Keeping in view the gadget obsession of people these days, it has been suggested by experts that people should switch off their gadgets before getting a good sleep. This is because electronic gadgets stimulate brain activity leading to disruption in your ability to drift off to sleep. However, it has been found by the National Sleep Foundation that more than 95 percent of people daily use electronic gadgets such as mobile or computer before going to bed.
Effects on Sleep
Artificial light from the electronic devices messes up with the sleep-promoting chemicals in the brain. Exposure to this light significantly decreases the hormone melatonin in the body, a hormone that is responsible for regulating internal clock and maintaining the sleep cycle.
It has been found by a study that if a person is exposed to bright mobile or tablet screen for two hours or more, the level of melatonin in the body decreases by around 22 percent. This reduction in levels of melatonin leads to diabetes, sleep disturbance, obesity and other disorders.
Filter the Blue Light
The blue light emitted by your electronic gadgets such as smartphones, tablets, laptops etc., impacts the quality and quantity of sleep you get. This light suppresses your brain’s melatonin and hurts your sleep. In case, you don’t want to suffer from health disorders, you must try using filters for the blue light. There are apps available online that can assist you in decreasing the direct exposure to this harmful light.
Besides the app filters, there are others like light bulbs, glasses and other special filters which you can use.
What Are the Issues With Blue Light?
Basically, the blue light sends alerts to our brain that it’s not the right time to sleep. As per experts, there are around 30,000 cells in our eyes, which react to the wavelength of blue light. This light usually runs in 460-nanometer range of light spectrum. This light spectrum hits the cells of the brain and sends the message to brain’s suprachiasmatic nucleus asking it to reduce the production of melatonin.
There are dangerous health issues in case you keep on staring at the screen the entire day. Once the sleeping cycle is disrupted, there are various types of aftermaths that follow in terms of obesity, heart attack, type-2 diabetes and cancer. Lack of sleep is also related to the mood problems, depression, anxiety and increased chances of accidents.
Effect on Eyes
The use of mobile phone can cause cataract and even blindness. LED light bulbs can cause more damage than your mobile phone. The continuous exposure can suppress the melatonin and can even shorten the melatonin duration by approximately 90 minutes.
Sitting in dark room along with turning everything is not what we would do. You should go for a warm light bulb that usually emits less blue light. There are various pieces of evidence that the bulb can have an impact on the circadian rhythm too. It can also affect our skin in the same way the sun does, it needs prolonged proximity.
It can cause a lot of issues to the late night shift workers that also depend on their work environment. You should wear a big hat, consider the lights in your bedroom and use appropriate sun glasses so as to avoid the continuous exposure to the blue light.
Conclusion
Sunlight generally has a lot of blue light. Its negative effects include the disruption of the circadian rhythms and the melatonin deficit that can lead to the poor quality sleep. However, we need blue light so as to get up in the morning and it is generally connected with increased level of alertness.
