Red Light Therapy for Sleep: Fall Faster, Stay Longer
Insomnia is a worldwide epidemic. If you’re asking, “Does red light help you sleep,” you’re in for some welcome news
In several studies, red light therapy helped subjects with sleep disturbances, including insomnia.
Takeaways
- Red light therapy improves sleep quality.
- Therapy increases ATP (adenosine triphosphate), providing energy for brain repair.
- It improves blood flow in the brain, promoting brain repair.
- It reduces pain so that discomfort is less likely to interrupt sleep.
Red Light Therapy Sleep Studies
Red light therapy studies show that the treatment helps with falling asleep, staying asleep, and reducing nightmares.
Dementia Sleep
Senior sleep improved during the study “Significant Improvement in Cognition in Mild to Moderately Severe Dementia Cases Treated with Transcranial Plus Intranasal Photobiomodulation: Case Series Report.
This study is critical because it combines cognitive impairment and sleep disturbances. The subjects with dementia and insomnia faired well in both thinking and sleep improvement.
Investigators tested head and nasal lights on seniors with dementia. The subjects ranged in age from 72 to 90.
The study found that photobiomodulation therapy effectively improved cognitive function in seniors with various stages of dementia. The subjects experienced better sleep quality during the therapy period.
Sleep Duration
The study “A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial using a low-frequency magnetic field in the treatment of insomnia” tested the therapy on female athletes in China.
The study included the effects of Red Light Therapy combined with low-frequency magnetic fields, so this was not a standalone red light therapy study.
The study found that the therapy was effective in improving sleep quality. They used the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to standardize the test results.
The therapy was effective in reducing the number of nighttime awakenings. Subjects also experienced an increase in the duration of slow-wave sleep (SWS), a type of deep sleep important for physical and mental restoration.
Guillain-Barre Insomnia
A 48-year-old woman presented with Guillain-Barre after receiving a Covid vaccine. The Guillain Barre side effect caused the subject pain that caused insomnia and disturbed sleep.
The study reported: “The effects of intravascular photobiomodulation on sleep disturbance caused by Guillain-Barre syndrome after AstraZeneca vaccine inoculation.”
The subjects’ symptoms included:
- ankle, lower extremity, and upper extremity numbness and paresthesia (skin crawling)
- whole body muscle soreness
- paresthesia in hands and feet
- prickling pain and numbness in the hands and feet
- facial numbness
- temporomandibular joint pain
Her diagnosis included:
- sensory-motor polyradiculoneuropathy (autoimmune disorder)
- severe demyelination
- mild axonal degeneration
The pain woke her 2 to 3 times per night. After five days of Red Light Therapy, her pain significantly reduced. She slept better, and the insomnia subsided once the pain relief set in.
Pain and Anxiety Sleep
Several studies on Fibromyalgia and anxiety showed success in helping subjects sleep after Red Light Therapy.
Just two examples of several I found are included below.
Patients with pain often have difficulty falling asleep. In the study “Using a laser-based program in patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia,” two of the 11 subjects started the study with sleep disturbances.
Along with fibromyalgia pain, insomnia, and sleep disturbances resolved during the therapy used in this study.
Subjects with Generalized Anxiety Disorder fell asleep significantly faster after Red Light Therapy treatments for eight weeks, according to the study “Transcranial Photobiomodulation with Near-Infrared Light for Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Pilot Study.”
How Red Light Therapy Helps
Red light therapy has been extensively researched, and the mechanisms underlying its therapeutic effects are well understood.
Mitochondria and ATP
ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the biological battery that powers the body and brain. Red Light Therapy empowers the mitochondria to make more ATP, which is how red light therapy energizes the cells.
This means that Red Light Therapy helps with cellular function and repair.
Plus, the same action that improves ATP production also opens blood vessels. Improved blood flow also helps cellular repair, reduces inflammation, and promotes healing.
Transcription Factors
Another mechanism involves the activation of transcription factors, which regulate gene expression and can lead to changes in cellular function.
Red light therapy also increases cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), a signaling molecule that regulates metabolism and inflammation.
Synaptogenesis and Neurogenesis
Red light therapy has been shown to stimulate synaptogenesis and neurogenesis, which are the growth and development of new neurons and synapses in the brain.
This can improve brain function and cognitive performance, enhance sleep quality, and reduce insomnia symptoms.
Neurodegeneration
Finally, red light therapy has been found to halt unnecessary apoptosis, which is the programmed cell death of damaged or dysfunctional cells.
Red light therapy can positively impact various health conditions, including insomnia in seniors, by promoting cellular repair and reducing tissue damage.
How Red Light Therapy Affects Sleep
Recent studies show that there are multiple ways that red light therapy improves sleep.
According to studies summarizing the science, red light therapy:
- improves brain cell function and survival
- improves brain blood flow if applied during sleep
- supports the creation of “biological batteries” (adenosine triphosphate) that power brain tissue repair
- promotes brain waste clearance during sleep
Conclusion
One can certainly wish that the science in red light therapy studies focused more on seniors with insomnia. The quality of the science is good, but the focus is only on seniors when cognitive impairment is the main focus.
We can extrapolate, though, that reducing pain necessarily improves sleep quality when that pain keeps the patient awake. Red light therapy is excellent at reducing and even resolving pain from fibromyalgia, arthritis, exercise, vascular considerations, and neurological causes.
The improvement in cognitive function and improved sleep would also appear to be a virtuous cycle.
Sleep deprivation causes brain fog, which lowers cognitive scores. We know that red light therapy significantly improves the quality of brain life for those with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
The sleep improvements in those seniors are most likely a virtuous cycle that allows sleep improvements to better cognitive outcomes and cognitive outcomes to improve sleep.
References
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