Why I Block Blue Light in My Home: A Naturopath’s Approach to Better Sleep

Georgie
May 20
3 min read

As a Margaret River based naturopath and sleep consultant, one of the most common things I hear from clients struggling with their children's sleep, their own insomnia, hormone imbalances or perimenopause symptoms is:

“I’ll try anything to sleep better.”

Honestly, I understand completely.

That’s exactly why I care so much about blocking blue light in my home. Some of my methods may seem a little over the top, but they’ve genuinely made a huge difference to both the quality and quantity of my sleep — and many of my naturopathy and sleep clients notice improvements too.

Why Blue Light Matters for Sleep & Hormones:

Blue light is everywhere — and not just from obvious sources like phones, computers and TVs.

It also comes from:

Street lights outside
Other people’s house lights
Fridge and oven lights
Indoor lighting (even many “warm” globes)

As a naturopath and child sleep consultant, I spend a lot of time educating clients about the connection between light exposure, hormones, circadian rhythm and sleep quality.

Our circadian rhythm controls so many aspects of health, including:

Sleep
Energy
Mood
Digestion
Hormones

During the middle of the day, the sun naturally releases the highest amount of blue light. This signals our body to increase cortisol (our alertness hormone) and suppress melatonin (our sleep hormone).

As the sun sets, ideally our environment should begin mimicking this natural reduction in light exposure. However, modern life exposes us to artificial blue light well into the evening, which can confuse the brain into thinking it’s still daytime.

How Blue Light Affects Melatonin:

When we’re exposed to too much blue light at night, melatonin production becomes blunted. Instead of winding down naturally, our bodies continue producing cortisol, making it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep.

This can be especially problematic during perimenopause, or in times of already broken and stressful sleep such as post partum when hormone fluctuations already make sleep more difficult.

Many women and children I work with in my naturopathy and sleep consultancy clinic experience:

Difficulty falling asleep
Waking during the night
Early waking
Increased anxiety at night
Night sweats and hormone-related insomnia

Another interesting fact: it can take the body around four hours to fully recover from blue light exposure. So if you turn off the TV and bright lights at 9pm and go straight to bed, your body may not fully produce optimal melatonin levels until much later.

Melatonin is also far more than just a sleep hormone — it’s a powerful antioxidant involved in overnight healing and repair.

Can Melatonin Supplements Help?

Sometimes, yes.

I occasionally recommend melatonin supplementation for certain clients, depending on their symptoms and health history. I’ve also personally used melatonin tablets at times.

But ideally, we also want to support the body’s own natural melatonin production through lifestyle and environmental changes.

My Favorite Blue Light Blocking Tips

Some of the things I’ve personally done in my house include:

Closing all blinds where outside light reaches the bedrooms
Duct taping over the fridge light (it’s surprisingly bright!)
Changing frequently used lights to bulbs from blockbluelight.com
Wearing blue light blocking glasses when using the computer
Using red blue-light blocking glasses at night if watching TV
Covering windows in my bedroom with thick fabric to stop light leaking around blinds