Blue is my favourite colour. When I was 12, my parents decided that my
room required redecorating (the wallpaper was deteriorating (especially with me
picking at the loose bits)). I decided to have the walls painted blue
(kingfisher blue from the Duluxe range). A few years later I got a blue LED
alarm clock for Christmas, which helped me wake up during my years in college.
When I was 21 my sister’s room (which was
larger than mine) became vacant and was repainted from light purple to a shade
of blue similar to paper (I thought I might draw on the walls if I developed
the urge (which never happened)). A year later, I moved out to my former Gran’s flat. It was redecorated completely by Christmas.
However, this time I decided to have my room painted yellow (which contained
light-reflecting particles to make the room brighter (I had my “office” painted in a
similar bright blue paint. I might draw on the poster-covered walls).
So why am I telling you all this? It’s because of what
was on TV about six months later after decorating my flat. BBC’s Horizon had showed a programme about recent
research into how colours can influence our modes and one of things it showed
was that the colour blue has the ability to keep people alert and awake. In
other words, it’s the caffeine of colours. After
watching it, something hit me. Since as far as I can remember this happening to
me (sometime after having my room painted blue) I have had trouble going to
sleep at night. It could be just my brain not switching off thinking mode, but
is the blue I had in my sleeping quarters made it worse. Did I accidentally
sabotage my sleep by having my room painted blue (and having a blue bright LED
light alarm clock in my room as well)? I got to find out more.
To save me some bother explaining the basics of the science of colour, here's a 1984 edition of Horizon that explains everything
Making Fluorescent light on Bang Goes the Theory (2012)
This observation concerns what scientist call circadian rhythms, or what
everyday people call the body clock.
A lot of research over the years have proved that light has a big effect
on this internal clock in plants and animals (including humans). The most
obvious example of this observation is the experience of “Jet Lag,” where you travel
across one or a few time-zones by plane and find yourself tired during the day
or wide awake during the night. Inside the artificial-light-filled sealed
pressurized vessel that normally called a plane, your body’s photo-sensitive cells (your eyes are not your only
light-sensitive organ, your skin is too (it produces Vitamin D when exposed to
UV)) are almost denied of any form of sunlight (especially at night), which
helps set your internal clock. Without that sunlight accurately setting your
clock, you’ll be a few hours fast or slow.
That’s enough about Jet Lag. The
heart that could lie in blue’s energy was that
the very first ever coloured light receptors were sensitive to blue. In the
primordial soups of the early oceans been able to see blue made you able to
sense where the sky is, allowing you to orientate your body and have your
chloroplasts (the green organelles found in plant cells where photosynthesis
takes place) facing the sun. Over time, this led to the creation of the naturally-built-in
programmed response that wakes us up when we see blue, no matter what it is. Blue
flies, Smurfs, the Tardis, the Blue Man Group, Viagra pills, they all keep us
awake at night because of their colour (and other reasons, but I’m not going to
waste my time writing them down).
And it’s getting worse. One thing I later found out (on another science
programme on the BBC, Bang Goes the Theory) was that fluorescent light
produced quite a lot of light in the blue visible spectrum and this light had
effects on sleep. Now, I knew that fluorescent light did produce a bluish light
before I watched this programme. But, the fact that the expert said it affected
sleep made me think back to that Horizon program a year earlier.
In fact the programme also showed that similar emissions also come from computer
screens. Thinking about it, I’m not surprised.
Look at how much blue there is on your computer screen when you use Windows! I
wonder how many sleepless nights could be contributed to people checking their
Facebook status constantly.
A
typical screen grab from Windows XP with an
offending (but cool) wallpaper.
Look at all that blue!
So what applications could this observation give to us? Well, through
fluorescent lights and PCs using Windows, offices, convenience stores,
supermarkets and night clubs already do so (unintentionally?). But, I have
thought of one other application that I think no one has ever commented on… let. I don’t need to say it, I’ll just let the picture I found below do the talking….
This is a piece of fan art by
someone I don’t know (because it
was collected from a random search on Google Images eons ago). It was this very
image that made me first think about this application of the properties of
blue.
(The face has been blacked-out
to protect the unknown artist (and me) from a potential lawsuit from someone who
doesn’t understand the
term “fair-use” when it comes to documentary.)
After seeing this image, all straight men can agree that this is a great
way to use the stimulating power of blue.
As am personally obliged to address the gender balance in reporting
scientific findings and possible applications, for all female readers (and gay
men (I mustn’t forget)) here’s a very blue image of a quite attractive male (It’s the first person to came to my mind.).
The camel is irreverent.
If you want more ladies (and gents) just go to Google Images and search “Kai Hiwatari” and/or “Beyblade”.
So what have we learned? We have learned that light and colours have a
bigger influence on you than you can possibly imagine. You can blame Bill Gates
or Mark Zuckerberg for depriving you of sleep. And (if done properly) blue can
be the most attention-grabbing colour of all.
By the way, I still have some trouble switching my brain off at night to
go to sleep (despite the fact my room is now yellow). Right now (at the time of
writing) my body clock is totally out of step, with me not falling asleep until
after 2-3am! I end up very tired during normal waking hours (7-10am). I now
mostly wake up at around noon or afterwards (which isn’t good). I haven’t got a job (at
all) that requires early waking, so it isn’t a serious problem
(for now). Good night.
(Sorry for the lateness of this blog. I had been mentally distracted for
a while).
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