Morning Blue Light May Help Sleep and Sharpen Focus, Study Finds

New research suggests that better sleep may begin with something many people try to avoid before bedtime: blue light. In a two-week experiment, 30 minutes of exposure shortly after waking improved employees’ reported sleep that night, with the effects continuing into the next workday.

The findings, highlighted by Ohio State University, point to a practical option for people dealing with poor sleep and daytime fatigue. However, the study tested specialized light-emitting glasses, not extra time spent looking at a phone or computer in bed.

Benefits Were Small but Detectable

Published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, the study included 182 full-time university employees. Each participant wore the glasses at full blue-light intensity for one workweek and at 1% intensity for another, with the order assigned randomly.

According to the University of Washington, participants slept about 11 minutes longer and reported a 3.5% improvement in sleep quality under the full-intensity condition.

“Avoiding blue light at night is still a smart idea,” lead researcher Kate Keeler, an Ohio State associate professor, said in the university’s announcement.

Morning exposure appears to add to the benefits of limiting bright light before bed rather than replacing that guidance.

Benefits for the Workday Showed Up Later

The intervention did not produce an immediate boost in alertness. The paper said morning blue light exposure improved sleep later that night, which then led to better next-day alertness, less depletion, and stronger engagement and task performance.

A Johns Hopkins research brief described the sequence this way: for someone wearing the glasses in the morning, the effect carried through that night’s sleep and into the following workday.

“Employees get better sleep, and the company gets a more energized workforce,” Keeler said. Exploratory results suggested the sleep gains may have been larger for younger employees and for those who already had sleep problems.

What Experts Suggest Trying First

Study coauthor Christopher Barnes, a University of Washington management professor, said the simplest first step is to go outside in the morning.

Still, the trial did not directly compare the glasses with outdoor light. It lasted only two weeks, involved a single workplace, and depended on self-reported data.

Barnes also noted a limitation of the product tested, saying that while other devices delivering similar light exposure might offer similar benefits, the study examined only one manufacturer’s glasses.