Cancer researcher, Dr. Richard G. Stevens, a professor at the UConn School of Medicine, figured it out:
Artificial light at night disrupts your circadian rhythm — the 24-hour internal clock that regulates when you sleep, wake, and eat.
This disruption then lowers melatonin levels in your body. In addition to helping you sleep, melatonin has powerful anti-cancer activity. When your melatonin levels go down, so does your ability to fall asleep easily … and worse, your ability to fight cancer.
For instance, did you know that areas of the United States with the most artificial light also have the highest rates of breast cancer?
I’m betting you never heard about this connection — even though Dr. Stevens first published the evidence in the American Journal of Epidemiology nearly 40 years ago! ¹ He’s since authored dozens of studies on the topic in scientific journals including the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
Which begs the question…