Good news. I started getting 8 hours of sleep for the past week and I've been having segmented sleep and remembering my dreams.MachineGhost wrote:I will buy it and compare it to the melatonin supplement.Gumby wrote: But, I really hope someone here tries it out and reports back. Supposedly there is a snowball effect in that it takes a few days to get in the routine and get the hormone surges rolling.
I also ordered the cheap $8 low-blue glasses. I figured, what the heck. They arrived yesterday. I put them on around 7:30pm. Got the dirty looks from my wife, and then I started getting sleepy pretty quickly — I really noticed a difference in how tired I felt. Went to bed at a decent hour and then I had the best night sleep I've had in a loong time. Not only that, but my awake time was more vivid than usual today — that was probably the best part.
However, it seems that there is more to the science of low-blue light than what meets the eye (pun intended). The guy behind the company that sells the expensive low-blue glasses used to work for GE and was heavily involved in GE's lighting research. He recently wrote a very short book that summarizes the science behind the low-blue wavelengths and how reducing blue-light exposure during the evenings may reduce the incidence of cancer (the evidence is pretty compelling). You can read the preview of that book here (the full-price e-book is less than $4, also available on Amazon).
http://books.google.com/books?id=VrsQMK ... frontcover
However, from skimming the book, it seems that in order for the glasses to really maintain melatonin production, over the long term, you need to put them on close to the same time each night and also be exposed to blue-light/sunlight close to the same time each morning. In other words, you can't just put them on at 8pm one night and 11pm the next night and 7:30pm the next night and wake up at different times and expect your melatonin production to improve significantly. It won't work as well over the long term if you aren't consistent. The good news is that it sounds like the actual start time (7pm vs. 10pm) doesn't matter as much as making it consistent each night.
So, it sounds like in order for the glasses to work, you need to use them to simulate a real circadian rhythm — with a sunset/sunrise that mimics what could happen in nature (these times only change slowly with the seasons).
In any case, these $8 low-blue glasses are pretty awesome for making you feel sleepy in the evening and I already noticed a benefit on the first night. It will be interesting to see if I'm able to maintain it.