Does night light have any effect on babies?

Nowadays, many parents are afraid that their babies will be scared when they sleep at night. Also, children often need to get up at night due to their age. They choose not to turn off the lights when they go to bed, but turning on the bright lights will shine into their eyes. Some parents will directly choose to turn on a small table lamp. In fact, as long as the light from the table lamp in the room is not directly facing the child's eyes, there will be no problem. There are still many precautions that parents need to understand.

Does turning on the night light to sleep have any effect on the baby?

When it comes to turning on the lights at night, whether it is bright or dim, the first thing that comes to mind is the impact on the biological clock. However, it seems that for babies, the impact of turning on the lights or not on their biological clock is not as obvious as we imagined.

Scientists analyzed the artificial light sources in hospital neonatal wards. It was found that after the baby is born, the sleep rhythm, body temperature rhythm, etc. are gradually formed very quickly. And as babies grow older, their biological rhythms of body temperature and sleep will become more and more obvious. But in the neonatal ward, the effects of artificial light on the babies' biological rhythms do not seem to be obvious.

Because in addition to light, there are too many other factors that may affect the baby's rhythm, the most common of which is breastfeeding. In addition, many factors such as medical operations and the movement of medical staff may affect the baby's sleep and metabolism. With so many factors combined, the impact of a small amount of light at night is not that great. Of course, the researchers also "rigorously" pointed out that since the measurement indicators used in the corresponding research are mostly body temperature, sleep and other aspects, it is impossible to conclude that artificial light has no effect on the baby's biological rhythm.

Melatonin is a very mysterious hormone that has an important impact on our rhythm, sleep, and even aging and tumor metastasis. People have also found that melatonin can indirectly affect the secretion of some hormones related to growth and development, such as reducing the secretion of gonadotropin, and the changes in the secretion of these hormones are closely related to the onset of puberty.

The secretion of melatonin is controlled by light. Its secretion reaches its peak in the dark at night, and its secretion is inhibited when exposed to light. But in fact, for babies, the rhythmicity of melatonin secretion is not obvious in the first three months after birth. As they grow older, the day and night changes of melatonin will gradually become obvious. As for the effect of night light brightness on melatonin secretion, there is not much data available.