A new study has suggested that exposure to bright light affects the health of a person negatively.
According to Medical News Today, researchers from Flinders University in Australia found a correlation between the bright light at night and type 2 cancer.
Andrew Phillips, senior author of the study, told Medical News Today, “Light is an easily modifiable environmental factor, which has underappreciated effects on human health.”
He revealed, “People who perform shift work for many years are at greatly increased risk of type 2 diabetes. One of the possible reasons for this is disruption of the body’s circadian rhythms by mistimed environmental signals.”
Researchers observed that the participants of the study with more exposure to light between 12:30 am and 6:00 am have a comparatively greater risk of type 2 diabetes.
Phillips explained the reason behind the negative impact of light, saying, “Circadian rhythms regulate all areas of our physiology, including our metabolism. Light is the most important time cue for the body’s central circadian clock, which coordinates rhythms across all tissues of the body.”
“We also know from laboratory studies that disrupting circadian rhythms by exposure to light at night can cause metabolic dysfunction. We therefore expected that nighttime light exposure might be related to type 2 diabetes in the population,” he continued.
A study published in the journal The Lancet Regional Health, Europe proposed the easiest and cheapest way to delay the development of type 2 diabetes, which is to sleep in the dark.
