How smart lighting has changed the quality of my sleep

If you’re like me, when the day comes to an end and it’s time to go to bed, your brain starts buzzing with everything you didn’t get to do the next day. This inability to relax can lead to lightheadedness in the morning, and waking up to that annoying alarm clock won’t help. Wake up naturally with sunlight can help ease your day much better.

If you wake up early, especially in winter, the sun’s rays that enter the window will be available only later. Here’s where with the help of lightingsmart lighting in particular can save the day — or at least the morning. From color effects to automatic dimming, smart devices are great at simulating sunrises, and getting started is easier than you think.

Use intelligent lighting automation

Smart lighting allows you to create silly and fun effectsbut the automation and dimming features make them shine (pun intended). Combine these two things with color and you have the perfect feature to help you go to sleep and wake up.

Before setting up morning automation and bedtime automation, you need to choose smart light. While an adjustable white bulb like Wiz Smart Bulb a light that changes color can help, for example Govee Smart Color Bulb will be best for bedroom routines (more on why this is important later).

After setting up a new smart lightuse the lamp in a room where the light is not obstructed by furniture or curtains. The more direct light you are exposed to, the better.

Now it’s time to set up the automation. When it’s time to sleep, you want relatively dim lighting around you to signal to your brain that it’s time to rest, not work or play.

This automation is less complicated than the wake automation, but you’ll want to stick to a consistent bedtime routine and, as part of that, turn on the lights in your bedroom at the same time every night. I set mine to run an hour before I want to go to sleep and automatically turn off to indicate it’s time to sleep. You may need to make adjustments to fit your schedule.

After a good night’s sleep, it’s time to wake up, but we don’t use the alarm sound. This automation has a few extra steps to consider when building it. The most important one is to plan to start lighting at a low level of brightness, 5-10%, and gradually increase it over time. My automation takes 45 minutes to reach full brightness and 15 minutes before I need to wake up.

The idea of ​​this automation simulates sunrise. As your light gradually gets brighter, it forces your brain to wake you up more naturally, rather than with a sudden alarm. According to University of Washington“Our internal clock runs in 24-hour cycles and lives in a small part of our brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus. Even though it works and can work on its own, the light signals keep it in sync with the outside world.”

Dr. Kathryn McCall, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the UW School of Medicine, says, “These types of alarm lights can reduce the impact by gradually waking you up.”

We have guides for Amazon Alexa and Google Home users if you’re not sure what automation is or how to create one. You can use the lighting manufacturer’s software to create the automation, but the steps will vary by brand.

Color matters

The colors around us can directly affect our mood, including the colors you paint your bedroom with. The same goes for lighting and sleep.

This is where my previous note about choosing colored bulbs over dimmable white bulbs is important. But if the only smart light bulb you have doesn’t offer a rainbow of colors, use of warm and cool colors can help

According to The basis for sleep“Studies have shown that exposure to red light can improve sleep and increase melatonin production.”

Blue lightas well as what is emitted from our screens inhibits sleep.

“Blue light is the best-studied and most effective at causing a phase shift in sleep,” says Dr. McCall. “The light of sunrise alarms, which starts out red-orange and then fades to yellow to simulate sunrise, has simply not been studied. Blue light or full-spectrum light may be more effective.”

Now that you’re creating automation and scheduling when the lights turn on and off, choose the color you want the light to be.

Complete the experience

Lighting is critical to settling down for the night and waking up to start the day. For me, when the lights go out and I close my eyes, I also need sound—but not just any sound.

Many people use a fan to create white noise for sleep, and if I’m in a pinch, it’s better than nothing. However, I prefer one sound of sleep to help me move away. While certain programs help you relax and offer sounds for sleep, there are also dedicated sleep sound of cars and headphones for sleep. I use mine Sonos Beam soundbar and play rain sounds for sleep with Sonos Radio.

If you struggle with sleep, think about the environment in which you try to rest and see if implementing some of these smart home solutions can help.

Sleep is vital to our lives, and having a set sleep mode for your evenings is key. If you’re sleeping on an old mattress that doesn’t support the firmness, sunlight may not help your nausea. Solving this problem with a new mattress should be a priority. Now, with a good night’s sleep taken care of receiving exposure to sunlight early in the morning it’s the perfect way to start the day.