Bulletproof from a Nurse's Perspective Part 6

by Kerrie Gleeson December 08, 2015

Hi all!!! How’s life treating you? Must say it’s always a busy time leading up to the end of the year and we all tend to run ourselves ragged….sleep tends to take a back seat during these times doesn’t it? Long days, late nights…then we often end up crashing in a heap at the end. It all can be such a blur. Well, I plan on NOT doing that this year! It’s pretty easy what I am getting my mates for Xmas….my amazing Blue Light Blocker glasses have been my life saver and continue to be so!

I really meant what I said when I was interviewed by Emily Rice from Channel 9 what seems like ages ago now….they work. Simple but true. We are flooded with technology every day. Just look around you. People looking at screens of some sort, often for hours at a time. It pays to remember this; when we were cave men & women we never had artificial light to keep us awake. When it got dark, we slept, when the light hit our eyes, we woke up….nice and easy. And it’s all due to a wonderful hormone secreted by the anterior pituitary gland….Melatonin. What a brilliant hormone it is! It regulates our day/night rhythms like clockwork. Melatonin is secreted at night and makes us feel sleepy. Beautiful! Then when the natural daylight hits our eyelids in the morning, melatonin secretion reduces to wake us up from our slumber, ready for the day. Brilliant! There was really no artificial light to mess up this natural phenomenon that had been going on for thousands of years.

Related: Artificial Light & Sleep

Fast forward to now….enter technology. Computer screens, LED lights, iPhones, tablets…more and more of the “new” whizz bang stuff to keep us amused…..and awake. You see the brain…that thing between your ears…cannot tell the difference between natural and artificial light. So when you are sitting up in bed till some ungodly hour in the night reading your laptop, the blue light emanating from that screen tells Melatonin….that wants to send you to sleep…to hold off. Your brain thinks it’s broad daylight out there! Whoa! Even when it’s 4am and pitch black outside! Why? Cause you’re looking at that screen mate! NOW…if you were to put on those blue light blocking glasses….that make you look like a rockstar……you would be allowing your brain to do the job it wants to do. Which is secrete Melatonin to get you off to sleep. Yep…you need to sleep my friend. It’s a wonderful tonic for the body. All of that stuff on your screen can wait. You need to CHILL and get some rest, ready to hit the holidays feeling awesome, not ragged.

So, I am buying my mates these glasses for Xmas and I reckon you should too! After all, getting the people you love gifts that actually really work and are good for them is far better than buying undies and jocks!!! Be safe, have fun and take care over this holiday season. I would prefer NOT to look after you or any of your loved ones in hospital if possible. Life is to be ENJOYED, not endured!

Love Kerrie (Nurse Extraordinaire) xoxo