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Sleeping Next to Your Phone? Think Again
Even though we love technology, it might not be the best thing to be next to us when we are going to sleep. Going to sleep every night and waking up every morning is due to this amazing thing called our circadian rhythm. For each one of us it is different and can be affected by many different things. Your circadian rhythm is what goes on in your body 24 hours a day. It is also more known as the internal clock in your body. This internal clock is what will tell you to sleep and wake up. It responds to the light changes in our environment and regulates cycles of alertness to what is going on around us. This rhythm is here to ensure we are getting the best sleep we need and when we need it. Good quality sleep can help make sure the body heals in the right way so it can carry out everything it needs to for the next day. Things that can affect and change your circadian rhythm or internal clock in a bad way can include sleeping next to your phone and seeing the blue light on your phone right before you go to sleep. This makes it so important to keep your phone out and away from your bed and possibly even in another room when you sleep. A phone with you in bed can impact your sleep quality by giving off electromagnetic radiation and producing blue light which both affect your sleep cycles as well.
There are many things however that can do to help minimize blue light and radiation right before you go to sleep. First, you could set your phone in another room when you go to sleep to ensure a good night’s sleep. With no phone in the room it becomes harder for it to be a distraction. If you are worried about not having your phone alarm to be able to wake you up in the morning, you can buy an alarm clock. Having a battery or plug in alarm clock can help wake you up in the morning just as well as your phone does. Lastly, you can set aside a time an hour or two before bed that you do not look at your phone so your body can adjust and not take in any unnecessary blue light or radiation right before bed that would interfere with your circadian rhythm or sleep.
With decreasing the amount of blue light that you are exposed to before bed will help in many other aspects of your life. Good quality sleep can affect stress and growth hormones, the immune system, appetite, breathing, blood pressure, and cardiovascular health. Not getting enough sleep can impact your body in negative ways. It can include increasing the chances of obesity and infections. On average we need seven to eight hours of sleep for it to be considered good quality sleep. With good sleep it is possible to be able to achieve a healthier lifestyle and mind.
In conclusion, we know that having our phones in the same bed and even close by can harm our chances of getting good quality sleep. Our sleep is impacted by the blue UV light that comes from our phones screen and that impacting our circadian rhythm and us being able to fall asleep and stay asleep. However, there are things we can do to make sure we still get good quality sleep. This can include keeping our phone out of the room and limiting time on our phone before we have to go to sleep. By doing this we can get good sleep and help keep ourselves healthy.
This blog was written for Healthy Young Nevada by a Student Ambassador at High Sierra AHEC.
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