Andrew Huberman· PhD
If you need to be awake late at night, red light will be your best choice.
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The evidence is convergent. Multiple independent sources reach the same conclusion, the underlying mechanism is well-characterized, and even the field's most cautious voices treat it as worth doing.
If you need to be awake late at night, red light will be your best choice.
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If the red light is sufficiently dim, it will not inhibit melatonin production and trigger cortisol peaks.
The takeaway from this study is very clear. If you need to be awake late at night for sake of shift work or studying or taking care of children, et cetera, red light is going to be your best choice because if the red light is sufficiently dim, it's not going to inhibit melatonin production, and it's not going to increase cortisol at night.
So yet another case where red light used correctly can be beneficial. Up until now, we've been talking about the effects of shining different wavelengths of light on the skin or on our eyes and the downstream health consequences of that illumination.
using red light has been shown to allow people to be awake enough and obviously see what they need to see in order to perform their activities safely but it does not seem to disrupt the cortisol rhythm that is the healthy, normal cortisol rhythm.
red lights will help you accomplish that
for shift workers people that have to be up at night working if they put them under red light the amount of cortisol at that time is suppressed which is great — as compared to when they're under bright artificial lights without red lens glasses or if they're in red lights it's far far more beneficial less cortisol
these days I do a lot of red light time in the evening when I want to go to sleep and I don't mean red light panels like the expensive stuff that has a whole other set of uses what I'm talking about is just getting a red light like a party light we turn off the lights and put in a red light and that is known to reduce cortisol levels as opposed to other kinds of lighting
So, if you do need to be awake at night or even all night, red light is going to be the preferred light source.
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