Blue reef lights and circadian rhythm

[guserto4]

I was staring at the led I have setup for my QT the other night when it dawned on me (the led was in moonlight mode) that the moonlight we utize in our tanks is BLUE and from a couple of neuroscience classes I took back in college I remember BLUE light effects circadian rhythm. Their was an experiment where a researcher had a group stare at blue light for a short leriod of time, 5 or 10 minutes or something, and that reset their internal clock- making them all wake up 4 hours into their sleep cycle, in the middle of the night!

Given how much we stare at our tanks, can anyone attest to a correlation between moonlight settings and poor sleep??

Just a thought

 

[davidfrances]

When I stare at my tanks I get sleepy.

 

[zachts]

I just don't sleep. Problem solved :lolspin:

 

[zachts]

I've read similar studies that suggest redish light also is not good for your sleep cycle. This study was looking at the effects of high pressure sodium street lighting compared to areas with Metal Halide or no street lights. and low and behold people around HPS had more sleep problems......

 

[GhostCon1]

I've never had moonlights affect me. I don't think the little, low power LEDs we use have any affect on us.

 

[Ron Reefman]

If you've seen the time of day that I tend to post (not this one) and you know I don't sleep. But I put it off to the older I get, the less sleep I seem to need and the earlier in the evening that I tend to fall asleep.

 

[bigsteeviestyle]

My wife made mention of this when I got my two channel led lights. I had it set so the white channel would go off, then the blue would go off an hour later. She had concerns that the blue light would negatively impact the kids' sleep habits. I switched the schedule so the blue goes off first. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Humu Humu]

I never heard of this before, but I have 20,000k Radiums, the whole room (as well as the street being lit from our window) is blue, and I sleep like a rock.

 

[guserto4]

If blue light suppresses melatonin in humans, I wonder how the brain wiring works with fish- they get a fair amount of blue light from our setups, though maybe it's easiest just to try our best to mimic the sun's spectrum and not think too far past it because fish and corals didn't go through their own industrial revolution, pulling themselves indoors and subjecting themselves to on demand electric light to create issues like worrying about how much blue light you got today and how that might effect your sleep.

These are the things I ponder when I accidentally wake up at 4am on a Saturday...

 

[GhostCon1]

If blue light suppresses melatonin in humans, I wonder how the brain wiring works with fish- they get a fair amount of blue light from our setups, though maybe it's easiest just to try our best to mimic the sun's spectrum and not think too far past it because fish and corals didn't go through their own industrial revolution, pulling themselves indoors and subjecting themselves to on demand electric light to create issues like worrying about how much blue light you got today and how that might effect your sleep.

These are the things I ponder when I accidentally wake up at 4am on a Saturday...

130ish years is going to have absolutely zero effect on evolution.

 

[billsreef]

My wife made mention of this when I got my two channel led lights. I had it set so the white channel would go off, then the blue would go off an hour later. She had concerns that the blue light would negatively impact the kids' sleep habits. I switched the schedule so the blue goes off first. We'll see how it goes.

White light wouldn't be white if it didn't also have blue as part of the spectrum So no real reason to turn the blue channel off before the white.

 

[wolfblue]

Thinking about this makes me sleepy. Actually, being awake makes me sleepy. Thinking about this while I'm awake makes me sleepy.

So I would have guessed the opposite. Moonlight is more blue than daylight. So blue should make me sleepy. (here is where somebody says moonlight is white) The sun should make me feel awake, and the moon sleepy.

(bait)> What color is the sun?

--John

 

[billsreef]

Well, since moonlight is just reflected sunlight, it should be white

 

[wolfblue]

Well, since moonlight is just reflected sunlight, it should be white

Makes sense to me. The light in my yard last night did seem a little low on long wave though.

And good answer on white. Thats why I named one of the kids after you

--John

 

[DM1975]

My tank is right by my bed. The first and last lights in my daylight cycle are bright blue LEDs. Also, I have blue moonlights set up on my reefkeeper that follow the moon phase. I sleep just fine and so does my wife. In fact my kids even come lay down and watch the blue lights at night before they go to bed with no ill effect.

I'm also sure that the fish and corals are ok with blue light as that is the last visible wavelength to be filtered out at depth in the ocean.

 

[zachts]

According to wikipedia.

Sunlight = 5500 to 6500 kelvin depending on how it's measured, etc

Moonlight =4100 to 4150 kelvin



Moonlight looks more "Blue" (acutally more blue/grey) because human eyes loose the ability to see the other colors in low light levels and every thing looks kind of blue/grey.

 

[wolfblue]

human eyes loose the ability to see the other colors in low light levels and every thing looks kind of blue/grey.

What he said +++

 

[guserto4]

I'm not going to pubmed to pay for any studies (past that part of my life... for now :spin2: ) BUT a little googling and I found this abstract:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831986/

With a notable section (Hey look! Dinoflagellates!) as follows:

"Not only does light reset the human circadian rhythm, but the same blue light that has the strongest impact on dinoflagellates has equal power to reset our own clocks"”although most visible wavelengths can reset the clock, the blues do the job with the greatest efficiency."

 

[zachts]

......partly if not totally unrelated but plants use blue light to tell them which way to point their leaves and which way to grow toward the sun (or artificial light source).

 

[SnowManSnow]

I have a son that HAD REAL trouble going to sleep (9 years old). I read something to the effect of your OP, and started turning the tank lights off before bedtime. Problem solved.