Ways in which Technology Affects your Sleep
Nowadays people have adapted to a certain lifestyle where they can think of survival without sleep but not without their gadgets. From waking up sleeping constantly checking their phone has become a part of the daily mundane activities.
Do you remember the last time when you went to sleep without checking your mobile phone or wake up and went straight to the washroom without peeking into your phone?
I hope you do but mostly you don’t. About 90% of us have this insane habit of checking our phones every hour without even receiving a notification. Studies have proved that those late night sessions with mobile phones may seem a good option at that moment but they have a tendency of intervening with your sleep.
Here are some quick facts about the harm this little tech obsession is doing to you:
Suppresses Melatonin:
Melatonin is a hormone that controls the sleep cycle of an individual. It is secreted in the absence of light. The screens of the gadgets that includes a mobile phone, computer, laptop, and television emit a blue light that restrains the production of melatonin. Reduction in the production of melatonin affects the sleep pattern of the individual making it difficult to fall and stay asleep.
Studies have shown that a week without these gadgets has increased sleep time and resulted in a fresh morning. So make sure to leave those gadgets outside the bedroom door and if possible, don’t use the television in your bedroom at least 30 minutes before sleeping. This small practice would surprise you with the sleep that you always craved for.
Alerts Brain activities:
It is a usual practice to watch those few videos before sleeping or maybe clear one more level in that video game or read those few emails to prepare for the day ahead. But all these activities have the tendency of keeping your mind engaged which further boosts up the thinking process which signals your brain to stay awake.
Keep working on these activities for the entire day but at night give yourself some time and for that fix a certain time for these activities and after which either log off those accounts or go on offline mode and enter the offline world. It would help you get out of the technology-driven system to the real world and with time, you will feel the automatic shutdown of your system resulting in a blissful night sleep.
Tends to keep you up:
Even if you are not touching your mobile phone before sleeping doesn’t mean that it won’t affect your sleep. Keeping the mobile phone on your nightstand is enough to keep you awake. Every notification that your phone receives alerts your brain into thinking about it. Thinking too much means keeping yourself up for no reason and as soon as you plan to end this curiosity by checking the notification. It means subtracting one hour of your sleep. According to most of the parents, the teenagers with at least one electronic gadget in their bedroom sleep less as compared to the kids without one.
Electronic gadgets are meant to make your life easier and overuse of these devices has made it difficult to live without them. So separate your virtual world and a real world, keep a far distance from these gadgets and use them only when it is an absolute necessity.
It is high time that the parents should keep a check on the usage of these devices for themselves as well as their kids. It is wisely said that a kid learns everything from their parents so parents, be a good role model for your kids. Do what is best for you and your kid will imitate in doing what is best for them.