A new study published in Brain Sciences finds that light pollution is linked to sleep disturbances, depressive symptoms, bipolar symptoms, and suicidal behaviors.
The research, led by Giulia Menculini from the University of Perugia in Italy, reports that artificial light at night (ALAN) is associated with the development of new depressive, bipolar, and suicidal symptoms, as well as exacerbating symptoms that were already present. The authors believe the link between artificial light and mental health issues is mainly caused by ALAN reducing the quality of people’s sleep and affecting circadian rhythms.
The findings from the current work point towards poor city planning as a factor in poor mental health. The authors suggest building more livable cities with eco-friendly lighting as a possible solution to the increased risk of mental health problems associated with artificial light. This research, and other similar studies, call into question the popular narrative in the psy-disciplines that mental “illness” is a problem within the individual that should be solved with individual interventions such as drugs and therapy. Increasingly, experts are looking towards systemic problems that require systemic solutions.
The authors write:
“The results of this narrative review point towards an association between light pollution and mental health issues. In particular, increased exposure to light pollution—both indoors and outdoors—appears to have a negative effect on the quality of sleep in populations of different ages, including vulnerable populations, such as adolescents and elderly people. As hypothesized, increased exposure to indoor and outdoor ALAN appears to be associated with the emergence of mood symptoms and with the exacerbation of pre-existing disorders, as demonstrated for BD [bipolar disorder].”
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Artificial lighting took away the stars so no wonder we go mad. The true night sky is a mere legend in most of the industrial world. And who doesn’t want to be in Norway with the Northern Lights and months where there is no night and months where there is no day. Who wouldn’t want to be a stone age human being living in Norway. That’s why we need words about he night sky to replace the real one. “A thought is like a cloud that sheds a shower of words” (Vygotski). “There is a language beneath all organic language: it’s the language of the dead speaking of stones and stars” (Adorno). Civilization is a disease that destroyed the night sky and relegated the rainbow to a poster and a badge.
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Every night before bed, I watch this video in an otherwise completely dark room: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-TV_6eIDxw
I lift my eyes toward the stars
With upturned palms like cups
To catch and hold my longing
For the life beyond this endless dust . . .
It’s part of a longer poem I wrote a few years ago. I think there’s a poet in each of us waiting to be remembered. Most of us have forgotten we’re all part of the same family living under the same sun, moon, sky and stars. They existed before us and will continue to exist long after we’ve destroyed ourselves.
You’re a poet, No-One. Your free-floating, unentangled thoughts are poetry. Words, music, dance, art, trees swaying in the breeze, clouds drifting, “stones and stars”, small acts of kindness and undeserved grace . . . are poetry.
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That’s lovely – I honestly thought that was a quote of some victorian/Romantic classic because I don’t know much poetry – someone like Shelly or Keats (and I couldn’t name a single poem by either). I find allot of what people would call psychotic rants very poetic as well, and that’s where my poetic tendancies seem to have mostly come from! Have a nice day and I hope you’re still writing 😀
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I am speachless: somehow some hours ago I was watching the very same video and liked it, even though I’ve only just opened your link just now!! My brain is scrambling to try and understand how this impossible coincidence could have happened, but I had a very similar unbelievable coincidence the other day as well – I googled a photo to go with something I wrote (I know it’s funny but it was ‘lesbian pizza’ I wrote in the google image search) and I found a suitable picture of two girls sharing a pizza, and I posted it on my facebook with some writing, and after I’d done so I realized the woman in it was absolutely my brothers ex partner and mother of his child, but even though it looks absolutely identical to her and unmistakably her, I just can’t believe it could be her, so I’ve tried to alert my brother to it with a note ‘Oi – here’s your ex wifey!’ I haven’t heard back yet and perhaps never will because I frightened him away a long time ago by assaulting him with linguistic ballistics and disgraceful comments.
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I’m as amazed as you are, No-one. I’ve experienced synchronicities like these throughout my life, beginning in childhood; they continue to amaze and humble me.
Our connections to other souls and willingness to see and empathize aren’t limited by geography. We’ve been taught to believe so many wrong things about ourselves and one another.
What I didn’t say in my original comment was that these past few nights (and before reading your original comment) I’d been giving Reiki to a relative who’s dying, from a distance. I kept seeing this person being gently rocked like a baby and then on a hammock, and finally on a swing outside on a warm summer’s night, swinging higher and higher above the tops of surrounding trees and nearer and nearer to a sky filled with stars unobscured by city lights. And then I remembered my poem.
Also, and though I’m a mix of things, I’m mostly Norwegian. So all combined, your original comment, as well as other past comments of yours, have had a similar effect on me as mine has had on you.
I’m glad you liked the beginning of my poem, No-one. Life is symbolic and sometimes it rhymes. Sometimes words are all we have.
I hope your brother responds and that the two of you can somehow find your way back to what’s real and matters most between you. Synchronicities like these usually happen for a reason. Take care of yourself and your beautiful mind and heart.
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You know these synchronicities too!!! I remember one of the most remarkable ones I ever had was years ago, when I intended to phone a number in Worthing, UK but forgot to enter the dialling code when you don’t need to enter when it’s in the local dialling code area. and I think I was calling the bank our council or some kind of office. So it was almost like calling a random phone number and I recognized the voice that picked up: it was my Mum’s partners son, and my Mum and her partner were all but married so this guy Marcello was like a step brother so the coincidence of dialling a wrong number and him picking up was really extraordinary. And the rest of your reply here and the fact that you being mostly Norwegian does compound the sense of synchronicity in my interaction with you! I don’t know what it is about Norway but I find it to be such an alluring and enticing seeming place. I had a really wonderful friend called Siv from Norway who was so special, like a Pixie more then a person, in a complementary way – a very alive and almost unreal and beautiful person. Such a lovely accent too and wonderful pictures from home. No doubt the synchronicities in our communication is related to it being one of those times energetically that synchronicities are going nuts today. I hope things are not too crazy for you as they are for most of us! And thanks again for that link because it was a wonderful thing to watch in the first place so perhaps it’s fate I see it again. Perhaps I should make a practice of listening to it every evening too! Nice accent as well there. All the best!
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Wow, that’s a great story about your ‘wrong’ number, which wasn’t random or wrong at all. I’m guessing your sort-of stepbrother and mother were pretty shocked too.
Norway seems like a magical place. Too cold for me, but still magical. The fjords and forests and Northern lights add to its ethereal quality. My mother had that ethereal quality your friend seems to have had, something I think she inherited from her grandmother who was very kind and very spiritual, but not very discerning. The family immigrated hoping to be a part of a larger religious community and ended up terribly poor and ostracized instead. My mom said her grandmother used to hold a seashell she’d brought with her from Norway to her ear, saying she could hear the waves and how much it reminded her of home.
Have you noticed how synchronicities always seem to have a life-affirming and creative quality, as if something in our unconscious is trying to make itself known and become conscious? Dreams have a way of doing that too.
It’s why when the muse calls, I try to answer her. It’s life calling. We’re all made of the same stardust and come from something far more loving and inclusive than our puny human minds can imagine. The night sky helps us remember.
Takk ska du ha, No-one. That means thank you in Norwegian. At least in the dialect my mother spoke.
The woman speaking in the video link I sent you is Swedish. I’m a little of that too.
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Beautiful comment – I can see you have great wisdom re the muse being life calling: EXACTLY. Life or the animal spirits or nature spirits I call them, intelligent creative energies with a life affirming quality. This is uncommon and unrecognized wisdom, but obviously it’s flowering in some people, but not the academics and psuedo-experts! Anyways, thanks again for your beautiful descriptions and comments.
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I think we should replace police sirens with dolphin noises and whale songs. And I think we should replace police with khudai khidmatgars. This makes me look insane to all upholders of the fourth-reich.
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Sounds like a great plan to me! I’ll vote for your revolution.
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“Two included studies found that indoor ALAN exposure was linked to manic symptoms in people with bipolar disorder.”
Well, since the “mental health professions” believe “all distress is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain” (despite their “chemical imbalance” theory being debunked decades ago), and “genetics” (despite having zero evidence of this), wouldn’t mania caused by light issues be considered a misdiagnosis?
“The authors note that past research has linked exposure to light pollution at early ages to younger ages of bipolar disorder onset.”
I’m pretty certain the appalling “childhood bipolar epidemic” was caused by the fact that our society didn’t used to psych drug children, and the iatrogenic issues pointed out in Robert Whitacker’s “Anatomy of an Epidemic.” Although, I have zero doubt “artificial light at night (ALAN)” may be a part of the problem.
I agree, “Research into mood disorders in the post-modern era should not underestimate the effects of urbanization and should thus be aware of the detrimental effects of various sources of pollutants on the development and exacerbation of these conditions.” And that “the results of this review suggest how building more livable cities that protect public health should include eco-friendly lighting, alongside other factors, according to the principles of sustainability.”
But I will politely point out, as a 14 year member of the planning commission of my former village, that we did have light pollution issues written into our laws, decades ago. So, IMHO, this is, once again, having to point out the lack of common sense of our scientific fraud based “mental health professions,” to themselves.
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