Don’t underestimate the power of light!
Every time I urge parents to expose their babies to lots of sunlight, I get a yah yah response (eyes glaze over). How is light in the morning and during the day going to help me with my night time sleep struggles?
I hear ya, it seems so far removed BUT it’s actually SO influential. Science tells us that sunlight controls our entire biological system including our sleep cycles.
How are our sleep cycles and entire circadian rhythm dictated by light?
Our body has a built in clock.
This clock is scheduled to release hormones and regulate our body temperature at certain times of the day. This clock runs on the rise of the sun and setting of the sun.
“Your circadian timing system is regulated by the suprachiasmatic nuclear, a small group of nerve cells found in the hypothalamus of the brain. The hypothalamus is considered to be the master gland of your body’s hormonal system. It controls your body’s hunger, thirst, fatigue, body temperature and sleep cycles by acting as a master clock” (Stevenson, Shawn. Sleep Smarter.)
Light signals your body and specifically your hypothalamus to wake up, which triggers the production of daytime hormones including cortisol and seratonin (the happy hormone!) If you don’t get enough sunlight during the day and are exposed to light at night (house lights/artificial light) this will seriously impact your baby’s ability to sleep well.
We take in light through our eyes which are equipped with special light receptors that take that information right to our brain. We produce hormones based on this information and serotonin is a big one in helping set us up for a good nights sleep BUT the star of the show is definitely MELATONIN.
Melatonin is called the “sleep hormone” because it sends signals to your cells to prepare for sleep. It’s naturally produced as it gets darker and during specific times of the day. It optimizes your quality of sleep and thus creates the best conditions for good, restful sleep.
Melatonin production is directly impacted by light exposure. This is true for all humans. The secret weapon to better sleep is to provide the right conditions for melatonin to do ITS job.
What can seriously interrupt melatonin? The ugly hormone called CORTISOL. Cortisol wakes baby up, makes them wired (when a baby is overtired they produce cortisol). But cortisol is not the bad guy, cortisol actually plays a crucial role in our bodies, it’s regulated throughout the day and enables us to wake up and be active. It’s not bad at all! It’s essential! We just don’t want to produce it at the wrong time or chronically in excess.
Cortisol is a key part of our circadian rhythms, cortisol rises in the mornings which helps baby wake up and be active and then filters out as the day goes on and fingers crossed is at it’s lowest point in the evening as we’re getting ready for sleep. When our babies pass the point that their little bodies can handle being awake, that stress hormone - cortisol starts to be produced as a defence mechanism and preparing baby to “fight or flight”. This is why getting your baby down before this happens is so important.
So now that you have a basic understanding of how light affect our bodies and directly dictates how we sleep, a few tips to get your fill of sunlight!
Tip #1 : In the morning and at your set wake up time. Open the curtains, expose your baby to LOTS of sunlight. Outdoor sunlight is best but opening the windows and blinds also works. Go for walks outdoors, even when it’s cloudy sunlight still hits the skin (wear sun protection).
Tip #2: Dim lights at least one hour before bedtime. Avoid screens before bedtime. Just like light, screens suppress melatonin and triggers the brain to wake up.
Tip #3: Make sure a baby’s sleep environment is PITCH dark, buy black out blinds. You want to not only maximize melatonin production but you don’t want any light to signal the brain to wake up (especially in the early morning hours when our bodies are naturally low on melatonin and are starting to wake anyway). Darkness can also help babies link their sleep cycles and nap longer as there is no distraction to fully wake. Babies are not scared of the dark, they haven’t learned that yet and their imaginations are not developed, so a night light is not necessary (I would cover anything that has light. The blue lights on humidifiers drive me crazy!).
Light and darkness are both essential for sleep. This is true for newborns and it has the same importance for adults! So let’s let our bodies do their jobs and make it easier for them to function optimally by just getting babies some sun and some dark at the right times, because night time is meant for SLEEP.
Book a free call with me and we can go through a checklist on how to best set up your baby’s sleep environment and chat about any other sleep challenges, so we can come up with solutions! Together!
Lil xx
