The “before bed” habit that could be costing you precious sleep

[Islander]

e-letter from "Healthier Talk" <healthiertalk@healthiertalk.com>
June 3, 2010

Like to read before bed? The habit could be causing you to lose out on good quality sleep. Well, if you’re doing that reading on a laptop, smartphone, or iPad that is.

Seems that today’s portable electronic devices may be causing a modern day sleep-crisis of sorts.

The bright lights from these devices can fool your brain into thinking it’s daytime. And some sleep researchers believe being exposed to them close to bedtime can upset your internal clock (also know as a circadian rhythm) leading to poor quality sleep and insomnia.

Unlike the light from a bedside lamp, which bounces off a book or magazine we are reading before entering our eyes, the light emitted from these devices shines directly into them at a close distance.

And since our bodies are unable to tell the difference between bright artificial light and sunshine, the light receptors in our eyes tell our brain it’s time to be awake.

When your brain gets the “awake” message it stops secreting the hormone melatonin that helps you relax and feel sleepy. So we’re left tossing and turning. And we wake up sleep deprived in the morning and more susceptible to developing everything from diabetes to heart disease.

So what’s a modern reader to do?

Limit your laptop, smartphone, or iPad reading to 1 to 2 hours before going to sleep. Or switch to a non-backlit e-book reader like the Kindle or Nook for bedtime reading.

The simplest solution? Pick up a good old-fashioned book instead. You don’t need to charge its batteries and you can fall asleep reading and not have to worry about turning it off.

[Maurya]

Great advice for those individuals who live and sleep alone.

[EmmaPeel]

Good article. It makes sense that you wouldn't want LED light shining in your face before bed! I know a few people who are journalists, and even they have proper sleep hygiene in that they do not work at least 2.5 hours before bed.

The issue will mostly be with the younger generation who have all the bells and whistles, iPads, lapstops, cellphones/blackberries (those suckers give off a lot of light). It's insane how addicted this generation is...last night when I was sitting in ER at midnight last night (son gashed his fingers when a storage jar shattered)...how many young people did I see on these d*** things? In a waiting room of about 20 people....half.And they were all under 25yrs.....

A book still feels great in my hands and I get a lovely feeling of satisfaction turning the crisp pages manually....and as far as a cellphone or laptop is concerned...I don't need to be THAT plugged in...!

[Reesacat]

Bless your heart, Emma-you are awesome Mom! Hope son and fingers and you are OK after midnight ER trip......never a good time to go to ER but midnight!

[EmmaPeel]

Bless your heart, Emma-you are awesome Mom! Hope son and fingers and you are OK after midnight ER trip......never a good time to go to ER but midnight!

Lovely to see you back again Reesacat. You are my inspiration...

Awww...gosh Reesacat...shucks...tak'n him twas nuttin...! Besides he was bleeding all over my kitchen! LOL ....amazing how much blood can come out of a few little cuts...if they are deep enough! (Plus he is on fish oil so ..there you go)

Yes, son is fine. After sitting for about 1.5 hours of sitting in ER I did some Reiki on him(why didn't I think of this before???)...they stopped bleeding. We scuttled out without needing any treatment..

Yes, ER is not a fun trip late at night...especially since I was exhausted and on my way to bed when I heard..." Ah, mum...don't panic or anything, but...I ...think...I ...cut ...myself...pretty...bad...Don't come into the kitchen...!"

[Katee]

I don't seem to have a problem with reading the lap top in bed related to the light. However, the energy emissions were really a problem.

I was using the laptop in bed quite a lot & had trouble sleeping. Duane has an EMF detector & checked it & the laptop was creating quite a lot. He tried it thru 1 sheet of aluminum foil & that didn't help, but thru 2 layers it was no longer detectable. So i covered a sheet of cardboard with 2 layers on each side (to be sure) & haven't had that particular problem since.

Glad to see you back Reesacat.

[Aaltrude]

I use 'ereader pro' on my smartphone though I only download free books. A lot of the lot classics are now available for free download. One of the advantages of ereader pro is that you can set it so reading is comfortable for the conditions such as being able to adjust the colours on the screen to emit very little light if you are reading in bed in the evening.

[DizzyIzzy]

I'm a shocker, haha. I do my best writing between 1am and 3am. Which is inevitably sitting in bed on my laptop because it's warm and quiet. If I read I read books though... can't stand the whole reading from a screen thing.

I'll also often watch a DVD before bed, in bed, on my laptop...

Gen-Y eh?

I have no problems sleeping though, think I'm usually asleep before my head hits the pillow.