If you drift off, maybe it’s because you need the rest. ![]() If you have to do homework before bed, he says, dim the screen and the lights. He recommends powering down electronics two hours before going to sleep. Still, Rahman says the results remind us to think about how we use screens before bed. So it’s hard to say how their blue light impacts on sleep might compare to those from using a device as large as the ones in this study. Also, the screens were about 22 inches (about 56 centimeters) across. It was far more bright than what a normal computer, tablet or TV would emit. However, he points out, the light in this study was extremely bright. Rahman says the new work makes a good point about how blue light from screens can be bad for our bodies. That makes the new results worrisome, Green says. At this age, their brains are still developing the ability to learn and pay attention. More and more people are using screens as kids and adolescents. Using screens before bed damages the body’s biological clock, Green says. The next day, these participants were sleepy and found it hard to stay focused. That seems to explain why body temps didn’t drop as expected after the recruits had used devices emitting lots of blue light. Melatonin tends to help cool the body at night. People using screens that emitted plenty of blue light didn’t make as much melatonin as when they used screens with a higher output of red light. When our bodies make less melatonin, we may still feel too alert at bedtime to fall asleep when the body is tired. Our bodies usually secrete it into the blood around 9 p.m. Called melatonin (Mel-ah-TOE-nin), it tends to make people feel sleepy. The normal blue light emissions from the computer screen also affected how much of a sleep-related hormone each volunteer made. The researchers shared their findings May 26 in Chronobiology International. Those exposed to blue light also woke up more often at night than if they had been exposed to red light. Looking at screens that gave off intense blue light cut someone’s sleep by about 16 minutes, compared to when they had used screens with red light. Lastly, each recruit reported how rested he or she felt the next morning. The scientists also charted when each person was in a phase of sleep known as REM (short for rapid eye movement). While the recruits slept, the researchers recorded how many times the participants woke up throughout the night and how long they slept overall. For the new experiment, the researchers used red light as a control against which to compare any effects on sleep of blue light. Red light hasn’t been shown to affect sleep the way blue light does. Others gave off soft blue light, intense red light or soft red light. The researchers had tweaked the computer screens. But they didn’t all experience the same light exposures. ![]() All spent two hours on a computer right before bedtime. Green and his team recruited 19 people - all in their 20s - for a sleep study. He is a PhD student at the University of Haifa in Israel. We use the screens constantly, notes Amit Shai Green. That makes it harder to fall asleep get all the rest we need.īecause electronic devices are all around us, it’s hard to avoid their blue light. ![]() Data show that this blue light tends to make us more alert at night. ![]() And, he notes, evidence has been emerging that these screens - and especially the blue light they give off - can disrupt the body’s clock. Computers, televisions, tablets and other electronic devices give off all colors of light.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |