Red light therapy has gained popularity in recent years for its various benefits for skin health, pain relief, and muscle recovery amongst many others. Many people wonder if they can wear clothes during a red light therapy session. In this article, we will explore the pros and cons of wearing clothes during a session and provide recommendations for the best clothing options.
What is Red Light Therapy?
Red light therapy is a non-invasive treatment that uses red and near-infrared light to stimulate cellular energy production in the body. This increased cellular activity can lead to a variety of health benefits, including improved skin health, reduced inflammation and pain, and increased muscle recovery.
Benefits of Red Light Therapy
Improved Skin Health: Red light therapy has been shown to improve skin health by increasing collagen production, reducing wrinkles and fine lines, and improving overall skin texture.
Reduced Inflammation and Pain: Red light therapy has anti-inflammatory properties and can reduce pain and inflammation in various conditions, including arthritis, fibromyalgia, and chronic lower back pain.
Increased Muscle Recovery: Red light therapy can speed up muscle recovery by reducing inflammation and increasing blood flow to the affected areas.
Can You Wear Clothes During Red Light Therapy?
Well let’s take a look at what some leading Light Therapy Brands say on their Websites and then go straight to what the definitive answer is.
JOOVV (USA)
Many Joovv users with full-body devices prefer to Joovv in the nude. Delivering light to more surface area on your body leads to better light therapy outcomes, but full nudity is not necessarily required for effective, full-body Joovv use. Lighter garments like underwear, bras, shorts, and socks may be worn without hampering a treatment, though the covered areas will receive a diminished intensity.
PLATINUMLED (USA)
Make sure the area of your body you are treating is fully exposed to the light and not covered by any fabric or clothing. Areas not being treated may be covered if you are more comfortable, but
clothing is not necessary.
MITO RED LIGHT (USA)
Near infrared light may penetrate clothing to some degree, but red light is not able to effectively penetrate clothing. Therefore we generally recommend exposing clean bare skin to the light as the usage environment allows.
ROUGE (CANADA)
Just as clothes block UV light from penetrating your skin, it will block red and near-infrared light as well. As for sunscreen, it’s designed to block UV light, but it will also work as a barrier to some red and NIR light, preventing it from penetrating as deeply. And for those who wear makeup, take note that many foundations contain SPF. If yours does, you might consider using red light therapy in the morning before applying makeup, or after washing your face before bed.
LEREDD (AUSTRALIA)
Fabrics differ in density and whilst the light wavelengths will penetrate the light fabrics any barrier will have some filtering process. As everyone seeks best outcomes, removal of clothing is suggested and recommended.
So having read the above there seems to be an overall consensus that it is better for the area you are treating to be fully exposed for maximum outcomes. But there seems to be some differing of opinion amongst the suppliers as to whether Red and NIR wavelengths actually penetrate through light fabrics and if so, which ones and how much is filtered ?
So we decided to conduct basic tests using the following. :
- Lightweight Cotton fabric as the fabric filter
- A Spectroradiometer to measure the the irradiance levels
- Light therapy panels from Joovv (USA) and LEREDD(AUS) that emitted Red 660nm and NIR 850nm Wavelengths
Our Findings
What we found in our tests was that both Red and NIR light wavelengths were successful at penetrating the fabric BUT that there was a significant irradiance cut by approx 50-80% across all light combinations and products tested.
You would basically need to double and even triple your exposure treatment time to receive the same amount of irradiance level than if you were to simply remove your clothing.
Conclusion
So yes, you can wear clothes during a red light therapy session however any areas that are covered will receive a dramatically reduced irradiance level of treatment. That is great if there are certain areas that you do not want to treat for whatever reason that may be. And the thicker, more dense that your clothing fabric is, the more filtering it will do and therefore the less light reaching your skin and body.
Best to get yourself au naturel under a full body length panel like the Biohax 432 or Pro 300 for the ultimate experience and if your budget doesn’t stretch that far at the moment at least get started with one of our smaller devices like the Biocell 60 or Pro 40 which are leading desktop type versions.
LEREDD have light therapy stocks ready to despatch from Melbourne so expect a quick delivery of your order.
