Tag: Health

Did We Sabotage Our Own Sleep?

I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about my mom’s old alarm clock. One of those classic digital ones with bright red numbers—the kind you could read from across the room even if yI woke up in the middle of the night thinking about my mom’s old alarm clock. One of those classic digital ones with bright red numbers, the kind you could read from across the room even if you were half-blind without your glasses. The kind that sat on every nightstand in the ‘80s and ‘90s, glowing like a low ember in the dark. The kind that’s still sitting on hers to this day.

And somewhere between half-asleep and fully awake, I realized something:

Why did we move away from red-lit clocks?

Why is everything blue light now?

And why is it that after all these years of technological advancements, we’re suddenly “rediscovering” that blue light disrupts sleep while red light doesn’t?

Because here’s the thing, red light doesn’t interfere with melatonin production. But blue light? Blue light tells your brain, Hey, it’s noon! Wake up and stay awake forever!

Which means that all those old alarm clocks, with their simple red glow, were actually better for our sleep than the glowing blue numbers we see now.

I don’t think that was intentional. But it sure is ironic.

The Shift to Blue Light: Progress or a Mistake?

At first, the answer seems simple. Blue LEDs are more energy-efficient, and they make screens look crisper. Tech companies loved them because they made everything seem brighter, cooler, and more modern.

Red light? Too warm. Too outdated. Too much like a dim nightlight when people wanted sleek, futuristic aesthetics.

So the world shifted to blue. Phones, TVs, car dashboards, alarm clocks, even streetlights.

And then the research started rolling in, showing that blue light before bed suppresses melatonin, messes with circadian rhythms, and is likely part of the reason we all feel like zombies the next morning.

So now, guess what?

We have night mode settings on our phones. We have “sleep-friendly” alarm clocks marketed as the latest innovation. We have blue-light-blocking glasses and red light therapy lamps.

All to fix the problem that we created in the first place.

We paid to break our sleep, and now we’re paying to fix it. If that’s not capitalism at its finest, I don’t know what is.

The Purple Streetlight Phenomenon

If you’ve seen those eerie purple streetlights popping up in cities, you might’ve heard the theories. Some say they’re for facial recognition. Some say they interact with nanoparticles from vaccines (🙄). Some claim they’re a government experiment to disrupt sleep cycles.

The actual explanation?

A manufacturing defect in the LED coating. These lights were supposed to be white, but the phosphor layer that balances the color is breaking down, exposing the raw blue-violet light underneath.

It’s an accident.

At least, that’s what they say.

But here’s the interesting part: as soon as people started seeing these lights pop up, they immediately assumed there was something deeper going on.

And that brings me to…

Why Do We Love a Good Conspiracy?

There’s a reason conspiracy theories take off, and it’s not just because people like being paranoid. It’s psychological.

People want to feel like they have control.

When things feel unpredictable, the brain looks for patterns, even when there aren’t any.

If something weird happens (like streetlights suddenly turning purple), people don’t assume “Oh, that’s a mistake.” They assume there’s a reason, even if they have to make one up.

Our brains are wired to connect the dots.

Pattern recognition is a survival trait. But sometimes? It works a little too well.

That’s how you get people connecting 5G towers, vaccines, and purple streetlights into one giant plot.

People don’t trust institutions.

And honestly? Can you blame them? Governments and corporations do shady things all the time.

The problem is, this leads to people assuming everything is part of a secret plan, even when the truth is just bad design or poor decision-making.

Fear spreads faster than facts.

Nobody is clicking on an article that says, “Oops! Some streetlights are defective!”

But tell people, “The government is using purple streetlights to track you” and suddenly, everyone is paying attention.

But What If It’s Not Just an Accident?

Here’s the thing. I don’t think blue light was pushed on us as some grand evil scheme. But I do think the people who made these changes didn’t care about the consequences until it was too late.

They weren’t thinking, “Let’s ruin everyone’s sleep so we can sell them a solution later.”

They were thinking, “These blue LEDs are cheaper and look cooler. Let’s go with that.”

But now that we’re all sleep-deprived and overstimulated, they’ve found a way to profit off fixing the problem, by selling us red light therapy, blue light filters, and sleep-friendly bulbs.

Funny how that works.

Full Circle: Were Old Alarm Clocks Onto Something?

Maybe. Or maybe it’s just another example of how we often had things right before someone decided to “improve” them.

I mean, we’re now at a point where tech companies are selling “biohacker-approved” red light alarm clocks for $100. Meanwhile, my mom’s vintage red-clocked relic still works just fine.

So, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll be heading to eBay to get my hands on one before they start marketing them as “cutting-edge sleep optimization devices” for three times the price.

lol… What do you think?

xoxo
-S