For most of our first year in the house I used a table lamp with a daylight LED bulb on my nightstand. It was bright, easy to read by, and — I eventually realized — a significant contributor to the 3 a.m. wake-ups I was having three or four nights a week.
The fix cost $30 and fifteen minutes.
The Problem: Blue Light at Bedtime
Daylight LEDs run at around 5000K — the same color temperature as midday sun. At 10 p.m. with that bulb blazing at 18 inches from my face, my brain was receiving signals it associated with noon. Melatonin suppressed. Sleep disrupted.
The Fix
A plug-in bedside wall sconce with a 1800K amber smart bulb. The sconce is mounted at 60 inches — above my seated eye line, illuminating the page rather than shining at my face. The amber bulb at night produces no blue-spectrum light.
The Result
The first week I used it I slept through the night four out of seven nights. That was not my average before. I'm not a sleep scientist and I can't prove causation, but the correlation was dramatic enough that I immediately ordered the same setup for my husband's side. We're now both sleeping better and both sides of the nightstand are clear of lamp clutter.
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