Do you sleep at night with lights on? I did. But not anymore. After I read this story, I never want to sleep under a lighted bulb at night, ever.

Sleeping with lights on may interfere with how our melatonin does its job of protecting our DNA. There’s this theory that melatonin is affected negatively when sleeping at night with lights on—especially with kids. However, what’s for certain is that suppressed melatonin activity or reduced melatonin amount can initiate cancer or even contribute to its progression.

With melatonin weakened to shield our DNA, the latter may become so susceptible to oxidation. The result may be a mutated DNA that runs berserk and turns horrifyingly carcinogenic. These are the findings of Professor Russel Reiter of the University of Texas. He teaches Cellular and Structural Biology.

Aside from leukemia, another possible result of lowered melatonin is tumor growth. Melatonin, this natural chemical in our bodies, prevents idle cancer cells from growing by obstructing fatty acids from going near these cells.

Since I read these stuffs on DNA, melatonin, and sleeping with lights on, my wife and I decided to change our night sleeping habit—with lights turned off. It takes some getting used to, but after a while, you find that your eyes actually see clearly in the dark. You see strange shadows in your room, the deep shades in the nooks and crannies, and some eerie dark figures that seem to pass by your windows.

The first time we did it, I actually felt much better the next morning. My wife said I didn’t look haggard in the evening after my work on the Internet, unlike before when, she said, I looked so exhausted from stress. And the first time I woke from a lightless sleep the night before, I actually felt stronger doing my brisk walk. I was so energized!

Well, we’re thinking that perhaps it might just be psychological. But then, I read from another article that radiation emissions from electrical appliances like light bulbs, PC monitors, TV sets, and even some electronic devices like cell phones can do some damage to your health without you noticing it. If this were true, then no wonder I felt stronger emerging from a lightless night sleep.

My wife claims she also felt better and stronger. And the sleep seemed continuous without even a slight interruption. No sleeping problems. A friend of mine also claimed feeling stronger when one time she and her family had no choice but to sleep without a roof over them. They had no light except the stars and the moon in the night sky. Without having talked about melatonin and sleeping with lights on, she just mentioned how she felt better from the experience.

A light bulb probably has no harmful effect on you when you sleep under it at night. The article I read admitted there are no sure proofs of the theory being true. But mere psychological or if it actually has positive health effects on me, I prefer to sleep at night with lights off from now on. The sights you see in a light-less room at night are fabulous, to say the least.