Your Smartphone May be Interrupting Your Sleep

The glow of your smartphone (or tablet and laptop) may be getting in the way of a good night’s sleep.

The glow of your smartphone (or tablet and laptop) may be getting in the way of a good night’s sleep.  Melatonin is the hormone responsible for telling your body it’s time to sleep.  But that electronics glow actually inhibits the release of melatonin.

Under normal circumstances, the pineal gland, a pea-size organ in your brain, begins to release melatonin a few hours before your bedtime.  Its job is not to put you to sleep, but it reduces alertness and puts your body in a state of readiness for sleep.  Light of any kind, but particularly the blue emitted from electronic devices, interferes with the release of melatonin from the pineal gland.  You don’t even have to be looking at the light directly – if your partner is working into the wee hours – the soft glow can be enough to interfere with your sleep as well.

Recent research has found that teenagers in particular are most susceptible to the effects of blue light.  During adolescence, the circadian rhythm shifts and teens feel more awake at later hours in the night.  Turning on the TV, texting or surfing the web just before bedtime pushes off that sleepy feeling until even later, thanks to the blue light.  Early school start times mean a less than desirable amount of sleep for teens.

In a poll by the National Sleep Foundation, parents were asked to estimate the amount of sleep their children were getting.  More than half said their 15-to-17-year-olds routinely slept for seven hours or fewer, despite the recommended amount of 8 ½ to 10 hours.  Alarmingly, 68 percent of these teens were also said to keep an electronic device (TV, computer, video game, smartphone or tablet) on all night.  Sleep quality was better among children aged 6 to 17 who always turned their devices off: 45 percent of them were described as having excellent sleep quality vs. 25 percent of those who sometimes left devices on.

We have to remember that all light after dusk is “unnatural.”  It used to be that people went to bed when the sun set and got up when it rose.  In fact, one study found that people who spent a week camping in the Rocky Mountains, exposed only to natural light and no electronic devices, had their circadian rhythms reset with the rise and fall of the sun.  This happened to all of the campers whether they were self-described night owls or early birds.  Our bodies and sleep habits are extremely susceptible to light conditions.

In order to get the best sleep possible, remove electronic devices from the bedroom.  This is especially important for children.  Charge your phone in another room so you’re not tempted to check your email “one last time.”  Avoid electronics in the hour or so before going to bed.  Making these small adjustments can have a huge impact on the quality of your sleep.

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