A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the glow of a tablet or smartphone may be disruptive to your sleep pattern, which can impact your long term health.
For their study, researchers studied 12 adults over the course of two weeks. Half of the group was asked to read on an iPad for four hours each night before bed, while the other group read printed books in a dim light. After a week, the two groups switched. Participants were monitored throughout the study for severals factors, including hormone levels, time it took to fall asleep, and REM sleep time.
After analyzing the data, researchers uncovered:
- Participants using the iPad had reduced levels of melatonin, a hormone that usually increases in the evening and helps induce sleep.
- Those in the iPad group took longer to fall asleep and spent less time in REM sleep.
- iPad readers reported feeling sleepier and less alert the next morning.
- iPad readers displayed delayed circadian rhythms.
“[iPads and tablets] may be having a greater impact than we previously thought,” said Anne-Marie Chang, co-author of the study.
Charles Czeisler, director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, said the study provides tangible data that iPads and tablets can disrupt restorative sleep.
“There’s a lot of skepticism out there; a lot of people think this is psychological,” said Czeisler. “But what we showed is that reading from light-emitting, e-reader devices has profound biological effects.”
Czeisler said a groggy feeling in the morning shouldn’t be your only worry. Long term reductions in melatonin has been linked to prostate, colorectal and breast cancer, and lack of good sleep has been associated with obesity and diabetes.
“We introduce these devices that have medical and biological effects without requiring any health studies on their impact … They don’t have to go through any evaluation like a drug would, for safety and efficacy,” Czeisler said. “I think it’s time to rethink that.”
Dr. Silverman comments
This problem is prevalent in bedrooms across America. The article cited a National Sleep Foundation study which revealed that nearly 90 percent of adults and 75 percent of children have at least one electronic device in their bedrooms, and many have multiple devices.
The bedroom is no longer a place for rest and relaxation. It’s where you go when you want to check Facebook and Instagram for 20 minutes while streaming a Netflix show. Obviously, you are not going to be at your most relaxed state with all those devices shining bright, and this can lead to problems in the short and long term.
It’s time to put the devices down when you go to bed. If you want to read or surf the web on your iPad, do it in the living room. Make the conscious decision to make the bedroom a distraction free zone. Your mind and body will thank you.
Related source: Washington Post
