Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
The Good Kind of Blue Light: How Color Impacts Our Sleep with Heather Rodman
29 Plays1 year ago
Can certain colors really calm your mood? Dive into the world of color therapy to learn how the visual filters through which we see the world impact our emotions, mental clarity, and health. More than just knowing what color to paint your bedroom, discover how the hues of life may affect the quality of your sleep.
Heather Rodman is a colour practitioner who offers coaching in color therapy. Find her at https://linktr.ee/chakracolourtherapy, on Instagram at @colourenergyshop, and on Facebook at @chakracolourtherapy.
In this episode:
- Lessons from marketing: Colors persuade our brains
- Seeing the world through tinted glasses
- The calming effects of a color bath
- How each color influences your mood and energy
- Recognizing significant colors in dreams
- Colorizing subconscious thoughts
- Healthy sleep routines
- The color therapy community
Connect with us at SuenoLabs.com. We're currently looking for contributors and podcast guests!
Disclaimer: This show is for informational purposes only. Sueño Labs does not provide medical advice.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Marketing and Color Psychology
00:00:00
Speaker
Many of you know this, but when I'm not podcasting, I'm a freelance copywriter and I work as a marketing content strategist. And one of the things that we talk a lot about in marketing is color. So the way that your website looks or the way that your advertising materials look on social media, all of this has an impact to influence someone's buying decision.
00:00:23
Speaker
Well, when it comes to sleep, I hear a lot about color as well. Maybe you've heard similar things when reading articles about what color to paint a bedroom. I think many of us have heard blue is a very calming, soothing color, or red is the color to stay away from in a calming space because it's a more stimulating color associated with energy and excitement.
00:00:49
Speaker
And many times in my view, these claims are made in a way that's unsubstantiated or it's just kind of thrown out there as common knowledge. And I really am curious why. Why is it that we have this experience that colors impact us in a certain way and that it actually can influence our ability to calm down at the end of the day?
Interview with Heather Rodman, Color Therapist
00:01:13
Speaker
Today's guest is someone who can help us understand this more. If color indeed has this kind of impact on us, should we perhaps be thinking more broadly than simply what color to paint a bedroom?
00:01:30
Speaker
Today, I talked to color practitioner Heather Rodman about her work and experience as a color therapist. We discuss the practices and methodologies she uses in her work, as well as how our perceptions of the world impact our mood.
00:01:51
Speaker
I'm Jimmy Leonard. This is Swenio Labs.
00:01:58
Speaker
Heather Rodman, thank you so much for joining. How are you today? and Lovely. How are you? I'm doing well too. It's been a great week so far. So one of the things we talk about on this show is sleep. And so much of how we sleep is related to light.
Impact of Light and Color on Mood and Physiology
00:02:14
Speaker
I think we all generally understand that sunlight affects the body in so many different ways, but you really have a lot of expertise in particular with how light influences our bodies, the biochemical system and just everything to do with that. So I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about your background here. What should we understand about the relationship between light and the body systems?
00:02:40
Speaker
So light allows us to see the surrounding world by distinguishing details, individual colors, movement, brightness. It has a very big impact on a human in terms of physiology and psyche, but light also has extremely important functions in relation to a lot of biological processes that occur in our body. For example, our metabolism, blood circulation, and hormone balance.
00:03:06
Speaker
This ah light also synchronizes our internal clock, thanks to which our body functions in a certain rhythm. So all five senses the site provides us with the most information about our environment. And this is one of the reasons why light has such a big impact on our everyday functioning and mood. So adequate lighting improves visibility.
00:03:27
Speaker
especially after dark when our eyesight does not fulfill its role well anymore. Light can also reduce our fatigue and affect the improvement of work and productivity.
00:03:37
Speaker
And I think this is something we're all generally aware of. We'll talk about mood lighting or when we're designing a room, we want to have lots of natural light, but it's a good reminder to remember that these aren't just styles or fads, but there is a physiological reality of how our sensory input is receiving light and how we're actually going to feel or function in that moment. I know there's obviously a lot of research in places with high prevalence of seasonal affective disorder where light therapy is really important just because you aren't getting that adequate sunlight. So that's a really good starting point for us today.
Color Therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder
00:04:16
Speaker
So Heather, you're a color practitioner. So we've got this background in light. I would love to hear a little bit more about how we can go deeper from visible light in general to actually thinking about the color spectrum. Tell us a little bit about that.
00:04:34
Speaker
So with color therapy, what I do is we receive 90% of our information through our eyes. So it's very important to use color in our everyday life because we receive so much of our information through color and it affects our moods. So tell me more about that. We receive information through color. How would that maybe play out in my day to day?
00:04:56
Speaker
Well, uh, let's say, you know, for example, well I live here in Canada and half the year is unfortunately no sunlight, uh, very cold. And so it does affect there. It does actually, there is studies that show that seasonal defective disorder is a very big problem in Canada with Canadians because we don't get the proper sunlight for half the year. So doing any type of color therapy can help, you know, alleviate, you know, the effects of seasonal effective depression.
00:05:26
Speaker
Is this related to sometimes people talk about how blue is a calming color or some things like that? Where do some of these other assignments come in? I guess if that's the right way to think about it. Yeah. So about the different colors specifically and what they can do.
00:05:43
Speaker
Yeah, so i I do a lot of work in marketing. And one of the things that we talk about in marketing is the impact of color. So, you know, of course, there's a lot of color theory. But when somebody's thinking about a logo or a design, a lot of times the conversations we end up having are, if you make your logo blue, that's going to have a sense of trust. And that's why you see a lot of banks and medical facilities will have a blue logo.
00:06:06
Speaker
But if you make your logo orange or red, that's going to have a sense of vibrancy. And so that's why you see like the Nike swoosh is orange because it has this sense of activity. And so I'm curious, like, what's going
Colors in Consumer Behavior and Sleep Aid
00:06:18
Speaker
on there? Where is some of this coming from? That's pretty widely accepted and understood in how we experience these different colors.
00:06:26
Speaker
Yeah. So there is definitely, you know, a lot of marketing companies definitely use colors with their advertising. and And I know green is a big one because green is very calming and soothing. And they have done studies to show that actually there is more purchases done when you have the color green in your marketing campaigns.
00:06:42
Speaker
I would almost think that's because green is the color of money, but I guess that's not true in Canada, is it? Green is also the heart chakra as well too. So it's very calming. It's very soothing. It's very earth-based nature, just very serene and soothing. So out of all the colors, it definitely gives that kind of um effect to people where they feel more happier to maybe make a purchase.
00:07:07
Speaker
We started talking about sleep in particular. So if if someone is is thinking about preparing their body for sleep or calming down, a lot of times on these episodes, I'm talking with guests more about some of the the motions and the habits, whether that's meditation or not drinking alcohol or not looking at your phone. But what about the sensory input? What should we pay attention to as we're getting ready to rest?
00:07:35
Speaker
Yeah, no, definitely. Well, obviously cell phones are definitely a real issue because they emit um electromagnetic frequencies. So we, we, we get a lot of negative frequencies, which will disrupt our sleeping patterns. So definitely I would say an hour before the bed or even half an hour, if you can't do an hour is shut down your cell phone, do some meditation. And then, you know, there's different ah types of color therapy that you can actually use to help assist you in sleeping.
00:08:05
Speaker
one of them is color bath which is um all organic and it's wonderful for children and adults alike. Obviously you want to stick with the neutral colors like greens and blues and turquoise um so that's a way of getting more color therapy in your life before bedtime to help you get ready i had one mother who was telling me i gave her a blue bottle of color bath because she had told me her five year old son hadn't slept ever in the whole five years. And she gave him this blue bath and she goes, Oh my goodness, he slept through the night for the first time. So I love hearing those types of stories. So we probably have listeners who are wondering what a color bath is. Can you tell us what that is? So color bath is a fun and easy way for your body to absorb the Bevan official frequent vibrational frequencies.
00:08:53
Speaker
It's bathing in the natural element of water combined with different colors creates an incredible healing atmosphere, one that the body recognizes and enjoys. So what creates the color bath? Basically, it's all organic. It's all food grade coloring. And um so one of the bottles actually equals three baths. So you can get three baths out of this and it is therapeutic too. So it's not like some of the other things people put in their baths for like a spa effect. This has actually got a therapeutic benefit to ah to it as well.
00:09:23
Speaker
So do you add it to a bath just like you would add bubble bath or yes so something like that? Yes. With the bottle, it you drop you do like four or five drops and you'll see your whole bath just change. Let's say you got turquoise and the next thing you know, you'll feel like you're in the ocean. Do you have to do anything else to the room? I know sometimes bathrooms are are really bright. it Does it help to change that lighting or is that not really Yeah, oh, definitely. If you can do any kind of nice green lighting or blue lighting, that will definitely help with the effects of your color bath experience, too. So you mentioned that you work with a lot of people. You were talking with this mother about her five-year-old son who never sleeps. um I actually also have a five-year-old. so like Oh.
00:10:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think I might need to look into that. He's getting to that stage where he likes to stay up and at least he stays up and reads books in his room. Well, especially with children, I do have a lot of parents that come with me who have ah autistic children or attention deficit disorder, because a lot of times any kind of hyperactivity, ah children just really just they can't sleep. So what are those consultations look like?
00:10:29
Speaker
So someone can just reach out to me via email and I have a comprehensive questionnaire that they can fill out, whether it's for their child or for themselves, so that I can kind of get a more of an assessment as to the Kaipa color therapy that they need. Fantastic. So other than the color bath, are there other ways that we can think about color throughout our day, but specifically as we're getting ready for bed?
Therapy Glasses and Their Effects
00:10:54
Speaker
Again, myself, um usually like an hour before I put on like some color therapy glasses are also another way of of helping your your mood to before bedtime. I only recommend the neutral colors, of course, which would be like blues, greens, turquoise. Those are the three ones that definitely are good for any type of, you know, ah therapy before going to bed.
00:11:17
Speaker
um Of course the lighting in your room is definitely definitely important so you really need to take a look at the the lighting do you the even the paint your color of in your bedroom specifically you know any kind of new neutral colors like greens and blues and turquoise are definitely tranquil colors that will help with sleeping.
00:11:36
Speaker
And it seems like we need to make a clarification because we talked about cell phones. And ah of course, when we're talking about cell phones, it, we always use the term blue light, but blue light from your phone is different than the kind of calming blue you're talking about. Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. The, any kind of, uh, light that's coming from your phone and fortunately it has electromagnetic, um, negative frequencies, um, that are going to disrupt your hormone balances. So those lights are not good at all.
00:12:06
Speaker
So we maybe need to not even think of that as being in the same category. This is like the radiation, and we're talking more about the ah feel of the room without all the technology. Yes, exactly, exactly. yeah So Heather, you mentioned the glasses, Heather, you actually sent me some of these blue glasses. So I was surprised when I got these in the mail that it's, um, I guess don't take this the wrong way. It's, it's simple. I thought it was going to be like more of a contraption, something a little bit more disruptive to my day, but this really is something that I can just put on and I can read a book. I can be on my computer. Like it's not, I mean, they're really just glasses, but they're glasses that are tinted.
00:12:43
Speaker
So tell me what is the the best practice? What's the best way to use these? So, uh, with the, uh, color therapy glasses, you can use them all day if you'd like. So the only color that I don't recommend is, is red because red is, um, is, is increases your drive and energy. So red, red glasses, you actually only need, um, a friend of mine last week tried them. I put said, put these on. He was, wow, I can't get over how energized I feel. I said, you only need 15 minutes a day, but any of the neutral colors, like the greens, blues, and turquoise, you can wear.
00:13:20
Speaker
all day long, and it's just going to have a calming and soothing effect. um Wonderful in front of the computer, too, to help reduce computer fatigue, um especially the blue. That would is ah excellent um to help come back the computer ah fatigue as well, and any kind of frequencies that we're getting off the negative frequencies, too, that we're dealing with with the computers as well.
00:13:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that's something that i I do anyway. And there's probably a lot of people who are interested in these topics who maybe already have some sort of blue eye blocking glasses, or maybe some kind of extension, the browser extension that you might be using on your computer just to fade the light. I know when I'm working late at night, I'm basically a caveman, I've got the brightness on the lowest setting possible, the lights are dim in the room, I've got my light blocking glasses on. And sometimes it's it's really just the the force of the schedule of my day is that I need to be working after sundown, but I really try to not have any of that light disrupts my rest time later. So yeah, I'll have to do more of a write up on my experience wearing these on this when your labs blog. So what uh, what other colors do you have?
00:14:31
Speaker
Wow. Okay. Let's start with all the colors. So first was red. I had mentioned that before the red, the red glasses. So that increases the drive and you're driving energy. Um, like I said, that color, you just, you only want to use 15 minutes a day and you'll, once you wear them, you'll see why it, it, it fights fatigue. It, so that that's the red, uh, orange.
00:14:53
Speaker
increases your vitality and zest for life so oranges is wonderful for that green relaxes and promotes regeneration green also creates physical and emotional harmony blue as we've talked before is calming and relaxing and um so it it is definitely good for bedtime violet ah violet um helps to increase inspiration and creativity.
00:15:16
Speaker
um Magenta connects us to our self-identity and helps promote optimism. We also have pink, which supports heartfelt love and emotions. So helps remove like aggressions, offers more like peace of mind. And that's it. That's all the colors that we have. so So lots of different choices and you can try them out and kind of see what's helpful for you.
00:15:38
Speaker
Yeah. and in And sometimes people that like I have a friend, for instance, she has dyslexia. And so I gave her the yellow, the yellow glasses that help. um I think I'm, I hope I mentioned the yellow, but yellow helps with concentration. And so she just loves them because she said, wow, these actually are helping me.
00:15:55
Speaker
Yeah, and now that you mentioned that, that's probably a good way to describe the experience of wearing these glasses is it's almost like there's blinders on but in the best possible way. I think that it's it's almost like the effect of wearing sunglasses on a really bright day where all of a sudden, I can just see things a little bit more clearly because it's it's filtering out some of what was so distracting about having to look at the road while driving.
00:16:21
Speaker
um I always wear sunglasses while driving for that reason because it's just easier to concentrate. You've got more more of a focus in that field of vision where you want it to be. That's a little bit how I feel with these blue glasses. In some ways, it's like harder to see, but it's also easier to see what I want to see because there's less of the distraction going on. That's a little bit about how I've experienced it so far. Yeah. and You can see the world in that color too, which is which is really neat because sometimes when I just see the the world as we see it,
00:16:51
Speaker
in the present moment, it's just, it seems really blah, you know, sometimes. And then when I put on my blue or my turquoise glasses, or even my green ones, I just, it just, it's just more serene, you know, and um it's just a lovely experience.
00:17:09
Speaker
If you're enjoying the Swenio Labs podcast, please take a moment and post this, share it with a friend, or leave us a review. Your support keeps new content coming.
00:17:22
Speaker
So Heather switching gears a little bit, if you're up for talking about it, I was curious to hear some of your perspectives on how color can influence our subconscious minds as
Colors in Dreams and Subconscious
00:17:34
Speaker
well. I think that ah ah an important topic for us on Swinier Labs is we're not talking about just sleep in the physiological sense, but also in the psychological sense when we're talking about dream space and just what's going on as the brain is sorting through all of the memories and thoughts and fears and hopes and all those other things during the day. It's very fascinating. But one thing that I ah haven't really talked about with anyone on this show yet is the role of color in that. I think that um I'll speak for myself, you can tell me if you've ever had an experience like this. But from time to time, I do have a dream that really seems to feature a color in particular. Now, of course, there's
00:18:13
Speaker
regular dreams, right? Where you maybe you just see people and events or you're at the beach or driving a car or whatever it is. But then sometimes there really is that focus where I'll wake up and think it wasn't just a car, it was a red car, or it wasn't just a person, it was a person wearing a yellow shirt. And there is that very distinct memory or focus on the color being a part of the dream. So before I talk about that too much, I'm curious if that's ever even happened to you. Do you have those kinds of experiences where it seems like there is this subconscious focus on a particular color? Yes, well, for me, a lot a lot lately, especially is violet. I do a lot of meditation and yoga. And when I'm closing my eyes, and I'm in that meditative state, I see that beautiful aura of violet.
00:19:01
Speaker
which is to do with the um kind of increasing our like vibration. And once we were meditate, we really get in tune to colors. And when we close our eyes, we see them and they start visualizing them. So yeah, that's definitely my experience.
00:19:17
Speaker
What do you think is a good way for somebody who's looking to understand their subconscious mind a little bit more or understand dreams a little bit more to think about those colors? I know sometimes we can be overly prescriptive. You know, I, I definitely don't want to go down the route of saying like, Oh, if you see a black dog, it means this because you know, everybody has different thoughts about that. You know, maybe you love dogs, maybe you hate dogs. And so I imagine there might be some similarity there.
00:19:45
Speaker
But I also think that because color is more universal, like we've been talking about, we do kind of have these almost universal sort of experience with colors. Maybe there's more we could draw from it than with something that's more of a symbol, like a dog, for example. ah You know, it's interesting. The ancient Egyptians used did color therapy. it's It's a form of alternative medicine, actually. It's just a modality that just kind of just hasn't been very common or well known and used in North America. The ancient indigenous use colored glass for for their form of of of color therapy in their everyday life. So if we go back, well we'll we'll see a lot of you know ah stories about color therapy and and um ah ways ah ancient cultures use color therapy in their lives to help increase their health.
00:20:36
Speaker
So I think if, if someone is maybe looking to have some kind of insight, what are maybe some good questions to ask? So like I, just to use your example, like you talked about when you meditate, there's often this hue of violet to it. If someone is experiencing that maybe without a lot of context, what are some good questions or are some good things to think about to try to understand what significance that might have for them if they're noticing a particular color?
00:21:06
Speaker
If they're noticing it in particular color, um I definitely think that they should look up chakras because we are energetic beings as well. We we we vibrate. we We have energetic frequencies. So if someone's seeing a specific color, I definitely think that they should start looking into the colors of the chakras because at that point they might be reading like um red, which is the root chakra, which is about vitality and being grounded.
00:21:32
Speaker
You know, a lot of time we resonate. We don't see these colors around us in the physical realm, but we definitely have a chakra energetic frequency. And so, for instance, when I was seeing the violet, that has to do with the third eye, which has to do with um ah spirituality.
Chakra Colors and Dream Interpretation
00:21:50
Speaker
Sure. So maybe it can be a good starting point for somebody to think like, okay, what, what might be going on for me? This has been coming up and yeah and just connect it to some other things in their lives. I think that's often the way that I approach.
00:22:04
Speaker
any sort of dream interpretation or things like that is is not to necessarily be overly prescriptive, like I said, but really just to say, hey, my brain is thinking about this for some reason. Is there maybe something that I can pull from this? Is there maybe some kind of signal that I can pay attention to in my waking life or my conscious life to see but why this might be on my mind? Yeah.
Heather's Aura Photography Experience
00:22:24
Speaker
Well, for instance, I went into the psychic fair for fun and they were having, they had an aura, a lady who did aura photography.
00:22:31
Speaker
And I highly recommend that too if someone wants to actually get a snapshot. of their colors that are around their body. And mine was beautiful. I had a lot of green, a lot of the heart chakra. Now this can change though. This can change with our moods. This this doesn't just stay permanent. At that period period of time, that was about a year ago, I had a lot of green and I had a lot of orange. Actually orange was, it was like orange was on the outside and that was my strongest color that was rating. And that's all about creativity. And I had a lot of creative energy going on at that time.
00:23:03
Speaker
And did that seem to fit for what was happening in your life? It definitely did. It made a lot of sense, yeah. Yeah, sometimes it can be confirming that some of what you're experiencing is fitting with what other people see in you as well. the This could be a ah good transition here.
Heather's Online Resources
00:23:20
Speaker
So Heather, if someone is interested in learning a little bit more about you and what you do, where are some places that they can find you online? I know it's more than one. You're in a lot of different places.
00:23:32
Speaker
So, uh, uh, Instagram definitely, uh, I, um, I'm at a color energy shop. So it's C O L O U R not C O L O R. Cause I know it in the States it's C O L O R in Canada. We, we spell it C O L O U R. So it's color energy shop. I also have my website, of course, which is, uh, H T T P S hyphen slash slash link tree.
00:23:56
Speaker
Uh, chakra color therapy. So you can definitely find me on my website. And I am on Facebook at chakra color therapy as well. And a lot of times I, I educate, I educate because there's a lot to talk about interest in color therapy so that people can understand the actual therapeutic benefits, um, that can happen. And people have a lot of questions. So yeah, I have a group too. If anyone wants to join that, they're more than welcome.
00:24:24
Speaker
What are some of the common threads of questions you see when people are new to the group? Ah, the the biggest one actually is sleeping because again, sleeping is definitely a big problem. We we have a big problem. And again, we're bombarded by um our cell phone in all this electromagnetic frequencies that like even 40, 50 years ago, we weren't bombarded with. So it is definitely disrupting our hormones. um People are maybe working a a lot, very high stress. So sometimes it's hard to
00:24:59
Speaker
learn to rest and know how to do it properly and shutting things off. and then We're just too attached to our our technology these days.
Lifestyle Changes and Color Therapy for Sleep
00:25:09
Speaker
Yeah. And I think if there's one takeaway that somebody should have listening to this, that there really is no magic bullet. This is not keep doing all of the being on your phone late at night and all of these unhelpful dietary things and then just start wearing blue glasses. Like it really has to be in conjunction with everything else. It's it's yeah all of the different lifestyle decisions and
00:25:30
Speaker
I'm saying no to things like scrolling on Instagram at 11 30 p.m. when you're supposed to be going to bed. Yeah, those kinds of things. So all of those those little changes can really add up. And yeah but yeah, that's great to hear that so many people are taking that first step of recognizing that this is not working in my life. And I need some other ideas about how to sleep and rest better. All right. So, Heather, we've been talking about color so much. I do feel like I have to ask what is your favorite color?
00:26:00
Speaker
My favorite color is turquoise. So I wear my turquoise glasses every day. I just feel like it gives me that kind of peaceful Zen element. And and I love water. i'm ah I just love water and I love the ocean. So for me, it gives me that kind of ocean therapy effect. So yeah, that's yeah that's why I wear the turquoise.
00:26:21
Speaker
Do you feel like that if the more you get to know a person that you can almost kind of guess what their favorite color might be? Is there enough of that correlation between what someone's interested in and maybe even their personality or and is it more at random than that?
00:26:37
Speaker
Uh, sometimes with my close friends, just be, you know, sometimes I can see it in how they dress in their clothing, uh, in their personality. Like my, um, my husband loves blue, you know, so he wears his blue color therapy glasses every day for work. And he always tells me, Oh, someone stopped me today. He says, where'd you get those cool glasses from? You know, because they do definitely stick out when you're in public for sure.
00:27:01
Speaker
I would say my favorite color is blue as well. But it's interesting that you talked about what people wear a lot because I think that sometimes we have to make a distinction that the favorite color to wear is not always the favorite color in general. Oh, definitely, definitely. Yeah, especially with clothing for sure it can be totally different from what your favorite colors are. Well, Heather, thank you so much. It's been a great conversation. Great. Thank you so much for having me, Jimmy. I really enjoyed the interview.
00:27:31
Speaker
Swinyolabs is a show about sleep, memory, and dreams. For more content, visit our blog at swinyolabs.com and connect with us to learn more about how you can share your story related to brain health and the daily habits that help us to rest and live better.
00:27:49
Speaker
Thanks for joining. We'll be back soon.