Sleep Glasses For Bipolar Disorder

Individuals with bipolar disorder experience frequent shifts in mood from depression to mania with periods of stability between episodes.

Sleep disturbance is another common symptom of bipolar disorder, often resulting in insomnia and sleep apnea, that not only tire the individual but can also negatively impact their shifting moods.

As manic episodes lead to lack of sleep and lack of sleep leads to manic episodes, things can quickly snowball into a vicious cycle.

However, scientific studies have shown that restoring natural melatonin production to improve the circadian rhythm in people diagnosed with bipolar disorder greatly reduces the frequency and intensity of their manic episodes.

Sleep Glasses & Bipolar Disorder

In the case of bipolar mania, the main benefit of blocking blue light may be preventing stimulation of the alerting centers in the brain while the main benefit for sleep may be allowing the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone.

Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone produced by the Pineal Gland and has been shown to inhibit the aggregation of these proteins that are normally present in the brain.

As the evening sky darkens, the absence of blue light from the sun triggers the pineal gland to inject Melatonin directly into the brain, telling your body it’s time for bed.

However, due to the white light given off by screens and light bulbs, we are constantly exposed to the blue light produced by our phones, TVs, computers, and other electronic devices.

This additional exposure to blue-light prevents the pineal gland from activating properly, thus reducing melatonin production.

Why Block Blue Light?

For improved sleep, we recommend avoiding blue light for several hours before a consistent bedtime, as avoiding blue light in the evening increases natural melatonin production.

However, with blue light producing screens always an arm’s length away, reducing exposure to blue light in everyday life can not only be extremely difficult, but quite inconvenient.

Fortunately, Our blue light sleep glasses, blue-free light bulbs, and blue light screen filters are an easy and convenient way to block 100% of all blue light in the house before bedtime, increasing your natural melatonin production, and improving sleep quality.

Our customers with bipolar disorder have even told us they find that LowBlueLights® Sleep Glasses help stabilize mood and improve their sleep.

But do they really work?

Do LowBlueLights Sleep Glasses Make A Difference?

Two studies in Norway found that LowBlueLights eyewear allowed patients who had been hospitalized for bipolar mania to recover faster than the usual recovery period of several weeks.

Patients wearing the glasses for 14 hours each night, in addition to standard treatment, improved during the seven days of the trial, while patients wearing clear placebo glasses did not improve.

So, how were LowBlueLights Sleep Glasses able to improve recovery for bipolar patients?

First, blue light has been shown to activate special light receptors in your eyes that affect the function of your circadian clock, your body’s internal rhythm for determining when to sleep and when to be active.

Bipolar disorder is thought to involve mutations of some of the genes that make up the circadian clock, supporting the evidence that those suffering from bipolar disorder also struggle with sleep.

Exposure to blue light from light bulbs and screens in the evening interrupts the natural production of melatonin and stimulates the alertness centers of the brain.

Wearing LowBlueLights 100% blue-light-blocking sleep glasses, allows the body to maximize the production of melatonin to promote sleep, shut down the brain centers that keep you awake, and calm the overactive brain characteristics of bipolar mania.

If wearing glasses is not ideal for someone and they will be in a space where they can control the types of lighting you can also use sleep bulbs that produce zero blue light or amber/orange night lights with zero blue light in rooms where there are no other light sources. 

How to Use LowBlueLights Sleep Glasses

For optimal use, wearing the glasses in the early evening combined with the hours spent sleeping in darkness, allows the body to produce melatonin for about 12 hours. Then, exposing the eyes to bright light at about the same time early in the morning keeps the circadian clock synergized with the natural day/night cycle.

Consistency is key here. Not only should you be going to bed at about the same time every night, but you should also strive to wake up at about the same time every morning.

By maintaining a healthy circadian rhythm and supporting your body’s natural melatonin production, LowBlueLights sleeping glasses, and blue-light blocking products, aid individuals living with bipolar disorder in improving their sleep and avoiding manic episodes.

Browse Our Blue-Light Blocking Products

Scientific Resources

1. Blue-blocking glasses as an additive treatment for mania: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. (2016)
2. Blocking blue light during mania – markedly increased regularity of sleep and rapid improvement of symptoms: a case report. (20
3. Blue‐blocking glasses as additive treatment for mania: Effects on actigraphy‐derived sleep parameters.