Your digital screens may be ruining your sleep

Our lives are filled with screens, whether it be checking your phone continuously throughout the day for emails, typing on your computer from 8 – 5 at work or simple researching on your tablet. If we think about how our lives are now compared to people 20 years ago, they’re incredibly different, but have you really given much thought to your digital screen?

Studies have shown that our screen-staring lifestyle could affect our bodies in a negative way, because it exposes us to blue wavelengths at night. These wavelengths could disrupt our sleep patterns and our biological clocks. Since majority of us are sometimes bad sleepers and struggle to achieve restful sleep, we have to learn more…

What are blue wavelengths? They are wavelengths that are in natural and artificial light, as well as ALL screens in our life, that means your TV, computer, laptop, tablet and cellphone! The blue light is helpful during the daytime because it heightens attention, reaction speed and your mood, but it can cause trouble at night when our bodies are supposed to be shutting down.

The blue wavelengths will disrupt something called circadian rhythms; this is our bodies’ biological clock that we rely on to keep things regular. It also decreases the level of melatonin secretion in our bodies; if it was left undisturbed we would have completely restful sleep at night!

There are also a lot of serious problems associated with loss of melatonin, including sleep disorders, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

If you want to remove blue light from your screens at night, an app called F.lux could help your achieve more restful sleep. Immediately after installing the app your eyes will feel less strained and dry when your use your devices at night.

Since all blue light is disruptive at night and not just the light from our screens, you should keep these tips in mind to help you reduce exposure from these various sources:

- Use dim, red nightlights for children
- Avoid looking at unaltered, bright screens 2 – 3 hours before bed
- Download an app like F.lux which is helpful and free
- Expose yourself to lots of light during the day, it will help your sleep better at night

Try to use some of these ideas to lower your overall exposure to blue light wavelengths and make a complete difference in your sleep.

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Written By: Christine Romans
CopyWriter at The Computer Guyz Cape Town