A special light bulb designed for use in infant nurseries has been announced by physicists at John Carroll University. Its secret? The special bulb lacks the blue light rays that suppress melatonin production. Melatonin is the all-important hormone that promotes sleep.
Lack of sleep and disruption of the circadian rhythm has been linked to depression. The new light bulbs will help new mothers avoid postpartum depression.
Ten to fifteen percent of births result in postpartum depression that's severe enough to require treatment. Rapidly changing hormone patterns have long been thought to be the cause. But there's another factor that until now has been overlooked--namely, the mother's exposure to light when she's up during the night.
When a new mother gets up at night to take care of her baby and turns on an ordinary light, her pineal gland may stop making melatonin. When she returns to bed she may have a hard time going back to sleep. Researchers say that if this happens several times a night, mom's melatonin production falls off. And when this happens night after night, it isn't long before her circadian cycle becomes completed disrupted, leading to depression.
Blocking block blue light in the nursery and the bathroom solves part of the problem, but what about lights in the kitchen and refrigerator? Say mom needs to get a bottle from the fridge and then has to stand around in the kitchen while it warms. To solve this problem without putting special lightbulbs throughout the house, the researchers have developed wrap-around eyeglasses to protect against the blue rays in ordinary light.
Researchers believe the special melatonin-producing lightbulbs can protect babies as well as mothers. Newborns do not produce a lot of melatonin and since they, too, get exposed to light at night, the researchers speculate that avoiding suppression of the littel melatonin babies DO ave will help them sleep better.
In addition, it's thought that if the mother is breast feeding, both she and her baby will benefit if she uses her special glasses for a few hours before bedtime. Protection against night time light will maximize her melatonin, and since melatonin is present in breast milk, it aids the baby's sleep.
Broader tests to establish the benefits of protecting mothers of infants against blue light have been initiated. In the meantime, special light bulbs for use in the nursery are available at http://www.sleeplamps.com
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