Sleep

Sleep

Two men who worked on the oil pipeline in Alaska attended one of my lectures. I had mentioned that we needed a certain number of hours in the darkness (aka eyes closed or sleeping) to allow our eyes to recover the constant stress of light upon our retinas. The retina has the highest metabolism in the body with the rapid turn over of rods and cones after being impacted by light.

One of these men explained that he worked outdoors all day without sunglasses. If he did not have at least five hours of sleep he began the next day seeing floaters and glare. He did not wear sunglasses because he thought that only the best sunglasses were protective. Most sunglasses provide UV protection. But you cannot rely on that sticker at the sunglasses stand to validate that claim. Make sure the optical shop where you buy your glasses can measure the amount of UV blocking capacity.

Sleep is essential to eye health since the dark and a relaxed body allows the retina to recover from so many hours in sunlight and to flush out the free radicals. This also allows the liver to restore optimal ocular function when it’s not busy with so many other chores during the day.

Soon blue light technology will be available to assist people in returning to a normal twenty-four hour wake-sleep cycle, to eliminate insomnia. One hour daily wearing of these glasses should restore good solid “shut eye “within seven to ten days.

I will write a more complete item about blue light glasses as soon as it obtains FDA approval.  Stay tuned!