Light Pollution: Why We Need to Turn Off the Lights

Abstract

You might have heard that looking at bright lights like TVs and phones at night can affect your sleep and be bad for your health. But did you know that lights at night are also bad for animals and plants in nature? Human-made light that reaches the environment at night is called light pollution. Lights at night often kill many insects, baby sea turtles, and migrating birds. Light pollution is easy to fix—only turn the lights on when they are needed! In this article, we review how light pollution affects people and the environment, and we describe some ways you can help.