the lights. For example, use lamps instead of overhead lights.
- Keep your bedroom dark. "Use black-out curtains that prevent light from streetlights outside from entering the bedroom, and remember to turn off your bedroom television before falling asleep," recommended sleep researcher Tracy Bedrosian, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. Continue Reading
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