Hate Brooklyn’s new LED streetlights? Science may explain why

Brooklyn residential neighborhoods are getting the first LED streetlight treatments, and some locals are not all that happy about it. The New York Times reports that some neighbors of the new lights have gone so far as to cover their bedroom windows with heavy duty trash bags to block out the light.
It’s a truth known to all reporters that asking around about any major change is the easiest way to find people complaining, and people really do complain in that NYT story. There could also be something to the complaints, though.
The light from LED lights is “blue,” which has the quality of daylight. It’s the same color of light our computers emit. WNYC podcast New Tech City did a story on blue light and how it’s confusing our brains as we get ready for sleep. Now New York City is washing its streets in blue light, as if our phones aren’t bad enough.

Incandescent light is orange, more like a sunset, and doesn’t upset our internal clocks the same way. Unfortunately, it’s also much less efficient to generate.
That said, it could also just be a question of adjustment. Philadelphia started switching over its street lights in 2014. In fact, if you want to get some sense for what the light conditions look like under the two different kinds of light, Philadelphia blog This Old City went out and took lots of photos, comparing the incandescent light with the more orange hue to places where the new LEDs have gone in.
The NYT story also says that in parks where LEDs went in first, regular users have grown accustomed to them and like them. It could just be a matter of time or it could be that lights shining into bedrooms are just a whole other story.