Study links bright light at night with higher of heart risk

Study links bright

New Delhi: Being exposed to bright light at night, including scrolling through one's phone, could be related with a 56 per cent higher risk of heart failure, and can be a significant risk factor for cardiovascular diseases among adults aged 40 and above, according to a new study.

Researchers led by those at Australia's Flinders University analysed more than 13 million hours of light exposure data collected through sensors that nearly 89,000 people in the UK wore on their wrist. The participants were followed up for more than nine years.

Exposure to light at night was also linked with a 47 per cent higher risk of a heart attack, 32 per cent of coronary artery disease and 28 per cent of stroke.

"Night light exposure was a significant risk factor for developing cardiovascular diseases among adults older than 40 years," authors wrote in the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open.