If you have been following my health work online for a while now you’ll know that I love health technology. Diet and nutrition, exercise and superfoods are all beneficial for a healthy lifestyle and those are a core part of my own life, but when I find technology like I recently found it’s something i’m excited to talk about and share with you.

Throughout my adult life i’ve had sleep challenges on and off, in particular difficulty falling asleep which led to me having to deal with insomnia on and off. Some nights i’d lay in bed for an hour, two or even three hours without falling asleep. It’s very frustrating as i’m sure you can relate to if you have had a similar experience. We sleep on average 8 hours or so per night but if that sleep quality is low it hinders our productivity and energy levels for the other 16 hours of the day. Without exception high quality sleep is one of the most important factors for true health and longevity. Sleep is rarely talked about when it come’s to health and well-being and that’s unfortunate because if you don’t get a good nights rest exercise is generally out of the question and the energy it takes to prepare a healthy meal may also be affected.

It turns out, i’m not alone. 40% of Americans have sleep issues in one way or another. Insomnia, falling asleep, staying asleep, you name it. We can all have sleep difficulty at times. Stress is a huge environmental factor that can affect our sleep cycles and hormones related to sleep cycles. Other environmental factors such as diet, exercise, even lighting in your home can affect your sleep cycles.

In my life I was doing all the right things, eating healthy, exercising, using dim lighting at night but I would still have insomnia for a period of time at least several times a year for a week or more, periods longer than i’d have liked. I’ve spent hours of my life trying to fall asleep just laying in bed with an overactive mind.

I’ve taken relaxant supplements, melatonin (which I do not recommend taking), magnesium, valerian root, you name it. During these times my brain didn’t want to relax and shut off for some shut eye. I got to a place where I just accepted that this may be an issue i’d have to deal with on and off for years to come, although I didn’t like that I was doing everything I knew how and everything I had researched for better sleep and to fall asleep quickly.

Thankfully not too long ago I discovered a new product called Re-Timer which is a pair of glasses that uses light therapy to optimize your awake & asleep hormones (melatonin mainly, but also serotonin) and I found it intriguing. I understood the basis of the technology that the product was engineered to do but didn’t know if it would work for me.

This was a period when I was having a particularly hard time falling asleep and was hoping and praying that it would make a difference. I got my Re-Timer glasses in the mail later that week and the few days leading up to it were actually quite brutal. Not only was I having trouble falling asleep but I was waking up at weird times like 3 or 4 in the morning and couldn’t fall back asleep.

It seems my circadian rhythm was off more than I thought. I received my pair of Re-Timer glasses and started using them the next day to hopefully get back on track with a regular sleep cycle. Needless to say I wore the glasses that morning (as instructed) and that first night I was yawning over and over at around 9:15 p.m. which for me is perfectly ideal. You can actually use the glasses in the best way for you, you’d just wear them earlier or later in the morning based on when you want to fall asleep and wake up. You can adjust your Re-Timer glasses to your schedule. For myself I wanted to get to sleep earlier so I use them accordingly. The company actually has a calculator on their website to help you use the Re-Timers in the most efficient way to fit your sleep needs.

That night I fell asleep within a few minutes and had a great nights rest. The next morning I felt pretty good and was still a little skeptical that it was only these glasses that made the difference. I thought to myself that maybe I was just exhausted so it was partially my exhaustion and partially the Re-Timer glasses.

I have continued using them for over a week now and have had a much better sleeping pattern. I can fall asleep faster and sleep through the full night. It’s a godsend for me personally. To be able to fall asleep, stay asleep and wake up having felt rested with a good night’s rest is truly a blessing. When I had sleep issues before sleep felt like a little bit of a luxury at times.

With a 2 year old (who also has plenty of energy and doesn’t like going to bed at times!!) his mother and myself would often not get the best nights rest. With myself though I had trouble falling asleep, she could just lay down and fall asleep quite quickly.

As a healthy lifestyle advocate, researcher and teacher I highly recommend getting a pair of Re-Timers for yourself to try if you have sleep issues, insomnia, falling or staying asleep. They have helped me so much and I endorse them 110%!

Naturally as someone who studies, researches and reads about health on a daily basis I had to do some research for myself on the technology behind this product. The company has peer-reviewed research (read it here) and has found that Re-Timer glasses give people on average 42 minutes more of sleep each night by just using these for one week!

The technology at first glance may appear quite simple but it is actually quite complex and has taken a while to refine. The glasses use light therapy to synchronize your circadian rhythm (read about the science of your circadian rhythm here). As you may already know your circadian rhythm is your internal biological clock and determines when to produce hormones such as serotonin and melatonin to modulate your awake/asleep cycles. The amount (and wavelength) of light that enters your eyes determine your individual circadian rhythm’s activity. If your circadian rhythm is off your body will have difficulty sleeping, falling asleep and you may feel tired during the day.

The Re-Timer uses what has been a proven light wavelength, 500nm peak wavelength. Their research has shown shorter wavelengths of light to have the greatest melatonin suppression, anywhere from 65% to 81%. This means that as you wear these in the morning you suppress melatonin (thought of as a sleep hormone) first thing in the morning and allow serotonin levels to rise. Later in the day and toward the night melatonin will be produced more effectively and at a more proper time for you to feel tired, relaxed and to drift off to sleep.

The technology uses light therapy to synchronize your circadian rhythm and they have done the research to find which light wavelength is best, and as a user of this product I have to say that it does indeed work.

To finish my story for you… I have since been using my Re-Timer glasses and have fallen asleep faster and slept through the night since i’ve been using them. Oddly enough I didn’t use them one day and that next morning I woke up quite early and didn’t sleep as well that night. These don’t need to be used daily but if you work on the computer and with technology (screens & EMF’s) as I do they can easily disrupt your circadian rhythm.

This technology is not only beneficial for insomnia and other sleep disorders but it’s also beneficial for:

• SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) – When winter comes around you feel sadder than in the summer months. Learn More About SAD and the science of applying Re-Timers to this condition here.
• Shift workers: If you are a shift worker learn how to use Re-Timers for shift work here.
• Jet-Lag: You can use your pair of Re-Timers for jet lag also, learn how here.
• Insomnia: You can learn how to apply Re-Timers to help with insomnia here.

The biggest hurdle for this product is really the price point but when I looked at how much I spent in relaxing supplements, minerals, tea and other relaxant products it made sense to just invest in something that would not only work when I have the sleep issue but work 5 or 10 years down the road. For 300 bucks the investment was worth it to me because my sleep quality and ability to fall asleep with ease have improved quite a bit. I got connected with the company and asked them if they could maybe cut my readers a little slack on the price and thankfully they agreed! So you’ll be able to get a $20 discount on your Re-Timer glasses by entering the code “healthywildandfree” during checkout at Re-Timer.com

I hope they help you enjoy a good night’s rest again and give you the ability to sleep well and wake up feeling rested once again. I know that they have really helped me and continue to.