505 - 2 - Technology effecting sleep

From chatting to people in the studio and at the pub afterwards, it was clear to me how a lot of people nowadays do tend to complain of suffering from insomnia (to some degree), discussing how they barely get any sleep anymore, or can't get to sleep before 2am. 
Is it increased stress? The full of the moon? Or the coffee they had at 5pm? 

Or could it be their electronic gadgets? 

Most of the younger population do admit to being addicted to their phone.

Always monitoring social media, emails, or googling something. Often propped up in bed playing solitaire to unwind.

A recent survey of 1508 American adults showed that 90% use some type of an electronic device at least a few nights a week within one hour of going to bed. So, it’s a common behaviour and it’s robbing us of valuable sleep.

At California State University, Dominguez Hills, they conducted sleep research that stems from the lab’s work on the “psychology of technology,” where they discovered two important variables that encourage us to use (and misuse) technology, thereby losing sleep: 

(1) poor executive functioning, which includes our (in)ability to pay attention, problem solve, control our impulses, and make decisions 

(2) anxiety. In our work, anxiety is sometimes referred to as FOMO, or the fear of missing out. We see this anxiety in the majority of smartphone users who feel uncomfortable if they are not in direct contact with their phones — and their many electronic connections — 24/7/365. A dead battery and no charger can bring upon a panic attack.

In their new study, with more than 700 college students, they found that while poor executive functioning did predict sleep problems, the stronger effect was actually due to anxiety. The students who were more anxious about being apart from their phones used their phones more during a typical day, and woke up to check their phones more often at night. The latter two results — more daily smartphone use and more nighttime awakenings — led directly to sleep problems.

Exposure to artificial light
Whether you’re on your cell phone, iPad or computer, playing video games or watching television before you go to bed, you are exposing yourself to artificial light, which suppresses the production of melatonin.

Melatonin is a hormone made by the pineal gland, which rests in the middle of our brains. During the day, the gland is fairly idle. But as soon as the sun goes down, it begins to produce melatonin, which makes us feel less alert and ready for sleep. When the sun rises, the amount of melatonin in your blood dips and you should feel more alert and ready to take on the day.

Exposure to artificial light before bedtime is bad for our health, according to a 2011 study by Joshua Gooley, Ph.D, a researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. 

“Our study shows that this exposure to indoor light has a strong suppressive effect on the hormone melatonin,” he says. “This could, in turn, have effects on sleep quality and the body’s ability to regulate body temperature, blood pressure and glucose levels.”

The blues and melatonin
Any kind of light can suppress melatonin, but blue light — which is emitted by electronics (and energy efficient light bulbs) — has the strongest effect. 

Another study, also conducted by Harvard Medical School and colleagues, compared 6.5 hours of exposure to blue light to 6.5 hours of exposure to green light, which has a longer wavelength than blue. Exposure to the blue light suppressed melatonin for about twice as long compared to the green. It also shifted circadian rhythms by twice as much.

But melatonin does more than help us sleep. It also appears to help fight off infections and slow the progression of cancer and other diseases, including diabetes, heart problems and depression. States an article in the Harvard Health Letter.

Protect yourself
You may not be able to avoid looking at blue light altogether, but there are things you can do to lessen your exposure:

1. Turn off all those brightly lit screens at least one hour before going to bed. (since our bodies only start to produce melatonin about two hours before our normal bedtime, there is no need to shun our devices just because it’s dark outside. There should be no adverse affects on your sleep patterns provided you stop using your devices two hours before going to bed.“Using an iPad for less than one hour–in the evening, before bedtime–has no significant impact on melatonin production. In the study, melatonin suppression levels after one hour of exposure to the iPad were not statistically different than zero; however, this difference reached significance after two hours.”
2. Use dim red lights for night lights.
3. If you work the night shift or have to use electronic devices at night, consider wearing glasses or goggles that block blue light.
4. Expose yourself to lots of bright light during the day, which will boost your ability to sleep at night, as well as your mood and alertness during daylight.