Now more than ever, we are exposing ourselves to artificial light from our phones, devices, TVs and LED lighting, which is taking its toll on our bodies. We are sleeping poorly, waking up tired and sluggish, with a lack of energy and an inability to stay focussed.
Roudy has an incredible personal story of overcoming depression and obesity by leveraging light in new, useful ways that support a productive lifestyle.
He is a thought leader in the world of functional medicine and light science, with valuable insights for anyone interested in how a new relationship with light can transform lifestyles.
He is the Founder and Head of Research and Development at VivaRays, an innovative firm with glasses transforming the way in which people work, sleep and live. Drawing on his own experiences and background in engineering, Roudy has designed a range of glasses for part of the day, blocking specific wavelengths.
How did you get interested in the study of light? 
My story started when I was a kid in school. I was diagnosed with ADHD and suffered with headaches, agitation and inability to focus.
Growing up, I would stay up every night feeling wired and stimulated only to lack the energy and focus the following day. Eventually day after day feeling stuck in this cycle, it led me to depression and disorientation, which was very sabotaging to my professional life and my relationships with my loved ones.
I was really desperate to find a solution to feel better. In the process of going from one holistic doctor to another and another, I found it really exhausting and tiring, and I was very overwhelmed with the different opinions about what I should be doing.
I tried several different diets, I was taking supplements, meditation and exercising though, nothing really worked for me.
What Changed Everything for Roudy Nassif
I went to a farm for several weeks where I was exposed only to natural light during the day and fire and candlelight during the evening. Within a matter of days I started sleeping peacefully through the night to then wake up before the sunrise. For the first time in my life I felt energized, focused and motivated. I went from extremely foggy headed, depressed, and disoriented to feeling alive, clear and motivated.
Every night I would contemplate how this happened and if it was from my light exposure. My quest for answers led me to study more. what I learned is that, for 1,000’s of years as humans we would spend much time outdoors, exposed to natural sunlight.
These different color temperatures of light provide very important information for our bodies to know when to wake up in the morning, when to eat and digest, when to tackle big problems and be creative, and when to go to sleep at night.
Unfortunately in our modern world this is no longer the case. We are chronically being exposed to artificial light that emits a constant blue light frequency day and night. This confuses our brains and our bodies into thinking it’s 12 noon summertime all year long and we get confused about the time of the day. Therefore, our natural rhythm gets disrupted and this rhythm is what governs a lot of our daily functions from thinking, digestion, healing, and sleeping.
This became really clear to me when I moved from the farm back to the city where I ran into depression and disorientation again.
** Prefer To Watch? Check Out Our Livestream On The “Light Diet” with Roudy Nassif Here!**
What Roudy Discovered
I was on a mission to figure out how I can live in a modern world without compromising my sleep and well being.
I found blue light glasses from several different companies in the market but I didn’t experience the benefits that I experienced on the farm.
From deep research and talking to world experts in circadian rhythm, I learned that we needed a dynamic light management system that blocks different amounts of blue light and allows different color temperatures of light depending on the time of the day.
How important the Management of Light is
Blue light is like anything in nature. It’s not good or bad. It’s effect on us really depends on the time of the day that we’re exposing ourselves to it, and whether or not it it proportional or not with other frequencies of colors.
During the day, if you’re outside, you get different amounts of blue light. The morning sunlight is very important because as the sun rises in the morning there’s a rise in blue and UV light, as well as other colors and this light activates so many biological processes in our body. We need this in order to get productive, creative and have the energy for the day.
During the day we don’t really need to block blue light because blue light is very important but blue light coming from sunlight is different from human man made light.
Blue light from sunlight is very proportionate to other color lights. Though artificial blue light is very deficient in the other colors.
If you’re spending so much time anytime of the day exposed to these lights and screens, you’re being exposed to a very deficient frequency in blue light that causes eye strains, headaches and agitation.
How to Develop a Good Light Diet
Many people still think that light isn’t that big of a deal. They think of it as something superficial that makes vision possible. We seem to have an understanding of how sunlight affects plants but we forget how it affects us as human beings.
The right type of light at the right time in the day can create wonders in healing. The wrong type of light at the wrong time of the day can make you ill, depressed, and overweight.
The problem with me was that I was self sabotaging myself with late night screen exposure which literally destroys melatonin. Melatonin is the most important sleep hormone and the highest antioxidant in nature with anti aging properties that enable our mitochondria to repair themselves at night.
Just like a car’s engine requires fuel, oxygen and a spark in order to create internal combustion, burn that fuel and generate energy. Our mitochondria also requires fuel in the form of the food that we eat, oxygen, and a spark in the form of light, to ignite the process of the metabolism.
We really need to maximize healthy light during the day through getting that sunrise first thing in the morning. As we’re working indoors, wear high quality glasses that are designed to address this harmful frequency that’s being emitted from those devices and also take sun breaks during the day from time to time, to train our internal clock to the time outside. As the sun sets, this is a very important time to be outdoors and to witness the setting sun because the slowly fading light sends to our brain very important information. It literally tells all of the millions of cells and organs that it’s time to wind down and therefore increases melatonin production and drops cortisol.
What is a healthy level of sun exposure?
We have to be consciously aware of our habits around light. The average modern human being spends so much time indoors under artificial light and very little time outdoors. The problem with this is that as humans we’re designed to get the early morning sunlight which is very rich in infrared and at this time of the day there is no UV light whatsoever. If you don’t preload with the sunrise light and go out in the sun at noon where there is UV light, you are more likely to burn and not absorb that UV light.
And the sunset has a similar effect where if you have caused some cellular damage to your skin from the UV light from not preloading, the sunset will help repair some of that damage.
Many people don’t spend any time outside in the winter and don’t gradually spend time in the spring but suddenly decide to go tanning in the spring which is dangerous to the skin because we haven’t conditioned our skin to the sunlight. Nature gradually prepares us for the more intense sun in the summertime.
Roudy’s 3 System Glasses
We learned that we need a light management system that blocks different amounts of blue light and allows different amounts of frequencies of light throughout the day from daytime to evening time to night time.
We came up with a three light management system for daytime, evening and night time.
The daytime glasses are designed to decrease the intensity of blue light that’s emitted from screens and bulbs. Rather than blocking the blue light, it transforms that blue light and makes it much more proportionate and balanced with the other color frequencies. It eliminates eye strain, eye fatigue, and headaches.
The evening time glasses are designed to mimic the fire or the twilight which gives our brain the impression that it’s time to wind down. I put these on right after I watch the sunset.
The nighttime glasses are designed to be worn 2 hours to 1 hour before bedtime. They are designed to block 100% of the blue and green light and decrease the brightness by 20 times to give the brain the impression that it’s completely dark outside which optimizes our growth hormone and melatonin production which enables us to sleep much deeper.
Where to Start
Step number one is to rise with the sun and go outside as soon as you wake up and face east to expose yourself to the early morning sunlight, whether it’s direct or indirect.
Step number 2, you want to go outside as much as possible even if it’s 5 minutes. This will help you to stay in harmony with the time outside.
Number 3, take a break around sunset and witness the slowly fading light. When you get back home you then put your evening lens on.
A proper light diet is something that can strengthen any health protocol.
Websites Mentioned
Viva Rays (Use code “DIROBI” for 10% off)
