October 30, 2025 • 19 mins
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We break down why falling asleep while scrolling is not a win and how blue light at night quietly shifts your body clock, blocks melatonin, and steals deep, restorative sleep. We explain the difference between sleep pressure and natural sleep onset, and give clear steps to fix your light diet.
• sleep homeostat versus natural melatonin onset
• adenosine and caffeine masking tiredness
• blue light signalling day to the brain
• circadian phase shifting from screens and LEDs
• melatonin’s role in recovery and cellular defence
• indoor life, COVID habits and clock drift
• practical fixes for a darker evening routine
• zero-blue lighting for kids and adults
• daylight exposure to anchor the clock
• simple bedroom blackout checklist
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Give it a rating and a review, or on Spotify, just go to the five stars and give it a five star rating
If you want to know more about me or work with me, you can go to ahealtyshift.com
----------------------------
ANNOUNCING
"The Shift Workers Collective"
https://join.ahealthyshift.com/the-shift-workers-collective
Click the link to learn all about it
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Disclaimer: Roger Sutherland is not a doctor or a medical professional. Always consult a physician before implementing any strategies mentioned in this podcast. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Roger Sutherland will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this podcast including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness, or death.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (01:41):
Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to
be.
Welcome to a healthy shift.
My name is Roger Sutherland,certified nutritionist, veteran
law enforcement officer, and24-7 shift worker for almost
four decades.
Through this podcast, I aim toeducate shift workers using
evidence-based methods to notonly survive the rigors of shift
(02:05):
work, but thrive.
My goal is to empower shiftworkers to improve their health
and well-being so they have moreenergy to do the things they
love.
Enjoy today's show.
And welcome back to anotherepisode of a Healthy Shift
podcast.
My name's Roger Sutherland, andI will be your guide in shift
(02:26):
work health and well-being.
And in particular, today I wantto talk about a topic that is
really important for you tounderstand.
Now I'm on a bit of a rant aboutthis at the moment.
I won't go on about blue light,but I am going to go on about
the difference between sleephomeostat and natural sleep
onset because there is a lot ofmisinformation out there at the
(02:48):
moment, and I'm here to correctit.
Now, the one thing that I wantyou to really understand is this
lying in bed and looking at yourphone at night before you go to
sleep is severely detrimental toyour health.
Now I know that there's beensome influencers out there at
the moment that are talkingabout science and saying that
(03:10):
there's actually no evidence tosay that blue light inhibits the
onset of sleep.
And I'm going to confirm thatthat's actually the case.
It is 100% correct that the bluelight from your phone or devices
or lighting does not inhibit theonset of sleep.
(03:30):
It only inhibits it by aboutseven minutes.
And that is not statisticallysignificant, which is the
science that they're relying onto try and tell you that it's
okay to be using your phone.
But I'm going to talk aboutsomething that is really, really
important for you, particularlyas a shift worker, to
understand.
And this is something that Iwant you to really pay attention
(03:50):
to.
It's a short episode, it's goingto be a banging episode.
And I want you to sit down, takenote of exactly what I am
telling you, because this is notonly pertinent for shift
workers, this is pertinent forevery single person that is a
human being and listening tothis today.
Now, as we go through the day,our sleep pressure builds, and
(04:12):
it's called a sleep homeostat.
And it's important for people tounderstand that this sleep
pressure continues to builduntil we fall asleep.
Now, as shift workers, whatactually happens is we are
really busy in our job and weget tired and more and more
tired as we go on during theday.
Now, to explain this in quitesimple terms for you, we have a
(04:36):
chemical in our bloodstreamwhich is called adenosine.
And adenosine continues to buildthroughout the course of the day
and it attaches to the brain.
And the more adenosine thatthere actually is attached to
the brain, the tier you actuallyfeel.
This is why shift workers drinka lot of caffeine.
Because caffeine, the caffeinemolecule, imitates the adenosine
(04:59):
molecule and attaches to theadenosine receptor.
And what it does is it literallystops adenosine from attaching
to the brain and making you feeltired.
So it doesn't so much stimulateyou.
What it actually does isinhibits the onset of sleep.
But what happens is when we stopdrinking caffeine during the
night or during the day or atcertain times, those molecules
(05:22):
fall, those caffeine moleculesfall away from the adenosine
receptor on the brain.
And then all of that adenosinethat is actually built up in our
body then rushes to the brainand attaches to the brain.
And then we get very tired.
Now, I want you to think aboutwhat happens here.
When you are shift working andyou're working rotating shifts
and you're not getting goodrestorative sleep and you get
(05:44):
tired, that sleep homeostat,that pressure to sleep, suddenly
starts to build and it buildsand builds and builds.
And this is the reason why youthink that looking at your phone
in bed doesn't inhibit yoursleep.
Because what it actually does isyou are exhausted.
And that sleep pressure, so youlook at your phone, you think
(06:05):
that you are relaxing by lookingat your phone, but you're
actually not.
You're stimulating yourself, andyou're stimulating yourself with
blue light as well.
But what actually happens is youfall asleep anyway when you are
tired because you are exhausted.
But this is not naturalrestorative sleep.
And this is something that weneed people to really
understand, and I want you tounderstand with this episode of
(06:28):
the podcast today.
And I want to talk about thedifference between falling
asleep because of that sleeppressure, which nearly every
single one of you do.
You get to the end of the dayand you lie in bed looking at
your phone until you feel tired,and then you roll over and you
go to sleep.
And that's great.
You do go to sleep.
But you got any idea how manypeople that I communicate with
(06:48):
that say, yeah, I fall asleepbut I don't stay asleep, or I
wake up tired, I don't reallywake up with good, you know,
having had good sleep.
I oh Roger I'm not a goodsleeper.
That's bullshit.
And I'm calling you out on that.
What it is is you haven't gotyour light diet right, and
you're lying in bed and you'relooking at your phone and you're
getting that blue light straightinto your eye.
When you understand the biologybehind exactly what is happening
(07:12):
here, you then start tounderstand why you should never
be looking at your phone orwatching TV while you're in bed.
And there's a reason.
Our eye that triggers ourcircadian rhythm only sees blue.
I want you to understand that itonly sees the 480 nanometers of
blue, and it does that throughreceptors that are in our
(07:34):
eyeball, right next to theretina, that has melanopsin in
it, and it only sees the blue.
So when you're holding yourphone up to your eyes, about
eight inches from your eye, whatyou're doing is you're putting
blue light into your eye.
Now, you might say, Yeah, but Ican go to sleep, and that's
true, you can.
But the biggest problem thatyou've actually got there is the
(07:55):
next thing that happens is thatblue light is telling your supra
cosmetic nucleus that it isstill daytime outside.
And when it's telling it it'sstill daytime, what it does is
it phase shifts your circadianrhythm.
And when it phase shifts yourcircadian rhythm, you're not
actually ready for sleep becauseour circadian rhythm literally
functions on light signals tostart off with, and it's done
(08:19):
through that center in our eye.
And what are you doing?
Holding your phone and lookingat your phone with your eye.
Or you're getting that bluelight in your eye from the
lights by your bed or from theTV.
Now you think you need the TV torelax, but it's not.
And what it's actually doing isit's stimulating you and
creating issues down the trackin your sleep.
(08:39):
You're not getting that goodrestorative sleep that you
actually need.
The other thing that's reallyimportant to understand is when
there's blue light present,which is coming from your phone,
that your eye sees and tellsyour um pineal gland, it doesn't
release melatonin.
And so therefore, you aresleeping on sleep pressure, but
(09:02):
once that sleep pressure's gone,that's when you wake up.
And understand that when you goto sleep, one of the first
things that happens is theadenosine is released from the
brain, which is what um which iswhy you wake up.
It's one of the first functions.
So then you wake and you can'tgo back to sleep because that
(09:22):
blue light from your eye hasface shifted your circadian
rhythm.
And this is the problem thatpeople have and why they're such
poor sleepers.
And what I need people tounderstand is that that
melatonin also is our freeradical eradicator in our
bloodstream.
We need melatonin runningthrough our bloodstream while we
(09:42):
are sleeping because research isnow showing that what melatonin
actually does is it eradicatescancer cells.
And this is one of the mainreasons why shift workers in
particular and the incidence ofcancer in life every day today
has actually elevated sosubstantially.
It's not about the foods you'reeating, it's not about
(10:02):
artificial preservatives andhighly processed foods and and
et cetera, et cetera.
It's about the light dietbecause of the melatonin.
And it's one of the biggestproblems that we have, our
exposure to artificial light atnight.
Now we are a diurnal creature,and we are meant to not see
light at all after the sun'sgone down.
But if you have a think aboutit, as society has gone today,
(10:24):
what has it actually done?
We have light in everything.
We have street lights outsidestreaming through our bedroom
windows, we've got city lightseverywhere, we've got lights in
our bedroom, we've got lights inour um watching TV in bed, lying
in bed watching our phones.
We've got these low voltage umLED lights that are in our
housing now where we're savingmoney on electricity, but
(10:45):
there's nothing healthy aboutthem.
There's no not enough blue inthem, too much blue at night, no
infrared, and there's no decentcolour in it at all.
So we're not getting any of thatfor health.
Plus, we're also spending somuch time inside these days.
More than 50% of our time isspent inside, and we need
daylight.
Our body thrives on daylight.
(11:07):
What do we do?
We get in our car, we drive tothe office, we're in the office
all day, we drive to the car inthe car, we drive home.
And how much better do we sleepwhen we've been out in the
forest all day or when we'vebeen on the beach all day?
We're getting daylight, that'swhat it is.
And then we get home and wesleep really well because we
have triggered our circadianrhythm as to where it is.
But at night, when you have beeninside all day, and this is one
(11:31):
of the reasons that we had somany sleep issues and so many
mental health issues aroundCOVID.
Because while we were lockeddown, and in particular people
here in Melbourne, we werelocked down for the best part of
two years, which meant peoplewere going from their bedrooms
into their home office, intotheir bedroom, and that was it.
There was no daylight, theyweren't getting any natural
daylight during the day toactually reset and trigger their
(11:54):
circadian rhythm.
So it doesn't suppress the sleephormones and fire up cortisol to
get you actually going, which iswhat is important.
And then when they went to bedat night, they weren't tired
watching TV, couldn't sleep,circadian rhythm had no idea
where it was at in time andspace, and we ended up with all
sorts of problems around mentalhealth as well.
(12:15):
And this is what causes it.
Now, when I say that sleep isnot inhibited, or sleep onset is
not inhibited by your mobilephone, that's 100% correct.
But what they're doing isthey're not telling you the full
story in relation to theirmelatonin onset, and we need
that melatonin onset to actuallyhelp us.
(12:36):
It's a natural signaler ofdarkness to the body.
When there's no blue lightpresent in light, melatonin is
triggered and released from thepineal gland.
And what it does is it then runsthrough our body and signals
darkness to the body, and thebody shuts down, slows down, and
shuts down at night.
And also, while it's runningthrough the bloodstream, it is a
(12:59):
free radical eradicator,eradicating those cancer cells
in our body.
Now, if you want to lie in bedand you want to look at your
phone or watch TV in bed, knockyourself out.
But the thing is, I'm going tobe very clear with you and tell
you that you are leavingyourself wide open.
It's like going to bed andleaving your front door wide
open for cancer to walk in thedoor.
(13:19):
And don't tell me that you'veyou're just I'm just not a good
sleeper.
When you're rolling over andlooking at your phone in the
middle of the night, or you'relying in bed watching TV, or
you've got your phone in yourhand and you're just not present
and shutting down and you've gotall this blue light going into
your eye.
Yeah, sure, you can sleep.
That's sleep pressure.
That's got nothing to do withgetting good natural restorative
(13:40):
sleep.
And this is something thatpeople really have to
understand.
So when you see me banging onabout blue light, this is the
reason why I do it.
I want to protect you, I want toprotect your health.
Your health is very important tome.
And when I look at people and Isee these low voltage LEDs all
through the house and they're onat night, and these bright
houses, and they're watching TV,and then they're lying in bed
(14:02):
and watching, um, watchingYouTubes and and doing things on
their TikToks and Instagramreels on their phones, and I
just think to myself, the damagethat you are actually doing is
going to be irreversible.
And we need to understand thedifference that having zero blue
light after dark makes.
(14:23):
Once you read the book The LightDoctor, and you start to
understand the impact that lightis having on us biologically,
and also Lifetime by Dr.
Professor Russell Foster, twofantastic books to read.
Um you start to understand theimpact that light and this
artificial light at night ishaving to be honest.
Now, scientists all know this,but influencers are telling you
(14:46):
rubbish, and you might say, butwhat makes you right?
Science.
That's what makes me right.
And and it's very, very clear,and the evidence is very, very
clear today that artificiallight at night is creating the
health issues that we have.
If your children are notsleeping, then it's light.
It's not anything else, it'slight.
And you need to get their lightdiet right.
(15:09):
If you are snacking at night,it's light.
If you're got cardiovasculardisease and you're having all
sorts of issues, it's lightbecause light leads to eating
disorders, which leads to poorsleep, which leads to more
eating disorders, which leads toobesity and overweight and
causes all sorts of problems.
The most important diet to getright is your light diet.
(15:30):
And when you get your light dietright, everything in your life
will completely change.
Having an aligned circadianrhythm with your normal day and
getting good, solid, restorativesleep at night will solve 90% of
the problems that you've got inyour life today.
Because you will think clearer,you will be a lot better, you
will be performing better,you'll be sleeping better all
(15:51):
round.
It'll make such a difference toyou.
So I just wanted to say thattoday.
That is the guts of the podcasttoday.
I really want you to understandthat the fact that you can look
at your phone and go to sleep isnot that blue light doesn't in
fact doesn't impact on you,because blue light, every bit of
blue light that you're lookingat after dark is impacting on
(16:12):
you severely.
And it will catch up with you.
And I promise you, it will catchup with you.
While you're young, you're goingokay, but as you get older, it
will catch up on you.
There is a massive differencebetween being exhausted and
falling asleep and gettingnatural sleep from the onset of
melatonin.
And that is the point that Iwanted to make today.
(16:34):
Roger goes bang.
Okay, if you got anything out ofthat podcast, can you do me a
favor, please?
Can you share it?
Can you let other people know?
People who you know that havegot kids that don't sleep.
Actually, I wanted to tell yousomething as well.
Putting lights on in yourchildren's bedroom for them to
sleep by, you are actuallycausing bigger problems for
their sleep.
(16:55):
Unless it's zero blue.
Don't don't just buy some toythat's got a low light on it.
You actually need a zero bluelight because if the zero blue,
the eye doesn't see blue, itthinks it's dark.
It's simple.
I want you to go into your kids'bedroom, sit on the bed, hold
your hand out at full length andhave a look at your hand.
And if you can see your hand intheir bedroom, it is too light.
(17:18):
Too light.
And it goes the same for you aswell.
If you can see light, if you cansee your hand in front of your
face at your outstretched arm,it's too light in your bedroom.
And you need to do somethingabout that.
Ever since we blocked out theblinds, closed the door, turned
all the lights off, even thoseLEDs that are coming from your
TV or your mobile phone chargesor things like that, that's too
(17:42):
light.
You've got to get rid of itbecause your body sees it.
And this is impacting on yoursleep.
Because when you go pitch blackand you can't see anything at
all, watch the difference thatthat actually makes to your life
and your sleep.
And get outside in the sunlightevery day or the daylight.
Even on an overcast day, theblue light outside is exactly
(18:03):
what our body needs.
Okay.
Roger goes, boom.
Share the podcast.
Please, if you get a moment, Iwould really appreciate it.
No one's done it for ages.
Give it a rating and a review,or on Spotify, just go to the
five stars and give it a fivestar rating.
It's very simple.
Just go to the main page andwhere it says more, you can
click on there and you canactually give it five stars and
(18:25):
rate it.
I would greatly appreciate it ifyou would do it.
It's free information that comesto you to help you, to support
you as a shift worker.
I really enjoy doing thepodcast.
Let's keep going doing it.
And let's bring moreevidence-based strategies to our
shift working community.
(19:19):
It would also be ever so helpfulif you could leave a rating and
review on the app you'recurrently listening on.
If you want to know more aboutme or work with me, you can go
to ahealtyshift.com.
I'll catch you on the next one.
Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to
be.
Welcome to a healthy shift.
My name is Roger Sutherland,certified nutritionist, veteran
law enforcement officer, and24-7 shift worker for almost
four decades.
Through this podcast, I aim toeducate shift workers using
evidence-based methods to notonly survive the rigors of shift
(02:05):
work, but thrive.
My goal is to empower shiftworkers to improve their health
and well-being so they have moreenergy to do the things they
love.
Enjoy today's show.
And welcome back to anotherepisode of a Healthy Shift
podcast.
My name's Roger Sutherland, andI will be your guide in shift
(02:26):
work health and well-being.
And in particular, today I wantto talk about a topic that is
really important for you tounderstand.
Now I'm on a bit of a rant aboutthis at the moment.
I won't go on about blue light,but I am going to go on about
the difference between sleephomeostat and natural sleep
onset because there is a lot ofmisinformation out there at the
(02:48):
moment, and I'm here to correctit.
Now, the one thing that I wantyou to really understand is this
lying in bed and looking at yourphone at night before you go to
sleep is severely detrimental toyour health.
Now I know that there's beensome influencers out there at
the moment that are talkingabout science and saying that
(03:10):
there's actually no evidence tosay that blue light inhibits the
onset of sleep.
And I'm going to confirm thatthat's actually the case.
It is 100% correct that the bluelight from your phone or devices
or lighting does not inhibit theonset of sleep.
(03:30):
It only inhibits it by aboutseven minutes.
And that is not statisticallysignificant, which is the
science that they're relying onto try and tell you that it's
okay to be using your phone.
But I'm going to talk aboutsomething that is really, really
important for you, particularlyas a shift worker, to
understand.
And this is something that Iwant you to really pay attention
(03:50):
to.
It's a short episode, it's goingto be a banging episode.
And I want you to sit down, takenote of exactly what I am
telling you, because this is notonly pertinent for shift
workers, this is pertinent forevery single person that is a
human being and listening tothis today.
Now, as we go through the day,our sleep pressure builds, and
(04:12):
it's called a sleep homeostat.
And it's important for people tounderstand that this sleep
pressure continues to builduntil we fall asleep.
Now, as shift workers, whatactually happens is we are
really busy in our job and weget tired and more and more
tired as we go on during theday.
Now, to explain this in quitesimple terms for you, we have a
(04:36):
chemical in our bloodstreamwhich is called adenosine.
And adenosine continues to buildthroughout the course of the day
and it attaches to the brain.
And the more adenosine thatthere actually is attached to
the brain, the tier you actuallyfeel.
This is why shift workers drinka lot of caffeine.
Because caffeine, the caffeinemolecule, imitates the adenosine
(04:59):
molecule and attaches to theadenosine receptor.
And what it does is it literallystops adenosine from attaching
to the brain and making you feeltired.
So it doesn't so much stimulateyou.
What it actually does isinhibits the onset of sleep.
But what happens is when we stopdrinking caffeine during the
night or during the day or atcertain times, those molecules
(05:22):
fall, those caffeine moleculesfall away from the adenosine
receptor on the brain.
And then all of that adenosinethat is actually built up in our
body then rushes to the brainand attaches to the brain.
And then we get very tired.
Now, I want you to think aboutwhat happens here.
When you are shift working andyou're working rotating shifts
and you're not getting goodrestorative sleep and you get
(05:44):
tired, that sleep homeostat,that pressure to sleep, suddenly
starts to build and it buildsand builds and builds.
And this is the reason why youthink that looking at your phone
in bed doesn't inhibit yoursleep.
Because what it actually does isyou are exhausted.
And that sleep pressure, so youlook at your phone, you think
(06:05):
that you are relaxing by lookingat your phone, but you're
actually not.
You're stimulating yourself, andyou're stimulating yourself with
blue light as well.
But what actually happens is youfall asleep anyway when you are
tired because you are exhausted.
But this is not naturalrestorative sleep.
And this is something that weneed people to really
understand, and I want you tounderstand with this episode of
(06:28):
the podcast today.
And I want to talk about thedifference between falling
asleep because of that sleeppressure, which nearly every
single one of you do.
You get to the end of the dayand you lie in bed looking at
your phone until you feel tired,and then you roll over and you
go to sleep.
And that's great.
You do go to sleep.
But you got any idea how manypeople that I communicate with
(06:48):
that say, yeah, I fall asleepbut I don't stay asleep, or I
wake up tired, I don't reallywake up with good, you know,
having had good sleep.
I oh Roger I'm not a goodsleeper.
That's bullshit.
And I'm calling you out on that.
What it is is you haven't gotyour light diet right, and
you're lying in bed and you'relooking at your phone and you're
getting that blue light straightinto your eye.
When you understand the biologybehind exactly what is happening
(07:12):
here, you then start tounderstand why you should never
be looking at your phone orwatching TV while you're in bed.
And there's a reason.
Our eye that triggers ourcircadian rhythm only sees blue.
I want you to understand that itonly sees the 480 nanometers of
blue, and it does that throughreceptors that are in our
(07:34):
eyeball, right next to theretina, that has melanopsin in
it, and it only sees the blue.
So when you're holding yourphone up to your eyes, about
eight inches from your eye, whatyou're doing is you're putting
blue light into your eye.
Now, you might say, Yeah, but Ican go to sleep, and that's
true, you can.
But the biggest problem thatyou've actually got there is the
(07:55):
next thing that happens is thatblue light is telling your supra
cosmetic nucleus that it isstill daytime outside.
And when it's telling it it'sstill daytime, what it does is
it phase shifts your circadianrhythm.
And when it phase shifts yourcircadian rhythm, you're not
actually ready for sleep becauseour circadian rhythm literally
functions on light signals tostart off with, and it's done
(08:19):
through that center in our eye.
And what are you doing?
Holding your phone and lookingat your phone with your eye.
Or you're getting that bluelight in your eye from the
lights by your bed or from theTV.
Now you think you need the TV torelax, but it's not.
And what it's actually doing isit's stimulating you and
creating issues down the trackin your sleep.
(08:39):
You're not getting that goodrestorative sleep that you
actually need.
The other thing that's reallyimportant to understand is when
there's blue light present,which is coming from your phone,
that your eye sees and tellsyour um pineal gland, it doesn't
release melatonin.
And so therefore, you aresleeping on sleep pressure, but
(09:02):
once that sleep pressure's gone,that's when you wake up.
And understand that when you goto sleep, one of the first
things that happens is theadenosine is released from the
brain, which is what um which iswhy you wake up.
It's one of the first functions.
So then you wake and you can'tgo back to sleep because that
(09:22):
blue light from your eye hasface shifted your circadian
rhythm.
And this is the problem thatpeople have and why they're such
poor sleepers.
And what I need people tounderstand is that that
melatonin also is our freeradical eradicator in our
bloodstream.
We need melatonin runningthrough our bloodstream while we
(09:42):
are sleeping because research isnow showing that what melatonin
actually does is it eradicatescancer cells.
And this is one of the mainreasons why shift workers in
particular and the incidence ofcancer in life every day today
has actually elevated sosubstantially.
It's not about the foods you'reeating, it's not about
(10:02):
artificial preservatives andhighly processed foods and and
et cetera, et cetera.
It's about the light dietbecause of the melatonin.
And it's one of the biggestproblems that we have, our
exposure to artificial light atnight.
Now we are a diurnal creature,and we are meant to not see
light at all after the sun'sgone down.
But if you have a think aboutit, as society has gone today,
(10:24):
what has it actually done?
We have light in everything.
We have street lights outsidestreaming through our bedroom
windows, we've got city lightseverywhere, we've got lights in
our bedroom, we've got lights inour um watching TV in bed, lying
in bed watching our phones.
We've got these low voltage umLED lights that are in our
housing now where we're savingmoney on electricity, but
(10:45):
there's nothing healthy aboutthem.
There's no not enough blue inthem, too much blue at night, no
infrared, and there's no decentcolour in it at all.
So we're not getting any of thatfor health.
Plus, we're also spending somuch time inside these days.
More than 50% of our time isspent inside, and we need
daylight.
Our body thrives on daylight.
(11:07):
What do we do?
We get in our car, we drive tothe office, we're in the office
all day, we drive to the car inthe car, we drive home.
And how much better do we sleepwhen we've been out in the
forest all day or when we'vebeen on the beach all day?
We're getting daylight, that'swhat it is.
And then we get home and wesleep really well because we
have triggered our circadianrhythm as to where it is.
But at night, when you have beeninside all day, and this is one
(11:31):
of the reasons that we had somany sleep issues and so many
mental health issues aroundCOVID.
Because while we were lockeddown, and in particular people
here in Melbourne, we werelocked down for the best part of
two years, which meant peoplewere going from their bedrooms
into their home office, intotheir bedroom, and that was it.
There was no daylight, theyweren't getting any natural
daylight during the day toactually reset and trigger their
(11:54):
circadian rhythm.
So it doesn't suppress the sleephormones and fire up cortisol to
get you actually going, which iswhat is important.
And then when they went to bedat night, they weren't tired
watching TV, couldn't sleep,circadian rhythm had no idea
where it was at in time andspace, and we ended up with all
sorts of problems around mentalhealth as well.
(12:15):
And this is what causes it.
Now, when I say that sleep isnot inhibited, or sleep onset is
not inhibited by your mobilephone, that's 100% correct.
But what they're doing isthey're not telling you the full
story in relation to theirmelatonin onset, and we need
that melatonin onset to actuallyhelp us.
(12:36):
It's a natural signaler ofdarkness to the body.
When there's no blue lightpresent in light, melatonin is
triggered and released from thepineal gland.
And what it does is it then runsthrough our body and signals
darkness to the body, and thebody shuts down, slows down, and
shuts down at night.
And also, while it's runningthrough the bloodstream, it is a
(12:59):
free radical eradicator,eradicating those cancer cells
in our body.
Now, if you want to lie in bedand you want to look at your
phone or watch TV in bed, knockyourself out.
But the thing is, I'm going tobe very clear with you and tell
you that you are leavingyourself wide open.
It's like going to bed andleaving your front door wide
open for cancer to walk in thedoor.
(13:19):
And don't tell me that you'veyou're just I'm just not a good
sleeper.
When you're rolling over andlooking at your phone in the
middle of the night, or you'relying in bed watching TV, or
you've got your phone in yourhand and you're just not present
and shutting down and you've gotall this blue light going into
your eye.
Yeah, sure, you can sleep.
That's sleep pressure.
That's got nothing to do withgetting good natural restorative
(13:40):
sleep.
And this is something thatpeople really have to
understand.
So when you see me banging onabout blue light, this is the
reason why I do it.
I want to protect you, I want toprotect your health.
Your health is very important tome.
And when I look at people and Isee these low voltage LEDs all
through the house and they're onat night, and these bright
houses, and they're watching TV,and then they're lying in bed
(14:02):
and watching, um, watchingYouTubes and and doing things on
their TikToks and Instagramreels on their phones, and I
just think to myself, the damagethat you are actually doing is
going to be irreversible.
And we need to understand thedifference that having zero blue
light after dark makes.
(14:23):
Once you read the book The LightDoctor, and you start to
understand the impact that lightis having on us biologically,
and also Lifetime by Dr.
Professor Russell Foster, twofantastic books to read.
Um you start to understand theimpact that light and this
artificial light at night ishaving to be honest.
Now, scientists all know this,but influencers are telling you
(14:46):
rubbish, and you might say, butwhat makes you right?
Science.
That's what makes me right.
And and it's very, very clear,and the evidence is very, very
clear today that artificiallight at night is creating the
health issues that we have.
If your children are notsleeping, then it's light.
It's not anything else, it'slight.
And you need to get their lightdiet right.
(15:09):
If you are snacking at night,it's light.
If you're got cardiovasculardisease and you're having all
sorts of issues, it's lightbecause light leads to eating
disorders, which leads to poorsleep, which leads to more
eating disorders, which leads toobesity and overweight and
causes all sorts of problems.
The most important diet to getright is your light diet.
(15:30):
And when you get your light dietright, everything in your life
will completely change.
Having an aligned circadianrhythm with your normal day and
getting good, solid, restorativesleep at night will solve 90% of
the problems that you've got inyour life today.
Because you will think clearer,you will be a lot better, you
will be performing better,you'll be sleeping better all
(15:51):
round.
It'll make such a difference toyou.
So I just wanted to say thattoday.
That is the guts of the podcasttoday.
I really want you to understandthat the fact that you can look
at your phone and go to sleep isnot that blue light doesn't in
fact doesn't impact on you,because blue light, every bit of
blue light that you're lookingat after dark is impacting on
(16:12):
you severely.
And it will catch up with you.
And I promise you, it will catchup with you.
While you're young, you're goingokay, but as you get older, it
will catch up on you.
There is a massive differencebetween being exhausted and
falling asleep and gettingnatural sleep from the onset of
melatonin.
And that is the point that Iwanted to make today.
(16:34):
Roger goes bang.
Okay, if you got anything out ofthat podcast, can you do me a
favor, please?
Can you share it?
Can you let other people know?
People who you know that havegot kids that don't sleep.
Actually, I wanted to tell yousomething as well.
Putting lights on in yourchildren's bedroom for them to
sleep by, you are actuallycausing bigger problems for
their sleep.
(16:55):
Unless it's zero blue.
Don't don't just buy some toythat's got a low light on it.
You actually need a zero bluelight because if the zero blue,
the eye doesn't see blue, itthinks it's dark.
It's simple.
I want you to go into your kids'bedroom, sit on the bed, hold
your hand out at full length andhave a look at your hand.
And if you can see your hand intheir bedroom, it is too light.
(17:18):
Too light.
And it goes the same for you aswell.
If you can see light, if you cansee your hand in front of your
face at your outstretched arm,it's too light in your bedroom.
And you need to do somethingabout that.
Ever since we blocked out theblinds, closed the door, turned
all the lights off, even thoseLEDs that are coming from your
TV or your mobile phone chargesor things like that, that's too
(17:42):
light.
You've got to get rid of itbecause your body sees it.
And this is impacting on yoursleep.
Because when you go pitch blackand you can't see anything at
all, watch the difference thatthat actually makes to your life
and your sleep.
And get outside in the sunlightevery day or the daylight.
Even on an overcast day, theblue light outside is exactly
(18:03):
what our body needs.
Okay.
Roger goes, boom.
Share the podcast.
Please, if you get a moment, Iwould really appreciate it.
No one's done it for ages.
Give it a rating and a review,or on Spotify, just go to the
five stars and give it a fivestar rating.
It's very simple.
Just go to the main page andwhere it says more, you can
click on there and you canactually give it five stars and
(18:25):
rate it.
I would greatly appreciate it ifyou would do it.
It's free information that comesto you to help you, to support
you as a shift worker.
I really enjoy doing thepodcast.
Let's keep going doing it.
And let's bring moreevidence-based strategies to our
shift working community.
(19:19):
It would also be ever so helpfulif you could leave a rating and
review on the app you'recurrently listening on.
If you want to know more aboutme or work with me, you can go
to ahealtyshift.com.
I'll catch you on the next one.
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