Short Article - The Cognitive Neuroscience Journal (2021) Volume 4, Issue 2

Blue light, mitochondria, and why sleep is being destroyed in 2018

Abstract

 Sleep disorders are becoming more common and more diagnosed. Sleep apnea gets more and more media attention and the undiagnosed are getting captured by the medical system. However, there is a more subtle attack on sleep that is even more common than Sleep Apnea and just as deadly. Given that the Nobel Prize was just awarded for Circadian Biology, the world is soon to wake up to the truth about the reasons for the health crisis we are seeing. Whilst large-scale studies are needed to satisfy the paradigm, the research has already been done linking these connections for those who are paying attention. The advances in artificial light have made energy efficient lighting; however, health effects have been ignored entirely. Specific light frequencies are directly linked to health measures, most obviously melatonin. What is poorly understood is how great that small impact on overall health really is. Melatonin is an important antioxidant of the brain (think increasing neurodegeneration) as well as an aromatase inhibitor (think endocrine disruptions), stimulates the immune system (think autoimmunity) and anti-cancer properties. 

The explosion of many of the diseases we are seeing has come seemingly out of thin air and follows no Darwinian genetic pattern despite healthcare's drive towards the nuclear genome for the answers. No answers seem to have been found, but the great work from Dr. Doug Wallace out of the University of Pennsylvania provides better insight. Mitochondrial DNA and heteroplasmy better explain the cellular brown out and phenotypical changes that many diseases express. The mitochondria are a quantum nanomachine that works on light and are directly connected to the circadian system. Continued circadian disruptions by technology are slowly eroding the very energetic system that powers wellness without the patient knowing until the day they get a harrowing diagnosis. Awareness of the effects of how light truly affects health and the mitochondria will be discussed using published science and literature that is not well known. Specific tactics for realigning circadian rhythm and combating the many disruptions that exist will be discussed.