Which light color makes you tired?

Why your light makes you totally unproductive in the evening

Tired due to light - is that even possible? If you think it's the darkness that makes you tired, you're actually wrong. You are probably even involuntarily causing yourself to get tired earlier in the evening - and your eyes are literally falling shut. The reason: you're using the wrong light color. In this article, you can find out what this is and what colors you should use instead.

There are 24 hours in a day: What that does to your body

Sunlight was the first and only source of light for humans. We still know this today: When the sun is vertical in the sky, it must be around midday. In the past, the position of the sun helped people to estimate the time and decide whether it was still worth hunting the mammoth - not that it would soon be dark.

But the sun's light not only provided information about the course of the day. It controlled our biorhythm back then - and still does today.

How does it do this?

During the course of the day, sunlight hits the atmosphere at different angles. This not only affects the intensity of the sun's rays, but also their light color.

In everyday life, we hardly notice this change in light. But our bodies do. Our eyes and our brain, to be precise. They know: "Aha, now we have excessively blue light. Time to really turn it up."

It's midday: time to turn blue

So blue means action. Why? Because sunlight is not only at its brightest around midday. It also has a particularly high blue content.

Blue sunlight?

Admittedly: The light doesn't really look blue to the human eye. But if you concentrate on the light and its color, you will notice: At midday, the sunlight is particularly bright and white.

As a result, the sky is at its brightest at midday and also has the highest proportion of blue. This light color is also known as daylight white. Towards evening, the sunlight becomes more and more orange and therefore appears more cozy. This light color is referred to as warm white.

Have you ever taken a closer look at the packaging of your light bulbs? Nowadays, the light color of the corresponding LED lamps is indicated on the packaging as standard. This is in Kelvin. The higher the number, the bluer the light.

If you were to specify the light of the midday sun in Kelvin, it would be around 5,500 K. In the evening, on the other hand, it would be 3,000 K.

The evening begins: Orange times are dawning

We start to get tired in the evening. That's how it should be. The body gradually prepares itself for sleep. And the light colors around us play a decisive role in this. They influence our tiredness. And they also trigger the release of the sleep hormone melatonin.

But how does light behave in the evening? Why do people get tired?

A look at the evening sun will give you the answer. As soon as the sun slowly sets, its light first appears particularly yellow. And then orange. This light has a cozy effect on us humans. Or even romantic. Just think back to the last tearjerker you saw on TV. Nothing works here without the obligatory sunset.

But now back to the topic.

In the evening, natural light is yellow or orange. This light color signals to our body: "It will soon be time to go to bed. You can get tired." If, on the other hand, we were still surrounded by light with a high blue component, this would signal to our body: "Time to be awake."

Fortunately, Mother Nature has arranged all this sensibly for us. And provides us with the right light to get tired in the evening.

Ha! It's not that simple after all.

The problem: Artificial lights, such as those found in our homes, put a spanner in the works of the sun. Economical LEDs - as are standard nowadays - provide us with the desired brightness (we don't want to be walking around in the dark from 5 p.m. in winter). But: LED light usually has a color temperature with a high blue component. And that wakes us up. Meaning: light on. Awake.

Okay, there are also LEDs with a warm white light color. This corresponds to a maximum of 3,000 Kelvin. If we use these, the problem is solved, isn't it? We surround ourselves with yellow-orange light and our body is not put into waking mode.

Unfortunately, not quite. This is because your smartphone, tablet, laptop and PC are all fitted with LEDs that generally emit blue-white light. This means that even if you surround yourself with warm white LEDs, the light from your electronic devices will make you wake up.

What does this mean for you?

The solution: avoid blue light in the evening. But how?

What have we learned so far? To summarize: The color of light affects our biorhythm. If the light is particularly yellow or orange, the body prepares itself for sleep. It then releases the sleep hormone melatonin, which makes us tired.

White-blue light, on the other hand, signals to our body that it is daytime or that it should stay awake. It therefore has the opposite effect to warm white light, delays melatonin production and suppresses our tiredness.

One way of filtering the blue light from our surroundings is to set the evening mode on our electrical appliances. This function is integrated on modern smartphones and also on some laptops and PCs. This helps in any case. However, this mode does not necessarily filter out all blue light.

An alternative - or additional - solution is to use blue blocker glasses. For example, our Lichtblock® Blueblocker glasses filter 100 percent of blue light from your surroundings. Ideally, you should wear them in the evening when you are working on your PC or spending some time on your smartphone. Or even when watching TV every day before going to bed.

Just give it a try and see if you notice a difference when using a Blueblocker glasses or clip-ons notice.