Red light. The first thought most people have: the Red Light District in Amsterdam. That atmospheric red glow behind a window.
Not exactly the first thing you associate with a good night's sleep.
And yet. If your bedroom looks a little like a quiet corner of the Red Light District in the evening, you're doing something right.
Because red light may be the most underrated tool for better sleep there is.
Why light color matters so much
Your body doesn't respond to light as one single thing. It responds to the wavelength of light. And that wavelength determines which signal goes to your brain.
Blue light, the wavelength that is dominant in sunlight and in your phone and laptop, sends a clear signal to your suprachiasmatic nucleus: it's daytime. Stop producing melatonin. Stay awake and alert.
Red light works exactly the other way around. The wavelength of red light, between 620 and 700 nanometers, barely activates the alertness response. Your brain reads it as: it's getting dark. The day is coming to an end. Start the transition to night.
That's no coincidence. It's evolution. The light of a setting sun, of a campfire, of candles, is naturally red and orange. That was the only light our ancestors had in the evening. Their brains learned that red light means evening. Time to relax.
We haven't changed that system. But we have changed our light. And we pay the price for that every night.
What red light actually does
A study published in the Journal of Athletic Enhancement examined the effect of red light on sleep quality in female basketball players. The group that was exposed to red light every evening for two weeks slept significantly better, had higher melatonin levels, and performed better during the day.
But it goes beyond melatonin alone.
Red and infrared light have a direct effect on your cells. They stimulate the mitochondria, the power plants of your cells, to produce ATP more efficiently. ATP is the fuel your body uses for recovery, repair, and growth. Exactly the processes that take place at night.
In other words: red light in the evening not only prepares your body for sleep, it also kicks off the processes that make your sleep truly restorative.
How to apply it in practice
You don't need to buy an expensive red light therapy lamp to benefit from this. Although those certainly work, there are simpler steps.
Start by replacing your regular lamps in the bedroom and living room with warm, orange, or red-tinted light. Lamps with a color temperature below 2700 Kelvin are already a good fit. Candles also work excellently. They naturally sit in the red spectrum.
Dim your lights one to two hours before going to bed. Color isn't the only thing that matters; intensity does too. Brighter light, even if it is warm in color, keeps your nervous system active longer than soft, dim light.
And the bedroom itself? As dark as possible once you go to sleep. Red light is for the evening, for the transition. During sleep, you want no light at all.
The habit for this week
Replace one lamp tonight in the room where you spend the most time in the evening with a warm, orange, or red version. Or light a candle and turn off the main light.
Do this for a week and notice what changes in how quickly you get sleepy.
You don't have to set up your bedroom like a Amsterdam window, but leaning a little in that direction? That's exactly right.
Every Night 1% Better.
Guy Veeke
PS. Red light puts your body into rest mode. But what happens next during your sleep also depends on how you breathe. Mouth breathing keeps your nervous system unconsciously active and reduces the quality of your deep sleep. Nasal breathing does the opposite. Our mouth tape keeps your mouth closed, so you automatically breathe through your nose. Check them out here: https://snoozeless.nl/products/mondtape
